Household level determinants of food security in the City of Tshwane, South Africa

Food security has always been a contemporary issue in urban South Africa, which is gripped by high inequality. This has recently been exacerbated by risks and hazards pertaining to climate change and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the study was to ascertain the food security status and the determinants thereof for urban households in the City of Tshwane. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Multinomial Logistic Regression were used to scale the patterns of household-level determinants of food security of 775 households, distributed in 73 clusters, from the 7 regions of the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The study found that 39.2% of the households were food secure, 16.6% suffered from mild food insecurity, 12.1% were moderately food insecure, and 32.1% were severely food insecure. Food security was significantly more prevalent in male-headed households, households with younger members, households with educated heads, and those that are employed. Household size and income were also determinants of food security. The results indicate that age, gender (male), education, employment, household size, income, and grant type were significant at the 1% level in extreme changes in food insecurity, while only the grant was insignificant in mild changes in food security, with none of the variables being significant in slight food security changes. Government social grants were inadequate to guarantee food security status. The study concludes that there are extremes of food security and severe food insecurity indicating inequality, with various socio-economic factors affecting food security. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources.

Rebuilding Tourism for the Future: COVID-19 and Tourism Levy Administration in Gauteng Graded Accommodation Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the tourism sector to a complete standstill during the hard lockdown because of the global travel ban. This study aims to analyse the effects of COVID-19 on levy administration and revenue collection in Gauteng graded accommodation establishments in South Africa. Gauteng province is a gateway for international tourist arrivals and the most visited province in South Africa. The study used a case study design based on a saturated purposive snowball sampling procedure with data collected through semi-structured interviews from 15 key informants, stakeholders in Tourism marketing, directly working with graded accommodation establishments. The study reports a significant disruption in levy collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 restrictions led to the loss of business profits due to establishments' permanent and temporary closures. For Gauteng's graded accommodation establishments to survive, technological innovation and reorganisation of operations were critical. The study recommends stakeholder harmonisation in synergy with strategies for levy collection post-COVID-19 era. This study proposes critical interventions to the levy administrators and government to support graded establishments collecting the levy. © 2022 AJHTL /Author(s) ;Open Access – Online @ www.ajhtl.com

The Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Economic and Social Relief Package as a Poverty Alleviation Strategy in South Africa

In South Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has subjected the population to abject poverty. In response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, the South African government disbursed R500 billion (US$ 2 879 935 450) economic and social relief package (ESRP) to help fight the negative effects of COVID-19 on the economy and cushion vulnerable societies from extreme poverty for 6 months (May to October 2020). Of interest to this chapter is the delivery of targeted assistance to households and individuals to relieve poverty and social distress. A qualitative research approach was adopted. Data was gathered from authoritative secondary sources, while a thematic approach was utilised to analyse the data. A major finding of this chapter is that the ESRP intervention was necessary to cushion households against income induced food insecurity by providing a social grant, food parcel and unemployment benefits, including paid holidays. However, the intervention was affected by numerous issues including administrative bottlenecks, inadequacy given that the average South African household size is much bigger, irregular costing of food parcels as well as travel and contact restrictions. It is recommended that the government adopts a multisectoral response to ensure an increase in cash and non-cash resources to poor households and children. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.