African Journal of Public Affairs Volume 9, Number 5 (2017)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/59942

Browse

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17

Front matter, African Journal of Public Affairs, Volume 9, Number 5
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017)
Urban governance and the brown environmental problems in South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Chokoe, R.; Meso, K.K.
This article argues that brown environmental problems have been given scant attention in urban planning and governance in favour of profit-making and industrial development efforts in South Africa, at the expense of public health. Urban South Africa is plagued by mounting brown environmental problems that arose out of industrialisation and urbanisation. As a result, informal economic activities have mushroomed in urban spaces, which are now synonymous with air pollution, waste and squalid settlement environments. Often the informal economic activities are pigeonholed in high capital intensive industries, mining companies, manufacturing institutions as well as processing and heavy metal companies, amongst others. But the ubiquity of informal business establishments around public transit stations, pavement/walkways and adjacent formal businesses, notwithstanding a myriad of bylaws, have contributed significantly towards emissions of toxins, gases, fumes and liquids into the surroundings with deleterious repercussions on public health. The informal economy is characterised by congestion, street vending and littering, illegal disposal of contaminated liquids and refuse on pavements and sidewalks as well as a series of air polluting activities, which are seemingly ungovernable. This article explores various brown environmental problems that affect urban South Africa in order to highlight the deleterious consequences of lax in urban governance.
Ethics, accountability and democracy as pillars of good governance : case of South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Koenane, M.L.; Mangena, F.
In postcolonial and post-apartheid contemporary Africa, ethics, accountability and democracy are usually divorced. This article argues that the three are inseparable; and, where they are divorced, the consequences can be catastrophic. It is further argued that democracy constitutes more than just voting. It is also about holding the government accountable for their actions. This is possible if citizens exercise their rights as well as impose principles that promote and strengthen democracy. For early Greek philosophers, citizenship had a moral and political dimension; namely: participation in public affairs, which is also referred to as civic virtue. The article argues that without democratic principles, there can be no democracy. For this reason, it is reasonable for citizens to expect professional behaviour from public officials, especially the President and his cabinet ministers. For this to happen, there is need to establish an ethical foundation or moral framework in government, which goes beyond ethical codes of conduct.
Governing the ungovernable : donor agencies and the politics of development in Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Makuwira, Jonathan
The failure of development in Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, since the beginning of the post-independence era, has resulted in intense discourse both in academia and in the public domains. The blame game between the so-called “developing countries” and their donor counterparts has, over the past six decades, been an area of intense analysis due to the conditions often imposed by donor agencies on their recipients. The unequal relationship between the recipient and the donor has influenced the success and/or failure of donor-funded development programs. This article is theory-based; and, it examines the skewed relationship between sub-Saharan African governments and international donor agencies and its influence on success and/or failures of such interventions. Data was gathered using a systematic review of the literature with specific focus on themes related to donor agencies and their relationship with Africa. The analysis was thematic; isolating key issues relevant to the topic. The article argues that states in sub-Saharan Africa should manage and govern the seemingly ungovernable donor agencies. Importantly, politicisation of foreign development assistance for Africa should be eliminated through approaches that develop solid resource-base and increased African state capacity manage and govern own affairs with minimal, if any, external influence of the stultifying donor agencies.
Political-economy of land governance in a democratic South Africa : private interests vis-à-vis rural communities in tribal settlements
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Mamabolo, M.A.; Tsheola, J.P.
