The focus of the study is to explore on the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Economic Development of South Africa. South Africa is a developing country and, just like other developing countries around the world, it requires FDI for its socio-economic and political development. Using the quantitative research methods, and following the descriptive analysis of data gathered from a questionnaire, the study is presented based on the relevant information gathered on the role of FDI on Economic Development of South Africa. This study found that FDI plays an important part within South Africa. Firstly, the study gathered information about factors that impact on the flow of FDI within South Africa. Amongst these factors there is the political nature of the country in which more stable political environment and the investment policies. FDIs within South Africa are a source of external capital which can lead to economic development. Furthermore, within the country, the study concludes that FDI leads to increased revenue and to the development of new industries. Technological advancements have also been brought about by FDI leasing to the socio-economic development of South Africa. The study however concludes that within South Africa, FDI can be a hindrance to domestic investment since it challenges the survival of domestic industries. The thrust with FDI is the focus on resources and capital elsewhere other than the investor’s home country. In this regard, FDI has a negative impact on the country’s investment. Ideally, the rules that govern foreign exchange rates and investments negatively impact on the investing country. The study therefore recommends the adjustment of investment policies that attract investments, such as policies promoting fair business practices.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are touted as engines of sustainable economic growth. They span a wide spectrum of economic domains and are inclined to foster innovative entrepreneurship and gratify a variety of socio-economic objectives such as poverty alleviation, income generation, employment creation and reduction in societal inequalities. The SME sector in South Africa is challenged by slow growth in young businesses and dying at infancy due to lack of financial support. Inadequate funding results from a myriad of factors which include comprehensive enforcement of regulatory requirements, information asymmetry, moral hazards, lack of sound information on credit performance and technological divide. This study investigated this funding conundrum by assessing the success rate of SME applications for commercial funding. A quantitative cohort analysis was used on overdraft facilities obtained from one of the leading financial institutions in South Africa to determine the drivers of default. A time series view of macroeconomic factors and macroprudential indicators in conjunction with the demand and supply trends was analysed using vector autoregression techniques to determine the impact of the economic environment and financial market condition on access to funding. Unit root tests and cointegration analyses were applied to examine stationarity, shortrun and long-run relationships. The SME scorecard was developed using logistic regression on cohorts of applications over a seven-year observation period to determine the drivers of default as part of credit risk management. SME application scorecards were developed including and excluding bureau information. The ensuing models’ ability to differentiate risk were assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The results show that, the demand and supply of SME credit is influenced by trends in the domestic, economic and financial environment. The robustness, stability and relevance of an application scorecard is enhanced by reject inference and the inclusion of bureau information. Small businesses operating in the service sector and having a long-standing rapport with the bank can easily access commercial bank funding. SMEs in the construction industry with a high number of credit enquiries are unlikely to survive the stringent conditions of the bank lending criteria. It is the prerogative of the principal business owner to honour their financial obligations across the credit industry if commercial bank funding is desired. Their credit quality forms the fulcrum of the lender’s SME application scorecard.

This research paper applies the synthetic control method to measure the economic cost of sanctions imposed on South Africa between 1985 and 1994. The economic sanctions imposed on South Africa between 1985 and 1994 by the United Nations, the United States of America, and the European Community negatively affected the economy. This negative effect on the economy, measured by the gross domestic product per capita, continued until 1998 despite the sanctions having ended four years earlier. Using the synthetic control method, this research paper measures the economic cost by estimating the difference in the gross domestic product per capita between the treated country (South Africa) and the counterfactual (synthetic South Africa). Synthetic South Africa represents South Africa without undergoing treatment (sanctions). What would have happened if sanctions were not imposed? The results indicate that the economic cost is most pronounced after the sanctions ended, indicating a substantial lag effect. South Africa’s gross domestic product per capita is 30% lower than synthetic South Africa by 1998. This potentially indicates that the sanctions had a long-lasting effect. The results are not sensitive to the composition of the donor pool. Furthermore, the placebo tests reveal that the results are statistically significant at the 10% threshold with only one country (Philippines) having a treatment effect that is larger than South Africa’s and a better fit. For target nations, it means that policy makers should acknowledge that a policy that leads to sanctions may have a severe and long-lasting impact on the economy. Potential areas for future investigation include estimating the humanitarian effect of the sanctions imposed on South Africa and applying the synthetic control method approach to other sanctions episodes in the past.

