Governance and Corruption in South Africa's Public Sector: The Road Ahead

The development of any country hinges significantly on the availability of good governance and a well-functioning public sector. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa had to ensure that the public sector responded to the needs of the people through effective and efficient service delivery. However, immediately after apartheid, the public sector was engulfed by numerous governance and corruption-related issues, which have greatly discredited the public sector in the eyes of the public. This paper examines the governance and corruption dilemma in South Africa's public sector. It employs a narrative literature review and conceptualizes the origin and concept of good governance to answer the underlying question of this paper. The paper found that South Africa is suffering from years of corruption which has seen billions of taxpayers' money wasted through irregular expenditure in the public sector. The lack of transparency and accountability within the governance process in the public sector has consolidated corruption and impunity. Consequently, the implication is that the government will struggle to address the triple bottom issues of poverty, inequality and unemployment. In the future, this will affect South Africa's quest for inclusive socioeconomic development unless urgent policy interventions are implemented to address these challenges

Festival and Urban Space: A Systematic Literature Review

Festival studies is not only an important field of research for tourism or event industry but is also critical for an architectural and urban design field. Due to the amount of the progress done in this field by many inter-disciplinary areas, the subsequent corpus of research on festivals appears to be relatively disintegrated. Through a systematic literature review (SLR) from 2000 to 2021, this paper examined festivals studies from tourism to urban design disciplines. In this paper, descriptive and thematic analysis were carried out to analyse the state of existing research in order to understand the concept of festival studies. The purpose is to describe a SLR that intends to establish the knowhow on festival spaces and try to explore the advancement in the field and deliver potential research directions. The corpus thus helps us in establishing the topic which is very least investigated and would need more research on

Examining the Impact of Climate Change on Tourism Sector of Uttarakhand : An Exploratory Study

Uttarakhand is recognized for its scenic beauty, fertile terrain and a rich cultural and religious heritage. Deriving a major proportion of its income from tourism and allied services, the tourism industry has become indispensable for its residents and for its government. However, the region is highly vulnerable to natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, forest fires and landslides due to its geography. Uncontrolled influx of tourists and pilgrims, unplanned construction of tourism-related infrastructure in eco-sensitive zones, massive greenhouse gas emissions, humongous waste generation and improper disposal have all added to the environmental degradation of this region. Hence, precarious condition of the terrain, rapid infrastructure development in addition to unplanned tourism and unregulated urbanisation have all led to highly volatile climatic conditions in recent decades and experts suggest that the situation will only get worse. The 2013 Kedarnath floods, the 2016 wildfires as well as the numerous reported landslides and earthquakes bear testimony to this fact. These in turn have an adverse impact on the tourism of the state. In 2016, Uttarakhand reported a sharp drop in tourist numbers after wildfires. In this paper we explore the question of sustainability of the tourism sector in Uttarakhand. We also intensively cover the various stakeholders of the tourist industry of the state, namely NGOs, Tourists, Local Communities, Local Businesses and Hotels and how losses to the same impact them. We study these impacts by using secondary data from secondary sources and primary data through interviews conducted by the authors, of locals in Rishikesh working at Tiny Lab Farm - a rural design and research studio. The authors also conducted a case study on Joshimath, which is an evident example of a tourism-dependent town in Uttarakhand, at the brink of losing its mainstay, as a result of environmental degradation. Opposing the idea of climate change being a problem of the future, the case study showcases the urgency of the situation by providing a sequential background on the course of events and its impact on tourism, as can be observed in real-time. Finally, the last section of the paper is a brief policy analysis of the current policies adopted by the government. The authors conclude that an increased community participation, usage of eco-friendly and locally sourced construction materials, promotion of tourism practices which are traditional and sustainably, a reassessment of forest laws, proper waste management, resurging indigenous practices and an increased involvement of women and elderly in the industry can pave the way for a balanced and sustained future of the tourism industry.   Keywords: Climate Change, Tourism, Uttarakhand, Policy Recommendations JEL: O180, Q26, Q54, Z320, Z38 &nbsp

Understanding Xenophobia in South Africa and Some Other African Countries from the Victims’ Lens: A Systematic Review of Literature: Impact of Xenophobia

This study sought to assess the victims’ experience of the causes and extent of xenophobic attacks in some African countries. It employed a qualitative research approach which relies on a historical design. Data were collected from secondary sources, such as books, journals and the internet, among others, and these were discussed in themes using a textual analysis. The available published articles were reviewed and used to argue, debate and discuss the immediate causes and extent of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia, and to arrive at conclusions and make recommendations. The findings of the study show that the causes of xenophobic attacks include interactive factors related to the number of exposures inhabitants have to strangers; cultural factors which include identity and nationalism; material or economic factors related to employment opportunities; and available resources. The experience of xenophobic violence of many foreign nationals has been sad because many lives have been lost, damage and injuries have been sustained, and huge number of properties of foreign nationals have been destroyed during incidents. The study concludes that unless the limitations are addressed and governments provide favourable employment opportunities, quality education, training programmes and service delivery to citizens, foreigners in some African countries will continue to experience xenophobic violence. The study recommends that the government should make every effort to ensure that effective workable plans, programmes and policies are put in places to improve the lives of citizens in communities. This study has significant benefits for the country as a whole, which could boost the economy, government and stakeholders, as it will confirm the impediments and make recommendations on the best way to handle the causes and extent of xenophobic violence in African countries