Under the nuance environment of a shift from government to governance, the liberationist-democratic dispensation together with the constitutional guarantees of property ownership meant that multiple actors, inclusive of private commercial interests, would partake in the land reform processes. As a result, large tracks of land that previously produced crops for food were turned into nature reserves in order to escape the anticipated reforms as part of the protected areas under the United Nations conventions, thereby undermining the possibility of rural communities in tribal settlements accessing productive arable lands. In essence, there is evidence that the construct of governance under South Africa’s democratic experimentation is steeply infused with the virtues of private rather than public ownership as well as contestations of efficacy at the expense of public good of formerly disadvantaged tribal settlement communities. To that extent, the dearth of governance of communal land is central to the lapse of its productivity relative to that contracted to private commercial interests. This article corroborates the notion that the broader political-economy of governance is inherently biased against poor communities at the local scale of rural tribal settlements. The states experimenting with democratic dispensation, following years of colonialism and apartheid such as South Africa, have inevitably appeared to collude in establishing liberal constitutional and institutional frameworks that favour the private interests at the expense of the general citizenry. This article argues, instead, that a democratic South Africa’s land reform institutional frameworks together with the liberationist constitutional governance have accentuated, let alone papering over, the longstanding politicale-conomy inequities that were founded of racial spatialisation.
Conceptual framework for subnational citizen-based participatory democracy and empowerment : case of Vhembe District Municipality
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Masiapato, N.M.; Wotela, Kambidima
The apartheid government had consciously entrenched a governance system in which local communities did not have a voice in their local development agenda. During the apartheid era, the national government held command of local authorities on all matters of developmental initiatives. This was the case with all areas inhabited by Blacks while those inhabited by Whites were allowed some degree of self-governance. Post–1994, as outlined in the 1998 White Paper on Local Government, the African National Congress government undertook to correct the apartheid governance discrepancies. As a result, Parliament enacted pieces of legislation and various regulatory frameworks to foster community participation in local development initiatives. Subsequent transformation has arguably registered some success in urban areas, amidst persistent failures in rural areas. Reasons for these variable spatial effects range from literacy issues among community members to capacity challenges of the elected municipal councils. This is exacerbated by persistent migration of the young and educated citizens to urban areas. This article assesses and, thereafter, formulates a subnational citizen-based participatory and empowerment model that allows for vulnerable communities to participate in their local development initiatives. Additionally, it derives a conceptual framework for assessing subnational citizen-based participatory and empowerment arrangements.
The incompatibility of traditional leadership and democratic experimentation in South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Mathonsi, N.; Sithole, Sello
After a plethora of legislative and policy frameworks have been passed to integrate traditional leadership system into the modern liberal democratic system in South Africa, incompatibilities of the two became increasingly evident, especially in respect of governance. The most protracted challenges of the incompatible governance systems are located in the local government sphere, especially in provinces that are predominantly rural with tribal settlements. Traditional leadership system has been in existence in African communities before imperial and colonial rule, and it had served good purposes for the wellbeing of citizens. Whilst it continued during imperialism and colonialism, it gradually took a form that principally benefited the alien Western ideology. With the attainment of democracy in South Africa, the traditional leadership system was further undermined through successive democratic regimes, albeit there was no overt state intention to demoralise, frustrate and discriminate against traditional leadership. But their exclusion from the mainstream of governance as well as encroachment into their selections and inauguration was palatable. Currently, the role and function of traditional leaders appear to be blurred in the day-to-day activities of municipalities, resulting in undue contestations of powers, jurisdiction and responsibility in local government. This article attempts to examine the reasons underlying incompatibility between the modern democratic system and the traditional leadership, amidst nationally-acclaimed legislative and policy framework provisions for their synergy. The article argues that harmonisation of the two would serve to enhance prospects of achieving good governance for service delivery tribal ruralities in South Africa.
Is decentralisation in Botswana a democratic fallacy?
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Mooketsane, K.; Bodilenyane, K.; Motshekgwa, B.