The topic of literacy has received a decent amount of attention over the years both academically and from various institutions and forums across the globe. The increased focus on addressing illiteracy drove the global illiteracy rate down from 40% in 1970 to 25% in 1990. Initiatives to promote universal literacy began as far back as the early 1950s yet the latest available data on literacy from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) indicates that 750 million adults in the world are still illiterate. With a world population of approximately 7.6 billion, that translates to one in every 10 people. Regionally, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Southern Asia host the world’s lowest literacy rates with a combined 20 countries holding literacy rates of below 50% while Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Europe and Northern America have literacy rates close to or at 100%. South Africa was rated number 50 out of 50 countries that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of grade four learners in 2016. Against this background, this study sought to provide insight on the social and economic impact of literacy in South Africa with a focus on how literacy influences unemployment, the HIV prevalence rate, crime and income inequality. The study employed fixed and random effects techniques to estimate a panel data of nine (9) provinces between 2008 and 2017. A provincial average of 90.79% for the literacy rate was derived from the data ranging from a minimum of 81.13% to a maximum of 98.10%. Gauteng had the highest literacy rate while the Northern Cape had the lowest. Gauteng also came out as the province with the highest average GDP per capita (GDPPC) while the Northern Cape had the lowest average crime and unemployment rates. The provincial averages for the dependent variables were 25.70% for the unemployment rate, 17.50% for the HIV rate, 1.13% for the crime rate and ZAR63,029 for GDPPC. The results showed that literacy was positively related to unemployment, HIV and GDPPC which indicate that increases in the literacy rate resulted in higher unemployment and HIV prevalent rates and higher income per capita across the nine provinces in South Africa. When the crime rate was analysed as the dependent variable, the results showed a positive correlation with literacy in the absence of unobserved variables and a negative correlation with literacy when unobserved variables were included. On the back of this study’s results, which indicated a positive relationship between literacy and unemployment as well as GDPPC, policymakers need to consider an expanded view and focus of literacy by including financial, health and technology literacy and investing in those in addition to functional literacy. Furthermore, government needs to initiate a nationwide literacy campaign which targets communities with high illiteracy rates across the country. This campaign would focus on reducing illiteracy with the primary objective of educating the community not only about HIV but the importance of HIV testing as well. Lastly, literacy campaigns need to integrate education on how the community can work with the police to combat crime as greater community participation could lower the crime rate.

The South African local governments are facing enormous issues that challenge their financial independence and the fulfilment of their constitutional powers in providing service delivery to communities within their jurisdiction areas, amongst other things. Although the National government provides grants to the local governments, they are not sufficient to meet the basic needs of communities within sub-national provinces – given the rapid growth in population and the high levels of unemployment. Property tax is one of the sources of municipalities’ revenues, over which the local governments have full autonomy. A vast number of scholars in literature emphasize the potential and the importance of property tax revenues within local government spheres, its contribution towards the improvement of community lives, and in providing the public infrastructures with the services they require – if they are fully utilised. This study examines the impact of macro-economic factors (gross domestic product, inflation, the unemployment rate, and the population rate) on property-tax revenues in South African municipalities across the nine provinces, from the year 2005 to 2018. The panel-data model was estimated by using fixed and random effect-estimation techniques. The findings provide evidence to suggest that there is a negative and positive relationship between property tax revenues and macro-economic determinants, depending on each subcategory from which the total property-tax revenue is based. The main results of the study indicate that the variation in economic activities does not improve property-tax revenue mobilization across South African local governments. Inflation was found to have a discouraging impact on the property-tax revenues derived by municipalities. Although the population rate reflected a stable trend during the study period, the results indicated that it has had a negative impact on property-tax revenues. Generally, the unemployment rate has depicted an unstable trend over the study period; and the findings show that it has had a negative effect on property-tax revenues across South African municipalities. The study suggests some policy recommendations for achieving optimal property-tax revenues. In addition, the study has contributed to the body of knowledge; and it has provided an analysis of the various macro-economic determinants – by sing widely accepted indicators in an emerging market. This research also recommends further exploration of the impact of other macro-economic determinants on property-tax revenues, in any future research studies. These include macro-economic determinants, such as the interest rate and household income, amongst other issues, which are not part of this study.

