Africa: Economic, Political and Social Issues opens with a study wherein four research questions are addressed using the structural functionalist approach to the study of family, drawing from the views of Durkheim, Radcliffe-brown and Fortes. A comparative analysis of social protection for older persons in Eswatini and Lesotho, countries located in Southern Africa, is provided. The authors discuss the relevance of socio-economic rights in Kwazulu- Natal, particularly how the state should fulfil its constitutional mandate to provide the citizens of the province with access to healthcare services. The ambiguous relationship between Swaziland as British-protected territory and Britain in the period from 1903 to 1968 ius also explored, hightlighting how the Swazi traditional authority endeavoured to protect its power and the sovereignty of the nation through British protection in 1884. Approximately 15% of the world production of titanium dioxide is mined in South Africa, and over 60% of this is recovered from heavy, mineral-rich Cenozoic Age dune sand deposits on the eastern coastline. As such, the authors conduct a microprobe analysis of 455 rutile grains from these sediments. The role and influence of the wildlife economy in KwaZulu-Natal is explored through a decade-long study of the wildlife sector in South Africa. The concluding study uses bivariate scatterplots and correlations analysis to elucidate the hydrogeochemical controls of salinity in typical circumneutral coalmine groundwater.