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Digitalisation is increasingly adopted in the public sector in South Africa. The country’s Department of Home Affairs has a significant digitalisation project that aims to improve its efficiency in service delivery. Despite this project, it was the Covid‐19 pandemic that saw the introduction of a digital interface to manage the bureaucracy of asylum seeker and refugee administration. This article examines the impacts of this asylum seeker and refugee permit extension online system. The article traces how the online system works to refigure how asylum seekers access the state and the possibility of securing documentation. We demonstrate that this online system has effects far greater than simply improved efficiency; instead, it fundamentally refigures the borderscapes navigated by asylum seekers and refugees. Here, digitalisation shifts bureaucratic responsibility to the asylum seekers and refugees, and in so doing, distances them from the state. We show this by paying attention to how the online system changes the materialities of asylum seeking; the spaces in which protection is sought; as well as the practices thereof, where actors other than the state are called on for assistance. In the world of technological interventions, this online system for permit renewal is a seemingly mundane example of digitalisation; yet its effects on the possibilities for social, legal, and even economic inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees are significant.

Existing accounts of centralized candidate selection argue that party elites tend to ignore constituent preferences in favor of internal party concerns, leading to accountability deficits. Yet this claim has been largely assumed rather than demonstrated. We provide the first detailed empirical analysis of the relationship between constituent opinion and candidate nominations in the absence of party primaries. We study contemporary South Africa, where conventional wisdom suggests that parties select candidates primarily on the basis of party loyalty. Analyzing more than 8000 local government councillor careers linked with public opinion data, we find that citizen approval predicts incumbent renomination and promotion in minimally competitive constituencies, and that this relationship becomes more pronounced with increasing levels of competition. By contrast, improvements in service provision do not predict career advancement. Under threat of electoral losses, South Africa’s centralized parties strategically remove unpopular incumbents to demonstrate responsiveness to constituent views. However, party-led accountability may not improve development.

Point Place stands near the city center of Durban, South Africa. Condemned and off the grid, the five-story apartment building is nonetheless home to a hundred-plus teenagers and young adults marginalized by poverty and chronic unemployment. In Street Life under a Roof , Emily Margaretten draws on ten years of up-close fieldwork to explore the distinct cultural universe of the Point Place community. Margaretten's sensitive investigations reveal how young men and women draw on customary notions of respect and support to forge an ethos of connection and care that allows them to live far richer lives than ordinarily assumed. Her discussion of gender dynamics highlights terms like nakana --to care about or take notice of another--that young women and men use to construct \"outside\" and \"inside\" boyfriends and girlfriends and to communicate notions of trust. Margaretten exposes the structures of inequality at a local, regional, and global level that contribute to socioeconomic and political dislocation. But she also challenges the idea that Point Place's marginalized residents need \"rehabilitation.\" As she argues, these young men and women want love, secure homes, and the means to provide for their dependents--in short, the same hopes and aspirations mirrored across South African society.

Many South African secondary cities depend on a single economic sector, often mining or manufacturing. This makes them vulnerable to economic change and national decision-making. We describe change in three secondary cities—Emalahleni, Matjhabeng and Newcastle—all at different phases of economic transition due to imminent mine closure. We investigate the way local governance and planning are dealing with the change. We draw on concepts from institutional economics and evolutionary governance theory, material from strategic planning documents, and approximately 50 key informant interviews. We show how difficult it is to steer economic planning during economic transitions, and we demonstrate how both economic change and governance are path-dependent. Path dependency in South Africa’s mining towns has several causes: the colonial influence, which emphasised extraction and neglected beneficiation; the dominance of a single sector; the long-term problems created by mining; and the lack of the skills needed to bring about economic change. The local governments’ continuing reliance on the New Public Management paradigm, which focuses on steering as opposed to building networks, compounds the problem, along with poor governance, inadequate local capacity and inappropriate intergovernmental relations. Of the three towns, only Newcastle has shown signs of taking a new path.

This article explores the significance of obituaries in the early 20th-century black press in South Africa, particularly focusing on how they served as a medium for memorializing black excellence within a context of colonization and oppression. Through textual and discourse analysis of obituaries that appeared in Solomon T. Plaatje's newspapers Koranta ea Becoana and Tsala ea Becoana, the study explores how these tributes functioned as sites of resistance against historical erasure and affirmed black agency. This is done, in part, in the context of the global cosmological phenomenon of Halley's Comet in 1910. The research situates obituary writing within the broader framework of memory, oral tradition, and entextualization, demonstrating how editorial choices and narrative structures elevated exemplary individuals as role models amidst systemic oppression. The findings reveal that these obituaries not only preserved collective memory but also actively contested colonial narratives by asserting black subjectivity and personhood. The study concludes by advocating for the inclusion of such commemorative texts in historical inquiry, recognizing their significance in the ongoing struggle for narrative authority and identity formation.

