Food security is one of the most severe challenges facing the majority of African countries. The objective of this study was to explore household food dietary diversity and food security in a rural area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A total of 296 household heads were randomly sampled to participate in the study. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS) were used to identify the consumption patterns of the households and their food security status. Meanwhile, a binary model was used to identify the variables that had an impact on household food security. Findings from the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) revealed that 61 percent of the households had lower dietary diversity and were consuming at least three food groups, which mainly include pulses, milk, and cereals. The results from the Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS), however, showed that the majority of the households had adequate levels of food consumption. The binary model revealed that age, household income, access to credit, and gender are statistically significant in influencing household food security status in the study area. It can be concluded that household dietary diversity is not guaranteed by food security, as proven by the regression model. Therefore, the government should consider the impact of low income on food security and it should intensify efforts directed at helping rural households to reduce incidences of food insecurity.

This paper argues that the link between poverty and drug-related crime might be spurious. We take an empirical approach to investigate the causality and plausibility of this link. Firstly, we regress crime against envisaged explanatory variables in order to estimate the contribution of poverty to crime. Secondly, data is analysed using an ARDL ECM. The quarterly sample data for our estimation is for the period 1995-2016. We found a strong association between crime and poverty both in the short and long run. We recommend the government should focus on none income linked factors in dealing with the scourge of drug-related crime. As demonstrated in this study, various drug-related crimes are driven by socioeconomic factors.

This study was conducted to investigate the extent of ethical leadership practices in African public utilities, given the relatively high corruption reported in such institutions, with consequences of seriously constrained development of national economies and significant hindrance to good governance. Our aim was to establish potential benefits from ethical leadership in public sector agencies by analysing ethical leadership characteristics in the public sector from Botswana and South Africa. We measured ethical leadership perceptions utilizing a combination of scales in an attempt to encompass the larger breadth of ethical leadership scales found in the literature in order to determine how employees perceived their managers in terms of being moral people and moral managers. A total of 108 respondents completed questionnaires. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the perceptions of managers' moral conduct. South African leaders were perceived as relatively weaker moral managers as compared to those in Botswana.

In this article, we elicit the effects of gender on poverty reduction efforts in South Africa. Gender plays a huge role in the household decision-making process, as a result, it can determine if whether the household falls into a poverty trap or falls out of poverty. Utilizing a recently Community Survey (2016) we employ a Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) to identify potential poverty indicators in South Africa. We then regress the identified components (indicators) using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and the Weighted Ordinary Least Square (WOLS) methods to identify the influence they have on non-income poverty. The findings of the study reveal a negative but significant relationship between females residing in traditional (rural) areas and poverty. Furthermore, it was found that females residing in rural and farm areas were most likely to be in poverty compared to their male counterparts. These findings suggest the importance of culture in shaping geographic location of gender in relation to poverty incidences.

In this paper, a binary logistic model was used to analyse the determinants of youth participation in agriculture in the Nkonkobe Municipality in South Africa. A total of 140 youth were purposively selected for the study to complete a survey. The results show that the variables; youth programmes, programme availability, and resources were statistically significant in explaining the factors that affect youth participation in agricultural activities. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that in order to influence youth participation, they should be provided with youth programmes and resources.

This paper discusses the political economy of budget deficits among the BRICS nations between 1997 and 2016 using a panel cointegration approach to determine the long-run relationship between economic growth, budget deficits, inflation and gross investment. The results of the study show a long-run equilibrium association among economic growth and the selected variables. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between budget deficit, inflation, and economic growth, for the period under study for BRICS countries. Lastly, the results support the view that there is bi-directional linkage from budget deficit to economic growth and vice versa.

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This study looks into the relationship between stock returns and volatility in South Africa and China stock markets. A Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model is used to estimate volatility of the stock returns, namely, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange FTSE/JSE Albi index and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. The sample period is from January 1998 to October 2014. Empirical results show evidence of high volatility in both the JSE market, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that volatility is persistent in both exchange markets and resembles the same movement in returns. Consistent with most stock return studies, we find that movements of both markets seem to take a similar trajectory.Keywords: GARCH, ARCH effect, JSE index, Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index