Electronic hotel customer satisfaction: e-WOM comments of hotels in Pilgrims Rest, Mpumalanga.

In the hotel industry, electronic-Word-Of-Mouth (e-WOM) has a significant effect on customers’ decision making. It helps them to reduce the risk along with buying services as intangible products. The purpose of this study was to measure hotel customer satisfaction using e-WOM comments of hotels. The survey instrument was based on Wong Ooi Mei, Dean and White (1999) HOLSERV model. In order to meet study objectives, structural equation modelling was conducted. The results show that the degree to which a promised service is performed dependably and accurately (reliability) highly impacts on customer satisfaction in hotels. This is followed by ‘the degree to which service providers are willing to help customers and provide prompt service’ (responsiveness), and ‘the extent to which service providers are knowledgeable, courteous, and able to inspire trust and confidence’ (assurance). To reduce negative e-WOM, hotels can make use of social media. Social media is a powerful tool to encourage positive e-WOM and a strategy to encourage interaction with past, current and future customers. The findings contribute to the existing literature on hotel customer satisfaction by analysing a less explored topic (e-WOM) by means of a comprehensive methodology that considers guest comments from an online source

Demographic implications of transiting from segregation to integration: a focus on education issues in Buffalo City, South Africa

The study aims at interrogating the transformation of education in Buffalo City following integration of East London with its black townships. This paper is largely framed from a quantitative paradigm that draws from statistical data in linking population changes with educational patterns in the study area. Census data was used to trace population changes in post-apartheid South Africa, while performance in education was informed by matriculation results. Quantitative data were complemented with key informants’ qualitative opinions. The results indicate that the quality of education in former “white” schools is better than that of “township” schools. There are several pull factors that attract township learners to former white schools, albeit with integration challenges. The study concludes that if these challenges are masked to education planners and policy makers, they militate against the envisioned liberalisation of the democratic education system

Challenges facing the transformation of the public transport system in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa: History in the making

The transformation of the public transport system is a common occurrence in cities across the globe and is widely discussed in scholarly and policy circles. However, robust discussion on the transformation of the public transport system, using the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in emerging economies like South Africa, is limited. This article assesses the challenges involved in the transformation of the public road transport system in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), with special reference to the BRT system. The empirical data for the study were drawn from the fieldwork, meetings, focus group discussions, and interviews with affected stakeholders and senior managers of NMB who were involved in the implementation of the BRT. The secondary data were drawn from literature, government publications and media. The results reflect that the implementation of the BRT was not easily achieved, as diverse challenges surfaced during the implementation phase. The main challenges include: lack of intensive planning and limited effective stakeholder and affected community engagement. The article concludes that as much as the BRT has credited the public road transportation system innovation in South Africa its implementation was not easy in NMB, and will be an important history for the city

Vulnerability, impact and adaptation strategies of female farmers to climate variability

In Africa, agriculture, particularly crop production, is a vital livelihood practice for women, who provide a larger proportion of the labour force. However, the high reliance on rain-fed agriculture, coupled with other socio-economic constraints, exposes female farmers to climatic risks. This paper investigates the participation of women in crop production, key challenges and their coping strategies for climatic disturbances. Drawing on the experiences of female farmers of Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM) in Mpumalanga, South Africa, the study blended qualitative and quantitative approaches to gather data on their vulnerability and adaptation strategies to climatic shocks. A questionnaire administered through face-to-face interaction and online surveys was the main instrument used to obtain data. This study revealed diverse challenges faced by female farmers in the form of high susceptibility to climatic disruptions, limited funding and gaps in accessing agricultural inputs and equipment (machinery, seeds and fertilisers) and pests. The effects of climate variability manifest in low crop outputs and inferior yields, food insecurity and loss of revenue. The most preferred coping strategies are changing planting and harvesting dates, followed by eating less food, looking for jobs and crop rotation. Although the main source of support comes from both family and government, the majority of the female farmers do not use modern scientific-based and input-intensive agricultural coping strategies such as the use of irrigation systems because of lack of livelihood assets and lower literacy levels

Relocation: to be or not to be a black diamond in a South African township?

Beginning in the mid-1990s, South Africa’s geopolitical, social and economic landscapes have been rapidly transforming. Driven primarily by government policy particularly after 1994, these changes have among other effects offered tailor-made opportunities to the educated and resourceful black South Africans (so-called ‘black diamonds’) in the townships to rise on the socio-economic ladder. The main question this research paper attempts to answer is why only some of black middle-class township dwellers (black diamonds or BDs) do not relocate to former whites-only suburbs? The study, conducted on BDs in the townships of Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, reveals the role of cultural, social, spatial, political and economic factors in the residential-location decisions of the black middle class. The survey found a duality of social identities emerging within the black middle class which could no longer be perceived as a single cohort. These identities may be categorized as the BDs who live in, educate their children there and are assimilated into the historically white suburb culture and those who are inextricably enmeshed in the townships. This paper also reports that there are other incentives, incorporating unquantifiable socio-economic benefits, that keep BDs ‘sparkling’ in the townships because they may be absent in the former whites-only suburbs. Although their consumption power may be of most interest to economic planners and analysts, their role in the townships transcends economics into some being seen as role models.Web of Scienc