This study analyses the relationship between electricity prices, consumption and economic growth at national and per sector levels in South Africa over the period from 2006 to 2017 using the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and error correction model (ECM). With regards to electricity consumption, in the mining and residential sectors, the relationship between electricity consumption and GDP is insignificant and thus adheres to the neutrality hypothesis. In contrast, in the services, transportation and industrial sectors, there is a positive relationship between GDP and electricity consumption, which adheres to the conservative hypothesis. Lastly, the agricultural sector has a positive relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in the short run, and thus adheres to the growth hypothesis. In the case of electricity prices and electricity consumption, the results find that the relationship is insignificant on a national basis and this is true for the services, transport, residential and agricultural sectors too, whereas there is a negative association with electricity consumption in the mining sector while the industrial sector has a negative association with electricity prices. The results for the relationship between electricity prices and electricity consumption show that in the national, services sector, transport sector, residential and agricultural sectors, electricity consumption has an insignificant relationship with the electricity prices. This is in contrast to the mining sector, whose electricity consumption is negatively associated with electricity prices while the industrial sector electricity consumption has a positive and significant relationship with electricity prices. With regards to the relationship between electricity prices and GDP, the results find that there is an elastic association in the national, services, mining, and industrial sectors with a negative impact on the GDP in the long run. In contrast, the relationship between electricity prices and GDP in the transport and residential sectors is insignificant.

SMEs are conduits for the transformation of economies because they act as catalysts for private sector development. However, they face several constraints to accessing finances for their growth and development. Hence, by using a secondary dataset from the Central Bank of Eswatini that comprises 1,390 loan applicants, an empirical analysis was done using a binary logistic regression analysis to assess credit rationing factors preventing SMEs in the Kingdom of Eswatini to access DFIs loans for their growth and development. Thus, the objectives of the study are to examine the relationships between credit rationing factors and their effects on accessing DFI loans in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Descriptive analysis provided an explanation as to how these factors influence the financing of SMEs in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was, therefore, employed to determine the relationships between credit rationing factors and binary logistic regression analysis to examine the effect of these factors on DFIs loans accessibility. This method was used to determine the strength of the relationship between loan access and credit rationing factors. The findings show that the age of SMEs and loan amounts are some of the major negative factors impacting access to DFIs loans in the Kingdom of Eswatini. A mature SME is less constrained to access DFIs loan compared to start-ups and growing SMEs. Furthermore, SMEs that apply for sustainable loans are less constrained to access DFIs loans than those that apply for unsustainable and very high amounts. It is, therefore, concluded that DFIs in the Kingdom of Eswatini apply credit rationing in dispersing loans to SMEs. DFIs should link their loan amount to demands and to the period of existence, as only well established and matured SMEs have an added advantage in accessing DFIs loans. For these reasons, it is recommended that economic policy makers should devise loan access policies that suit start-ups and growing SME for their conducive development and growth. This policy is vital because SMEs have a pivotal role to play in the overall economic growth of the Kingdom of Eswatini.

