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The South African street food industry is essential in elevating the socioeconomic standing of sellers. However, most studies on street food vending focused on perception, safety, consumption, and handling of street food. Therefore, it is necessary to fill this gap. The study explores street food vending contribution on poverty and unemployment in the Mahikeng Local Municipality. The study's goal was accomplished by using a mixed research methodology. A sample size of 401 respondents were selected for the study and data was obtained using structured, semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires. The study found that street food vending creates jobs not only for the people involved in the trade, but also for people who would otherwise be unemployed, for example, those who are retrenched. In addition, street food distribution has become a cornerstone for vendors to generate income to supplement family income that improved the standard of living of the vendors. Additionally, some vendors were able to acquire assets such as livestock and landed property from the profit made from the business, contributing to reducing poverty incidence among traders in the area. The paper concludes that street food vending has contributed in creating jobs thus, reducing poverty incidence. However, the street food industry continues to confront obstacles such as lack of cash and credit and location-based business restrictions. Therefore, in order for SFV to be effective, steps must be taken to minimise the difficulties affecting the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to examine the role of development aid and information communication technology in poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe. The slow rate of information communication technology usage in the different sectors of the Zimbabwean economy has exposed many people to high levels of poverty. Other economies in the global village have benefited from the high usage of information and communication technology (ICT) and development aid in poverty alleviation. The unanswered question is why Zimbabwe has failed to reduce poverty levels considering the development aid from the Bretton Woods Institution and other financial institutions? This research seeks to examine how ICT and development aid can be used as tools for poverty reduction. The study used data from World Bank and International Telecommunication Union from 1989 to 2019. An Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) was employed in the research. Time series Granger Causality analysis was used in the research to test the relationship between variables. Empirically, research findings depicted that poor management of foreign aid can increase poverty levels. Apart from that, it was also established that high levels of corruption, bad governance, as well as economic and political instability were the key factors that made foreign aid ineffective in poverty reduction. Low ICT levels can affect a country's ability to earn higher economic growth outputs. Primary research findings showed that in terms of Granger causality, there was a bidirectional relationship between the variables used in the research. Results from the ARDL revealed a long-run relationship between variables used in the research, which are the human development index, development aid, private domestic credit as well as information and communication technology. In terms of policy recommendation, the paper suggests that the Zimbabwean government must craft sound ICT policies, promote ICT programmes and entrepreneurship as well as channelling development aid to ICT development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]