The study sought to assess the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in motivating digital transformation in the education sector in South Africa. The study was premised on the fact that learning in South Africa and the rest of the world came to a standstill due to the lockdown necessitated by COVID-19. To assess the impact, the study tracked the rate at which the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) tools were used by various institutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from secondary sources. The findings are that, in South Africa, during the lockdown, a variety of 4IR tools were unleashed from primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote (online) learning. These observations reflect that South Africa generally has some pockets of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education, particularly at a higher education level, has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. Much as this pandemic has brought with it massive human suffering across the globe, it has presented an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access.

COVID-19 has left an unmistakable impression on the world stage. It has altered the global socio-economic landscape, forcing individuals to adapt and embrace new ways of doing business, as well as new ways of life. One of the most significant effects of the pandemic was to hasten the adoption of digital technologies by many areas of the global economy. Campus closures were observed in the higher education sector, putting an end to long-standing face-to-face teaching and learning. This necessitated the most rapid paradigm shift ever seen in this industry to continue educating and learning. An abrupt change to online learning, which is primarily reliant on digital technologies, occurred. As a result, the purpose of this article is to investigate and identify ten critical digital transformation lessons from COVID-19 for South African higher education institutions. Secondary data gathered from the literature research were used to meet the study’s goal. The study concluded by laying out the most important digital transformation lessons for South Africa, including the notion that the country should strive to build digital capabilities because digital technology gaps remain wide, among other things.

The rising profile of environmental issues, most of which relates to continuous consumption of materials, energy and water by companies, and the continuous accumulation of environmental-related costs, necessitates the need for environmental management accounting (EMA). EMA is regarded as an extension of the conventional management accounting, which is adopted for the purpose of tracking and treatment of costs, earnings and savings incurred in relation to companies’ environmental-related activities. This paper determines the level of EMA practices among selected Nigerian and South African firms, and the influence of institutional and organisational factors on the level of practice in each country. Utilising a quantitative research approach, the study used a structured questionnaire to obtain data from 22 listed firms from each country. The data were analysed using an independent sample t-test and a multiple regression estimation technique. Results demonstrate that the level of EMA practices in South African firms is higher than those in Nigerian firms. Institutional isomorphism, through coercive pressure, was found to be the main determinant of EMA practice among South African firms, while EMA practice among Nigerian firms is on account of individual organisational factors. The evidence from the study supports both the institutional and contingency theories as they apply to EMA practices. Therefore, the results indicate that coercive pressure may be necessary to stimulate EMA practice in Nigerian firms given that similar conditions exist in sampled firms in South Africa. Efforts to strengthen normative and mimetic forces can also improve the level of EMA practice in both countries.

The unprecedented expansion of the digital economy has increased the intricacy of mobilising tax revenues from both domestic and international transactions. Tax evasion and avoidance are perpetuated by the invisible nature of digital transactions. To minimise the untapped revenues, countries all over the world are mapping policy strategies on how to collect revenue from this sector. African countries are not an exception. They have constructed digital tax policies to levy both direct and indirect taxes on digital transactions. This paper focuses on direct digital service taxes (DSTs). Direct digital service taxes have been an issue of debate among governments, policy makers, academics, tax bodies, and development organisations. Disagreements coalesce around their structure, their adherence to the canons of taxation, opportunities, and challenges as well as consequences of implementing them. Through a literature review, this paper assesses the legislative structure and administration of digital service taxes in relation to the canons of taxation. The findings of the review were conflicting. While certain aspects, motives, and possible outcomes of the taxes upheld the principles of taxation, some of these were conflicting with the principles. This could possibly be linked to variations in the economic, political, and social contexts in African countries and between developed and developing countries. The study recommends that while digital service taxes are an irrefutable necessity to tap tax revenues from the digital economy, African countries should ensure that equity, neutrality, economy, and efficiency among other principles are considered and balanced with the fundamental roles of tax policy.

Economic, social and governance (ESG) have become topical subjects amidst the deleterious effects of climate change, inequality and similar pressing challenges facing the people and the planet. The main objective of this study was to rank the importance of both the pillars within the ESG model and the five indicators beneath each pillar for the purposes of executive compensation plans through the Analytical hierarchical process (AHP). It is not known which pillar within the ESG model should be prioritised by companies operating in a developing economy context such as South Africa, and neither is it known which of the available indicators should be prioritised when designing executive compensation plans. AHP and pairwise comparison is employed in prioritising important pillars and indicators. The environmental pillar is identified to be the most important among the three pillars. Indicators that are prioritised mirror both the environmental and socio-economic challenges prevalent in South Africa as an emerging economy. Companies’ boards, remuneration committees, investors and policymakers can use the ESG-based indicators that have been prioritised in this study in designing the executive compensation plans. AHP and pairwise comparison are novel approaches used to prioritise the important pillars within the ESG model and the underlying indicators.

The study sought to gauge the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in unleashing digital transformation in the education sector in South Africa. In order to gauge the impact, the study tracked the rate at which the 4IR tools were used by various institutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from secondary sources, mainly newspaper articles, magazines and peer-reviewed journals. The findings are that, in South Africa, during the lockdown, a variety of 4IR tools were unleashed from primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote learning (online learning). These observations point to the fact that South Africa generally has, some pockets of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education, particularly at a higher education level, has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. Much as this pandemic has brought with it massive human suffering across the globe, there is an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access.