A Comparative Study on Tourist Preference for Homestay Destinations among Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim

In the hill bound nature based tourism, popularity of Homestays has been growing very fast in the Hilly regions of India and same trend has been witnessed in the two hilly districts of West Bengal, Darjeeling & Kalimpong and in Sikkim too. This present study was an attempt to investigate the competitive tourist pulling capability of such homestay based tourist destinations from the perspective of tourist’s preference upon destination attractiveness. In this study the multi-criteria decision-making tool TOPSIS has been used to assess the present competitive position of these destinations and finally paired sample t-test was applied for identifying any difference in tourist’s preferences among these three destinations. Interestingly the result portrayed a tight neck to neck competition with marginal difference in TOPSIS score and paired t-test confirmed the presence of significant statistical difference in homestay tourist’s preference for these hotspots of this region. Though Darjeeling is found slightly ahead marginally of others but facing a fierce competition indicating serious concern for tourism policy-makers, infrastructure upgradation etc. in order to give an edge over the other two rivals

Justice still eludes Indian Women in the 21st Century

For anyone who has been keeping track of the legal developments in the United States of America, one of the issues of greatest concern is the overturning of Roe v. Wade[1] and with it, all the gains made by the feminist movement regarding Women’s Reproductive Rights and more importantly women’s right to their bodies. On the other hand, in India, there have been so many more issues, from Muslim women’s struggle against triple talaq in one sitting[2], to the need for a Uniform Civil Code, to criminalising rape in the context of marriage[3], laws to regulate surrogacy[4] etc., that have caused concern, but not the right to abortion as in the US.[5]   One of the positive legal developments is the 106th Amendment Act, passed as recently as 29th September 202

A Rung Towards the Digitalization of Tourism Services in India; Assessment of Individual Perceptions using Technology Acceptance Model

The world has seen a radical change through the digital revolution. These Technologies have facilitated the entire Economy to run on the device, making all regular day-to-day activities easy, convenient, and more efficient. The mass adoption of digital technologies by consumers, enterprises, and governments has accelerated the Economy's growth rate. It can play an essential role in spurring economic growth and employment. However, the research literature shows that the impact of digitalization by country and sectors is uneven (Sabbagh, K. et al. 2014). Digital initiatives not only has positive connotation but has created a digital divide among the demographics across the communities (Benda et al., 2011). The study employs the TAM (Davis, 1989) model to analyze the Behavioural Intentions and Attitudes of the customers towards Technology Acceptance in tourism in India. The data is collected through questionnaires from regular travelers visiting tourist destinations across India using Snowball sampling techniques, the main means is Google Forms. Data analysis is executed by using SPSS software to find the R Square coefficient to test the influence of independent variables on dependent variables using a multiple regression model to analyze the TAM constructs to examine individual perceptions towards digital technologies in the Tourism sector in India

The e-Municipality in South Africa as a Panacea for Adopting and Implementing Sustainable Online Services: A Case of the City of Tshwane: E-Municipality

Since municipalist praxis has proliferated, so too have the use of e-Municipality with multiple political motives and municipalist monikers springing up across public administration. All this typological creativity in digital governance suggests a new and pre-paradigmatic way of empirical inquiry aimed at improving service delivery and enhancing good governance through means of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). However, there seem to an ongoing problematic issue signifying a misconception jostling for academic attention in providing an understanding of e-Municipality within the context of political settings particularly in South African municipalities. This is necessary in clarifying the confusion and obscuring of what’s at stake in relation to service delivery within municipalities. This study used the adoption and implementation model for e-Municipality and Public Value theory to position e-Municipality services. Methodologically, the study adopted the qualitative research approach with the aid of secondary data gathered from scholarly journal articles, books, trusted websites, municipal database, government legislations and peer-reviewed articles. With the City of Tshwane adopted as a case study, the researcher analysed data using the online content analysis techniques to present e-Municipality results. The findings reveals that, the e-Tshwane system’s failure to automatically update or reflect changes made by customers in relation to home addresses and payments made to municipal account often result into a large number of disgruntled customers. To address this issue, this study recommends that the City of Tshwane must find alternative online mechanism to identity system faults to reduce the number of disgruntled customers. This study offers policy-makers in government some insights in relation to the adoption and implementation of sustainable online services by addressing issues aimed at improving online mechanisms to eliminate physical contact at municipal offices in order to access services. &nbsp

An Analysis on the Trend and Pattern of Tourism in India with Special Reference to Medical Tourism

Tourism in India has not received the due attention both in macro policy formulation and research.  The present study tries to make an attempt to analyse the trend and pattern of domestic tourism based on the unit level data of NSSO. Medical tourism, which is an important component of tourism in India, shows a comparatively higher growth over the years, but especially after 2006 a lower growth rate and the covid pandemic accentuated this trend. Wide disparity could be seen among the states as well as across socio-economic groups in India. A higher share for health and medical tourists was visible among the vulnerable group. The marginalized groups like old age groups, tourism from rural area, SC/ST groups, lowest MPCE group and disabled persons had a higher chance to report medical tourism compared to their counterparts.  As against the findings of the previous studies, the present study confirms comparatively higher participation of vulnerable groups