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The COVID-19 virus allegedly originated from Wuhan, China and spread globally including South Africa and forced the country into restricted lockdown. This study analyses COVID-19 and religious activities during lockdown among dwellers in the rural community of Esikhaleni in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province. A qualitative approach was employed including thirty participants who were selected through random sampling. Telephonic interviews were conducted with the respondents from 1st to 30th May, 2020. Durkhein’s ideas of functional religion in Sociology relating to the human race being together, sharing solace and love with the destitute were defied by COVID-19 protocols. These protocols of the state implemented social and physical distancing to be observed to curb a high infection rate (WHO, 2020). As a result social gatherings were halted, which posed severe challenges to religious bodies to meet, praise and worship as the normally do. Some religious bodies then, resorted to online approaches and used media platforms such as, Zoom, Skype, and even WhatsApp to deliver their services. Major events by some religious organisations including baptisms, crusading, evangelism, and Hajj pilgrimages by Muslim adherents were also postponed. The COVID-19 catastrophe befalling the destitute and needy in society forced religious bodies to extend their arms to those in dire need of help. Challenges during the use of online services included both leaders and congregants not having the requisite technical know-how to connect the programmes. There were also issues related to network connectivity, intermittent power interruption, and the inordinately high cost of data procurement in South Africa for especially the poor. Overall, despite COVID-19 protocols preventing social gatherings, religious bodies, developed other means to keep their spiritual tempo and ought to overcome a sense of hopelessness bestowed on congregants by the pandemic – but sadly this omitted the poor. It is recommended that, religious leaders must learn to use ICT effectively, because COVID-19 might be here for some length of time to come. Moreover, religious leaders must also strive to educate their congregants to observe COVID-19 protocols and seek to avoid a third imminent wave of the virus, instead of laying blame at the door steps of government. Religious orders need to urgently embrace technological solutions which is sadly not always possible due to limited resources. Getting the masses out of poverty through job creation would also go a long way to help when future pandemics arise, and they surely will.

Ecotourism has been positively linked to job creation, small business development and poverty alleviation. The article forms part of the larger study which seeks to assess the contribution of ecotourism to sustainable development in Umkhanyakude which is in KwaZulu Province in South Africa. Through a combination of simple random sampling and purposive sampling, 51 participants were selected from each of the four local municipalities, resulting in a combined total of 204 respondents overall. The study employed a parallel convergent design consisting of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from programme officials, project managers and owners of ecotourism ventures; while questionnaires were applied to elicit data from community members. The results revealed that Ecotourism initiatives contributed to the alleviation of poverty and unemployment in areas like Mtubatuba (40%), Hlabisa (30%) and Umhlabuyalingana (20%). Adversely, the study found that ecotourism in Jozini was largely underdeveloped and under-resourced, with relatively low community perceptions (10%) about its benefits. Drawing on these results, it was concluded that despite lack of financial resources, opportunities exist to improve implementation of ecotourism through capacitation of local communities and institutionalisation of community-based sourcing models.

Rural enterprises have an important role to play in rural development because of their potential in inter alia, providing employment, alleviating poverty and achieving food security. These enterprises include tourism related enterprises. The article forms part of the larger study which seeks to assess the contribution of rural enterprises on rural development and itsupports the notion that tourism can indeed contribute to the stimulation of rural enterprises which can lead to enhanced rural development and poverty alleviation This article however, only reports on the demographic data of the owners and managers of the rural enterprises and their types of enterprises in Zululand District Municipality. A snowball method was used, and twenty rural enterprises participated in the study. A mixed method approach which thus included qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data from the participants. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire in order to determine the demographic profiles of the participants and the types of enterprises they tended to own. The results revealed that gender had no influence in owning the rural enterprise. The majority of enterprise owners were above the age of 46 years. There were more married people in the sample who were the owners of enterprises. Most enterprise owners had at least secondary level education and were from large households. The participants had no other incomes except that which they obtained from their respective enterprises. There were more farming than non-farming enterprises. Participants opted the business they are doing because they simply need to survive and thus wanted to earn a living out of it. They started their rural enterprises with a meagre start-up capital of below R1000. In conclusion, in order to contribute significantly to rural development, rural enterprises must be supported by both government and the financial sector so that the problem of poverty can be mitigated effectively.