The economic impact of carbon emissions in Africa is gaining traction in the extant literature. This study adopted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to concomitantly track data on carbon emissions versus economic growth in Africa from 2018 to 2022 providing evidence from a meta-analysis. Through database searches, 591 publications were identified. A machine learning algorithm called Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used as a visualization technique for reporting trends in the eleven papers selected for the analysis. Identifying, evaluating, and summarizing the findings of all relevant individual studies conducted in Africa on the impact of economic growth on carbon emissions contributes to the existing body of knowledge. This study fills a critical gap by surveying the studies conducted in Africa in the last five years, implying that economic growth negatively and significantly triggers CO2 emissions in Africa. The debate on the economic impact of CO2 emissions in Africa, the most vulnerable continent to climate change, is elucidated. The findings tracked sources of data for carbon emissions in Africa. The results showed that although some studies reported a positive correlation (and some a negative correlation) between economic growth and carbon emissions, most studies concur that the economic impact of carbon emissions over a timeline can be explained by the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Therefore, there is a dire need for African countries to strengthen economic growth without deteriorating their environment or having ecological footprint. Future research must assess whether this trend on the economic impact of carbon emissions in Africa continues. AcknowledgmentThe authors express their appreciation to the Durban University of Technology for providing the resources to conduct this study.

Type of the article: Research ArticleAudit committees are key in corporate reporting, ensuring credibility through internal controls, assurance processes, and risk management. This study examines the relationship between audit committee characteristics and Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting quality among the top 100 Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed corporations. Using agency and legitimacy theories, the study analyzes how audit committees serve as mechanisms for lowering information asymmetries and attaining legitimacy through transparent Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting. It focuses on three audit committee attributes: independence, meeting frequency, and average age. Panel data regression models using Ernst & Young’s Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards were used. Data were obtained from the Bloomberg database spanning five years (2017–2021). The results reveal a significant positive correlation between Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting quality and audit committee independence (p-value < 0.05), but no significant relationship for meeting frequency or average age (p < 0.05). The findings highlight the importance of internal assurance in enhancing Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting, addressing stakeholder concerns on sustainability and corporate responsibility. The study contributes to the governance literature by offering actionable insights for firm managers and evidence that stronger audit committee independence enhances governance structures. This study underscores the need for policies that improve Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting quality and suggests further exploration of qualitative audit committee attributes influencing Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosures. It added to the ongoing debate examining the effect of audit committee characteristics on Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting quality in South Africa’s context.Acknowledgment Gratitude is extended to the anonymous referees for their helpful and thoughtful suggestions, recommendations, and constructive comments, by which the paper was substantially improved. Moreover, the University of KwaZulu Natal is acknowledged for providing excellent research support and facilities. Notably, the article has never been published previously. The paper was extracted from Ruth Mutsa Ruziwa’s Masters dissertation, which was submitted to the University of KwaZulu Natal, with first authorship of this article attributed to the same. 

Motivated by lack of empirical research on how the marketing mix (price, place, product promotion, process, packaging, physical evidence, people, programming and partnership) directly or indirectly enhance the women’s business viability and sustainability in South Africa and elsewhere. This research empirically investigated how marketing mix can be used to enhance women’s business viability among 301 registered business owners trained in marketing and participated in the survey and answered details questions focusing on Limpopo province -South Africa. AIDA theory, diffusion of innovation theory and Marketing Mix Theory underpinned the study. Quantitative descriptive survey research strategy was adopted, Robustness analysis was entirely performed using SPSS version 28. The study’s findings were that women’s businesses in Musina and Blouberg in Limpopo province use the 10Ps. The four most used marketing strategies were, price, place promotion and product. The averagely used marketing strategies were: people, packaging, programming, physical evidence and partnership. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge and further contributes to the use of 10Ps marketing mix strategies and framework by women’s businesses. The study’s main implication is that business entities may not achieve their full financial performance potential due to little or no attention to the use of 10Ps marketing mix components and training. This study provides robust recommendations and insights into marketing practices applicable to other business entities globally.

This study investigated the financial literacy status among financial non-government organisations (NGOs) managers in KwaZulu-Natal. The study adopted a quantitative research strategy; a Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data from 53 managers purposively and conveniently sampled in KwaZulu-Natal. Robustness analysis was performed using SPSS version 28 for descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that all independent variables correlate between 1.000 and -.364. This study provided practical and theoretical contributions in the field by deepening an understanding of the key variables identified by this research study, which has been justified by the most relevant literature that drives the financial literacy of NGOs and financial managers. The study further offered insight into constructs for measures of financial literacy in NGOs. This study added to the body of knowledge on the financial literacy of NGOs financial managers in South Africa. The study urgently recommends that NGOs, academia, policymakers, and other key players in the financial literacy field consider the urgent need for financial literacy training or short courses within this sector. These findings urgently call for the attention of the policymakers. This study offered a future research plan on the subject matter in the areas of the true extent of the practicality of financial literacy among financial non-government organisations’ managers that were not addressed in this article.

This article investigated how employability skills training can be used to foster adolescent girls' and young women's employment opportunities and to improve their employment pathways in South Africa. This study adopted quantitative and descriptive research approaches via longitudinal data collection. Secondary data was collected from 3584 AGYWs using a questionnaire survey during employability training from July-October 2021. Robustness analysis was performed using descriptive statistics using SPSS version 28.0. The empirical findings proved that employability skills training significantly improved the capabilities of adolescent girls and young women on labour market assessments. Relying on these empirical findings, this study proposes a framework for linking AGYWs and the labour market through an employability skills training capability-based conceptualised model. The results of this study will fill a gap in understanding the twelve dominant employability skills variables identified by this research study which has justified with most relevant literature and theories in particular. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge and further contributes to the career development and employability among adolescent girls and young women required to cope with the labour markets in South Africa. The study recommends schools, Universities and other key role players in skills development among employability skills guidelines for ensuring the readiness of young graduates for employment opportunities in South Africa.

The International Standards on Auditing (ISA) 240 requires auditors to assess the risk of material misstatements due to fraud. The ISA (240:4) further notes that the three factors of the Fraud Triangle theory propounded by Donald Cressey should be incorporated into the audit plan. It appears that auditors’ knowledge and understanding of fraud is limited due to inadequacies of ISA 240. This article considers a theoretical review of other relevant fraud theories, literature was reviewed and the researchers recommend that the robust new fraud combination theory should greatly assist forensic auditors and external auditors to identify and assess fraud and perform effective fraud risk assessments. This study significantly contributes to the current body of knowledge by introducing the New Fraud Combined Theory, a consolidation of all the fraud models and contributory fraud risk factors for fraudulent activities enable external auditors and forensic practitioners to effectively perform fraud risks assessments (FRAs) robustly. This research will guide researchers to further research on the subject matter.