Abstract
At the request of Sage and the Journal Editor, the following article has been retracted:
Matimolane, S., Selane, L., & Mathivha, F. I. (2026). Exploring Water Supply Challenges to Selected Villages of Greater Giyani Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 61(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096241303946
Sage was made aware of concerns regarding the authenticity of the following citations included in the article’s reference list:
López DE, Van der Merwe C (2018) Water service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges and progress across provinces. South African Journal of Water Research 44(2): 89–101.
Moloi M (2017) Water governance in South Africa’s homelands: historical perspectives and contemporary implications. African Journal of Public Affairs 9(1): 45–62.
Wright A (2014) Riparian rights and water management in South Africa: historical context and current practices. Water International 39(4): 523–534
Following an initial review, Sage noted additional citations listed in the article’s reference list that could not be located:
Mathe T (2018) Assessing the impact of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme in Limpopo, South Africa: a case study of Muyexe Village. African Journal of Rural Development 3(1): 1–12.
Matimolane S (2021) Locations of the 25 selected villages in the Greater Giyani Municipality (GGM) [Map]. Scale approximately 1:400,000. Created using ArcView GIS 9.3. Potchefstroom, South Africa: North-West University.
Moyo S, Mlambo C (2020) Water access and inequality in South Africa: a case study of indigent communities. Water International 45(5): 445–459.
Schwartz K, Naidoo K (2019) Access to water: understanding public standpipes in Urban South Africa. Water Policy 21(3): 489–506.
Sibanda M, Gama D (2020) Water supply challenges in rural South Africa: a case study of hillside communities. Journal of Water Resource and Protection 12(6): 532–546.
Thompson L (2019) The legacy of apartheid on water access in South Africa. Journal of African Studies 45(3): 120–135.
When contacted for comment, the authors acknowledged the presence of non-retrievable references and explained that during the revision process of this article, a co-author utilised the online artificial intelligence tool Claude, to assist with responding to reviewer comments. The tool was prompted to suggest additional references on the topic, which were then introduced into the revised manuscript. The authors state that they failed to verify these references. The authors state that the reference Matimolane (2021) refers to an unpublished map created by the lead author using ArcGIS. The authors explain that these non-retrievable references do not support any central claims in the article. However, the use of an AI tool to assist with responding to reviewer comments was not declared during submission.
Following review by the Journal Editor, due to concerns with the integrity of the research process and that several references supporting this research can no longer be relied upon, this article has been retracted.
The authors did not respond to the decision to retract.