In this paper, I investigate the benefits and potential risks associated with utilizing participant observation to gain a deeper understanding of sexual identity. Specifically, my focus is on examining how young, heterosexual, middle-class, cisgender individuals in South Africa perceive and understand their heterosexual identities, exploring how privilege and heteronormativity shape their experiences. In my ethnographic study, I employed various qualitative data collection methods, including participant observation, to analyze how normative practices were negotiated and sustained in contemporary South Africa. As a feminist researcher, I reflect on the epistemological and methodological choices I made in the study, with reflexivity and positionality playing crucial roles in data collection and analysis. Drawing on experiences in three distinct social spaces in Johannesburg-high-end nightclubs, Tupperware-style sex-toy parties, and traditional braais [barbecues]-I examine the advantages and challenges of participant observation. This paper contributes to the broader discussion on the method's use, highlighting its potential to offer a nuanced understanding of a normalized phenomenon while acknowledging associated risks.

Pedestrian activity is often measured in the formal parts of cities, yet it has rarely been studied in informal settlements, although they are typically adjacent to formal areas and residents participate in formal urban life. Route optimization and space syntax are two pedestrian activity theories that can be applied to predict path usage in urban areas. These theories have been tested in formal cities, but are they applicable in understudied informal settings? Using motion sensors, we measure pedestrian activity in a Cape Town informal settlement in the early morning and evening hours and test which theory best explains the sensor measurements. Route optimization is weakly correlated with average pedestrian activity, while space syntax performs even more poorly in predicting pedestrian activity. The predictive power of both theoretical calculations further varies by time of day. We find that both theories perform worst at the entrances/exits of the informal settlement—that is, the border between informal and formal. These results indicate that daily movement patterns in informal settlements may differ from formal areas and that the connection between the formal and informal city requires further study to better understand how pedestrian activity links these two types of areas. A new theory of route selection based on such an understanding, which also better incorporates the specific characteristics of informal urban settlements—such as high density, narrow, and constantly changing streets primarily used by residents—may be necessary to understand the needs of pedestrians within informal settlements as compared to formal areas.

Foster care placements are temporary care arrangements for children removed from their biological families due to a plethora of reasons. The social worker investigates the circumstances of the child and then compiles a report to the presiding officer of the children’s court recommending that a child be placed in foster care. Upon placement in foster care, the foster parent then qualifies to receive a foster care grant on behalf of the child. Foster care grants are meant to assist families in the upkeep of children placed in their care. The number of children in foster care in South Africa continues to grow, which has resulted in the foster care grant system being overwhelmed and the caseloads of social workers becoming extremely high. This raises concerns about the feasibility and appropriateness of foster care grants as a vehicle for providing income to children in foster care. This qualitative desktop review explores the South African foster care grant system, and highlights challenges faced by the system, and the reasons that contributed to the challenges, such as the lapsing of foster care orders, which led to the discontinuance of foster care grants. Moreover, the use of money from foster care grants and their contribution in providing income support to families and children is highlighted. In addition, the shortcomings and unsustainability of foster care grants and their perpetuation of dependency syndrome are explored. Recommendations for the proper use of foster care grants and for addressing the foster care grant crisis in South Africa are outlined.

In the context of climate change, ensuring the sustainability and resilience of urban water infrastructure in South Africa remains a critical challenge. This study investigates the barriers hindering effective water infrastructure delivery and identifies the factors contributing to inefficiencies. It also evaluates strategies to enhance the resilience and sustainability of water infrastructure projects, focusing on water utility agencies across the country. Key research questions include: What are the barriers to the delivery of sustainable and resilient water infrastructure in South Africa? What strategies can enable the delivery of sustainable and resilient water infrastructure in South Africa? Using survey research, statistical modelling, and case study analysis, the study highlights significant challenges such as ageing infrastructure, poor maintenance, financial constraints, climate change impacts, governance issues, inefficient project management, and water resource scarcity. These challenges were found to stem from four core dimensions: inadequate project management practices, organisational and managerial limitations, operational and maintenance deficiencies, and socio‐political factors. In response, the study proposes a five‐pronged strategic framework to strengthen water infrastructure delivery. Recommended strategies include upgrading and maintaining ageing systems, improving funding mechanisms and financial oversight, adopting climate‐resilient technologies, enhancing project management capacity, and reinforcing governance and accountability structures. Implementing these strategies is essential for ensuring South African cities are better prepared to withstand climate‐related disruptions and maintain reliable access to water resources. Ultimately, integrating sustainability and resilience into water infrastructure planning and management is vital for securing long‐term water security and supporting urban development under changing environmental conditions