So far so good? Tracking the poverty eradication goal of SDGs in Kenya,Nigeria, and South Africa

This paper tracks the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals in selected countries in sub‐Saharan Africa, namely, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The study assesses economic indices such as GDP growth, employment, and poverty rate of each country to understand the present performance of these countries and the feasibility of it attaining the first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals. Considering the current economic outlook and trajectory of these countries, eradicating poverty in 2030 is highly unlikely, unless drastic measures are taken. GDP growth in Kenya is currently low, whereas the poverty and the unemployment rate are very high. Nigeria still battles with economic recovery following the recession since 2016 and a soaring poverty level. Equally, South Africa is saddled with the problem of rising poverty, unemployment, and corruption. The study recommends that cooperation between government, civil society, and the private sector needs to be drastically improved and promptly to meet the poverty eradication goal by 2030.     

Public service delivery in South Africa: The political influence at local government level

This paper analyses poor service delivery at local government level, which is attributed to the politicisation of administrative components in municipalities, resulting in poor local governance. The public service delivery system has been perceived as one of the most important ways of reducing poverty through poverty alleviation programmes. As part of the South African government's cooperative system, key stakeholders in municipalities ought to adopt an integrated approach to public service delivery. An integrated approach to public service delivery demands that local municipalities, together with relevant stakeholders, integrate processes and services to ensure effective and efficient service delivery. This ultimately will result in an improved standard of living and sustainable livelihood for communities. With regard to public service delivery, local municipalities have the obligation of creating income opportunities people, especially the poor, with the sole aim of contributing towards poverty reduction and the realisation of the expectations of people, as stated in the South African government's White Paper of transforming public service delivery. The political interface in local municipalities greatly affects effective and efficient administration, as well as growth opportunities. Administrators, therefore, have the important function of ensuring that explicit assignments of objectives and administrative functions are wholly separated from the policymaking activities of government. This paper, therefore, suggests that municipalities adopt the merit system and abandon the spoils system that is highly characterised by political favours and political interferences. Political favours and interferences are dominant in local South African government, and they hinder the process of providing services equally.     

Towards a Decolonial Critical Political Economy of the Media: Some Initial Thoughts

Abstract

How the media are organised and funded has implications on who gets to speak and the stories that are told or silenced. The critical political economy of the media approach allows an understanding of the ideologies and power structures that influence media operations, ownership, and funding. Although the critical political economy of the media remains central in understanding these issues, the approach needs to be decolonised to address the dynamics of media power from the perspective of the global south. In this paper, we explore what the theoretical contributions of decoloniality can make to the project of rethinking political economy of the media. We argue that the critical political economy approach, whose core vocabulary is Marxist, contains inherent limitations in understanding conditions of media-state relations in Africa. Decolonial thought and its recent engagement with Marxism has produced new thinking and fresh ways of reflecting the relationship between Western capitalism and modernity. We contend that this approach allows us to foreground issues of modernity, coloniality, and race and their impact on contemporary media systems in Africa.     

Brand Innovation and Value-Creating Practices of the City of Johannesburg’s Twitter Community

Abstract

Brands facilitating and sustaining healthy brand communities on social networks such as Twitter benefit from collaborative engagements where members are inspired to suggest innovative ideas, solve problems and enjoy a sense of commitment to their social membership co-creative space. We explored how brand innovation practices contribute to the collective value-creating practices within the social media-based brand community hosted by the official City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Twitter account. This purposive sample include 1,232 tweets during Youth Day, followed by one in-depth, semi-structured interview with the social media manager of the CoJ Twitter account to confirm and contextualise findings. Thematic analysis in a qualitative design found five of six brand innovation practices, namely animation, openness, linking, structuring and theorisation. The CoJ social media-based brand community was co-created innovatively owing to high levels of engagement, room for fun and effective communication on service delivery issues so that the brand community continuously increases its membership and commitment. Findings confirmed eight of twelve value-creating practices, namely welcoming, empathising, governing, evangelising, justifying, grooming, customising and commoditising. The healthier a brand community, the more extensive the variety of innovation practices for a brand.     

From anti‐slavery to third sector in development: The transition of non‐governmental organisations and limitations

In the 1800s, the work of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) focused on opposing slavery up until the 1900s where their work changed from anti‐slavery to focus on development‐related issues like education, poverty, hunger, and so forth. The transition of the NGOs was motivated by the failure of the public and private sector to provide the needs of the communities. Just like the other sectors (public and private sector), the work of NGOs is somewhere somehow failing to meet the needs of the needy because of the challenges in their operation. Against this background, the present study traces the transition of these NGOs and its present limitations in development. In order to explore the transition of NGOs and its limitations, the study used secondary data to collect relevant literature. Furthermore, the strict textual analysis of the existing literature is used. The results of the study show that NGOs face challenges of accountability and transparency, capacity, and corruption. In recommendation, the study suggests that NGOs have to be accountable and transparent; moreover, they should be capacitated with necessary skills. Lastly, NGOs should stay away with the acts of corruption.