The recent surge in Chinese Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the African continent has brought about much debate and speculation around the potential implications both for the continent as a whole, and for individual African countries. There are mixed sentiments regarding the impact of Chinese FDI in Africa and speculation as to whether the continent has been benefiting more from Chinese investments than it has been losing. Shen (2013) points to two opposing views on China’s investment in Africa. On one side China is hailed for bridging the technological and capital gap that has been hampering economic growth in Africa, and for coming to Africa’s rescue by being more willing to invest in the continent than the West has been, especially after the financial crisis of 2008. However, the other side sees China as a ruthless investor, intent on plundering the African continent’s resources and ultimately taking over its economies (Kolstad & Wiig, 2012). The current research focuses on an area of particular interest and importance for the African continent: specific ways in which Chinese FDI has impacted economic growth and employment in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). The study employed a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model and conducted Granger causality tests on a sample of the top ten SSA recipients of Chinese FDI for the period 2003 to 2017. The results of the analysis revealed that Chinese FDI had a positive effect during this period on both employment and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a 1% increase in Chinese FDI resulting in a marginal 0.20% increase in employment, and a 0.17 % increase in economic growth. The findings of the research support the FDI-Led economic growth theory and Robert Solow’s neo-classical growth model, which argues that economic growth is achieved through an increase in capital growth, labour force, and technical knowledge (Solow, 1957). Granger causality tests indicated the presence of a bi-directional relationship between Chinese FDI and economic growth. As this was a quantitative study, and significant factors pertaining to Chinese FDI in developing countries in Africa are qualitative in nature, it is recommended that qualitative studies be conducted in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the impact of Chinese FDI in African countries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether empirical evidence support traditional determinants and theories of capital structure in the listed South African property industry, a relatively new adopter of the globally recognised and regulated Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure. There currently exists little academic literature focusing on this specific topic in the South African property sector. Furthermore, the recent change of the prevalent legal form of South African listed property companies, affords a unique opportunity to investigate the possible impact of regulatory changes on capital structure within this context. A panel regression is applied to a sample of 39 firms over the period 2005 to 2019, which includes all property companies with South African exposure listed on the JSE, both during the pre-REIT and REIT regimes. This results in an unbalanced panel of 314 company years. The regime change to the REIT structure appears to have, on average, increased the use of leverage in South Africa’s listed property sector. Debt usage, however, remains well below the allowed regulatory limit and lower than worldwide counterparts. The regression results offer support for the trade-off theory, pecking order theory and market timing theory in the South African listed property context, and are generally in agreement with international findings. Thus, size is found to be positively correlated to debt levels, in line with trade-off theory prediction. Growth opportunities tend to increase leverage ratios, which is consistent with the pecking order theory. Evidence for market timing behavior is the positive correlation found between 12-month share price movements and leverage. Other firm specific determinants including share volatility and interest cover ratio also offered pecking order theory support. Inflation was also found to have a significant effect on leverage in the sector. In conclusion, it is found that the evidence supports elements of most capital structure theories in the South African listed property sector.

With the rise of digital technologies that have disrupted standard business models and created a new level of competition in the market, the need for digital business strategising that shapes the future of organisations and achieves digital transformation is high on the agenda of most firms. The added complexity of uncertainty in the regulatory environment regarding financial products and services, regulation of digital platforms and ongoing financial regulatory changes based on macro-economic turbulence, makes for a complex external environment within which businesses need to effectively compete and achieve performance targets. A qualitative, interpretive case study of a South African based global organisation is undertaken to explore and understand how organisations navigate the macro-environmental landscape while forging a digitally transformed future. The research uses thematic analysis to extract themes in the data collected from both IT and business leaders as they navigate the path of transitioning from traditional to digital business models in the context of regulatory uncertainty. The study provides insight into what is required for firms to achieve digital transformation, and demonstrates the influence that regulatory uncertainty has on the digital business strategising process of a firm. A conceptual model is developed that reflects the key drivers of digital transformation to achieve digital maturity and competitive advantage, and also represents the external influencing factors of regulatory uncertainty. The findings reveal a shift to a more tactical, combined top-down, bottom-up strategizing practice with reliance on dynamic capabilities, strong leadership and innovation to overcome challenges of regulatory uncertainty.