Abstract:Objective: The aim of this study was to review the published literature on the relationship between family structure and engagement in health risk behaviour amongst youth in African countries.Methods: A systematic review was conducted between 2000 and 2014. Suitable titles were identified from database searches. Thereafter, abstracts were evaluated along specific inclusion criteria. Eleven full text articles were evaluated for methodological quality using a modified critical appraisal tool and six studies were included in the final review that satisfied the threshold criterion of 70%. A narrative synthesis was completed for all included records to provide a textual answer to the research question.Results: Findings indicated that there was a relationship between family structure and engagement in health risk behaviour, specifically risky sexual behaviour. The importance of family structure was evident, and the active involvement of parents in the activities of youth is cardinal. The review further underscores that there is lack of methodologically rigorous research that can provide empirical support for and insight into the relationship between family structure and engagement in health risk behaviour.Discussion: Risky sexual behaviour was the most prevalent outcome assessed across studies. Family structure impacted positively on delaying or reducing engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Diverse family structures were identified and orphans living with caregivers were identified as a particular structure that might be more prevalent in the African context. Parental involvement and investment in adolescent activities were more strongly identified as an important factor. There is a lack of and need for more methodologically rigorous research to gain empirical support for and insight into the relationship between family structure and health risk behaviours.

Shifting consumer travel preferences in the COVID-19 environment open potential new opportunities for rural tourism. This paper examines the challenges facing the development of rural tourism in a ‘left behind’ peripheral rural space in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality, Eastern Cape. 20 detailed qualitative interviews with key tourism stakeholders, mainly tourism businesses, are analysed. The key findings point to the structural constraints and limits on rural tourism in many parts of South Africa from the shortcomings of local government. The core constraints upon maximising local tourism assets surround the performance of local government, its inadequate provision and maintenance of local infrastructure (especially roads) as well as of service delivery issues.

In the international scholarship about tourism small firms the most distinguishing feature of South Africa relates to transformation debates. This article represents a contribution to the vibrant literature around small tourism firms and change in the global South by analysing the geographies of transformation in one South African province, the Eastern Cape. An historical approach is applied to understand the spatial patterns of transformation as mapped in patterns of ownership of Black small-scale accommodation enterprises. The historical approach shows that different regulatory regimes regarding Black entrepreneurs and their involvement in South African tourism have existed at different times and especially under the influence of apartheid legislation and following democratic change. The formative period of Eastern Cape tourism during the first half of the 20th century witnessed the establishment of a tourism economy dominated by White entrepreneurs and most especially in the coastal areas. The apartheid period, however, allowed a small window of opportunity for Black entrepreneurs to establish tourism businesses in the former ‘reserves’ which would become the Homelands. It is shown that the former Homelands areas are currently the most advanced transformation spaces. This finding reinforces the view that whilst with the end of apartheid the Homelands formally ceased to exist their legacy remains inscribed on the character and geographical patterns of tourism small firm development in South Africa.

Rural tourism scholarship has greatly expanded over the past two decades. One aspect of rural tourism that is undeveloped in literature is the historical evolution of rural tourism destinations. This paper uses an historical approach and archival documentary sources to examine the evolution of rural tourism under apartheid in one of the former Bantustans of South Africa, namely Transkei. It is shown tourism became a sector of policy interest because of disappointments associated with national government programmes for industrial decentralization. Early tourism promotion centred on leisure tourism around the natural beauty and attractions of Transkei’s coastal areas. With the grant of ‘independence’, however, a new institutional environment emerged which resulted in the Transkei becoming a focus for casino tourism at a time when casino gambling was prohibited in South Africa. The growth of casino tourism was, however, linked to corruption which occurred between South African tourism capital and the leadership of this Bantustan.