Accountability requires supply chain management (SCM) public officials to account for, report on, explain and justify activities, and accept responsibility for municipal financial expenditure outcomes. Regardless of having SCM systems in place, efficiency in terms of procuring, tendering and sourcing goods and services in South African municipalities remains problematic. A key contributory factor to regressions in local government audit outcomes is the constant failure to develop, implement and monitor effective SCM systems, oversight, internal controls and financial reporting processes. With recurring instances of fruitless, irregular and wasteful expenditure, compliance with SCM policies, regulations and legislative frameworks needs solidification. When effectively implemented, control and oversight measures reduce waste, eradicates ethical malfeasance and promotes, integrity, transparency and accountability. The purpose of this article is to determine the SCM, risk factors that threaten accountability and how they can be mitigated in a typical South African Metropolitan Municipality.

Background: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 demands that countries globally provide clean water and sanitation to their citizens. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic triggered various obstacles to the attainment of this goal, especially in developing states that struggle to render clean water and sanitation to their ever-growing populations.Aim: The aim of the study is to analyse the effects of COVID-19 on the attainment of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) in South African municipalities.Setting: Several South African municipalities.Methods: The article utilised expansive documentary sources on the SDGs, United Nations and World Health documents, journal articles and textbooks on water service provision in South African municipalities for analysis. Qualitative thematic analysis based on documents was employed to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the attainment of SDG 6 in South African municipalities.Results: The study indicates that local municipalities struggled to provide clean water to informal settlements where water supply infrastructure is not even available. Results also revealed that some urban municipalities in Gauteng Province are grappling with the provision of clean water supply to their informal settlements, which poses a risk of an outbreak of COVID-19 and a delay in the attainment of SDG 6 in general.Conclusion: The study concludes that the South African government needs to embrace a truly bottom-up approach as opposed to a trickle-down approach to water service provision. This is because local authorities have greater proximity and thus a better understanding of the social and economic challenges within their communities and can effectively implement strategies towards addressing these challenges of providing clean water to communities.

Background: Supply chain management (SCM) is presented as a panacea and an invaluable tool for addressing service delivery glitches in institutions. Noncompliance with SCM legislation by municipalities remains high, with fruitless, irregular, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure, resulting in weak financial governance in many municipalities in South Africa.Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the barriers to effective SCM in a metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Cape and to identify the best practices to improve SCM.Methods: A qualitative research approach was used to explore the barriers to effective SCM in a metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Cape Province. The sample size consists of 14 sampled participants. Data were collected from in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was used in cleaning, organising and interpreting the findings. Credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability measures were used to promote trustworthiness.Results: This study’s findings established that there were systemic and operational challenges which stifled the smooth operation of the SCM system. The SCM was characterised by weak ethical systems, lack of well-experienced personnel and poor implementation and monitoring of SCM systems and policies.Conclusion: There is need for necessary institutional and systemic transformations and adaptations to SCM practices and processes. This calls for leadership commitment, coupled with concerted efforts to transform and overhaul lethargic institutional systems and practices, so as to decisively stamp out SCM unethical conduct by public officials and address public financial management hurdles, as well as the root causes of poor audit outcomes.Contribution: This article contributes to a better understanding of new public management and principal–agent public sector accountability. Accountability, with its close affinities to risk compensation theory, resource dependence theory, trust and dimensional publicness theory, is anchored on a results-oriented government culture emphasising better performance, better accountability and better transparency.

Public hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines stands out as an obstinate barrier to Zimbabwe’s ability to stamp out the ongoing pandemic and steer the country back to socioeconomic normalcy and stability. This qualitative study unpacked the hesitancy factors associated with the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Zimbabwe. The study used an exploratory research design and collected its data from social media platforms. Findings demonstrated that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy posed some significant challenges in Zimbabwe. Indications were that hesitancy towards the vaccines was informed by a plurality of factors, which inter alia included safety and efficacy concerns, perceived social character of the vaccine basing on its country of origin, accessibility, people’s socio-cultural and religious beliefs, as well as factors relating to the administrative aspects of the vaccination program. Social work has an important role to play in educating and promoting society to embrace vaccines. This is because continued defiance and/or delay in the uptake of the vaccines is tantamount to mortgaging people’s lives and livelihoods on the altar of fear and baseless hesitancy.

Background: The Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) is still experiencing skills shortages among its educators which poses critical challenges in performing their duties of improving learner performance in the province. Shortages of skills development programmes in the Eastern Cape has resulted in poor performance of both educators and learners in most schools. Although the ECDoE has clearly espoused its strategic objectives regarding training and development of educators, it is worrying that only a limited number of educators have received capacity development in critical performance areas.Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between educator performance and the strategic plan priorities of the ECDoE.Setting: Buffalo City Education District in Eastern Cape Province.Methods: The study adopted a quantitative research strategy and uses a survey questionnaire to collect information from respondents. The sample size was made up of two hundred and seventy (270) participants. The survey questionnaire used a Likert scale ranging from one (1) (strongly agree) to five (5) (strongly disagree). The reliability of the survey questionnaires was determined by calculating the Pearson’s coefficient, and internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha scale.Results: The study established that remediating the lack of training opportunities for educators was the direct objective of the ECDoE strategic plan priorities.Conclusion: The article concludes that the ECDoE needs to carry out a skills and capacity audit, based on strategic plan needs analysis. The designing of human capital skills development and training programmes should be informed by the ECDoE’s strategic plan and Integrated Quality Management System that align with educators’ key performance areas.