The article demonstrates that decentralisation has been eulogised as a participatory means to development, which enhances good governance and democracy. Developing countries have embarked on various public sector management reforms in an effort to improve public service delivery. These reforms entail among other things redefining the role of the state, hence a shift from a focus on government to governance as nations strive towards lean, decentralised and democratic states. Governments have been urged to decentralise in order to improve service delivery and efficiency. Decentralisation has been eulogised as a participatory means to development, enhancing good governance and democracy. Botswana has been exemplary in public service management; the country has continuously embarked on and successfully implemented various public sector reforms in an effort to improve its public administration. Amid the implementation of decentralisation [as espoused by developing countries] the government of Botswana in 2009 made a decision to transfer the management of clinics and primary hospitals together with the related personnel from local government to central government. Drawing from content-based examination of government’s decisions on centralisation of primary health services and rural water supplies, using theories and concepts of decentralisation, the article shows that the discourse of centralisation vis-à-vis decentralisation enhancing participatory democratic governance and service delivery efficacy, or lack thereof, remains an unresolved story for developing countries.
The effect of governance on clean audits in South African municipalities
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Motubatse, Kgobalale Nebbel; Ngwakwe, Collins C.; Sebola, M.P.
This article examines the effect of governance on the degree to which clean audits have been achieved in South African municipalities. Its pertinence lies in the context of two endemic public management performance weaknesses, namely, the elusive target set by the COGTA and Auditor-General to achieve clean audits in all South African municipalities by 2014, and the ubiquitous service delivery failures in South African municipalities. These failures are now widespread and apparently negates the national goal of an inclusive socioeconomic development process for the country. Thus, the article makes a contribution, by identifying cost-effective measures for improved governance (and subsequent improved audit outcomes), by addressing the seeming scarcity of empirical investigation into the effect of governance on the achievement of clean audits. The methodological approach employs a panel data study of audit performance of all municipalities in South Africa hence, a quantitative approach – the panel data regression analysis, was used to analyse the data The data comprises the Auditor- General of South Africa’s (AGSA) consolidated annual municipal reports for the financial years 2009/10 to 2013/14 for the country’s nine provinces. The data was retrieved from the AGSA’s archives of consolidated municipal audit reports. A panel data analysis gave a total of 45 observations which were subjected to regression analysis. The statistical findings show that quality of governance significantly affects the achievement of a clean audit at a significance value of P < 0.02. This finding suggests that a declining effectiveness in governance may well have played the key role in derailing the public sector’s intended journey to universal clean audits by 2014. In its conclusion this article recognises the need to evaluate the specific effectiveness of governance relative to the impact of the other variables that were understood to affect clean audit, namely financial management and leadership. Furthermore, this article identifies the major variables within governance that underlie and drive its key position, in the hope of guiding the AGSA in directing resources most effectively.
Governance of corporate social responsibility and return on assets in the South African mining firms
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Mukwarami, S.; Nyirenda, Gibson; Fakoya, M.B.
Governance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains a permanent subject in the sustainability development debates despite its long history. This article examines issues of governance by establishing the relationship between CSR and return on assets (ROA) of Johannesburg Security Exchange (JSE) listed mining firms. The purpose of focusing on mining firms is necessitated by the need to address socioeconomic ills which are phenomenal within the South Africa’s mining communities. Hence, the objective of this article is to investigate the interactions in the CSR, based on employees and black suppliers. The secondary data on CSR and ROA for the years 2010–2014 were collected from the integrated reports of purposively sampled 10 mining firms listed on JSE (SRI) Index. The case study research strategy was adopted from which data was collected and gathered using content analysis. The CSR aggregates such as Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) procurement and skill and training expenditure are used as independent variables while ROA is used as a dependent variable. The multiple regression statistics are used to test the relationship, which is the manifestation of the underlying governance. The findings reveal that CSR has a negative impact on ROA. However, after the incorporation of the number of employees as a control variable, the results show that there is a positive relationship between CSR and ROA. In this way, the study confirms that tenets of good corporate governance are satisfied in the relationship of CSR and ROA in the selected mining firms, notwithstanding the continued poverty among mining communities.
Colonial legacies and the decolonisation discourse in post-apartheid South Africa : a reflective analysis of student activism in Higher Education
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Muswede, T.
This article presents a wide range of factors that arguably underwrite South Africa’s higher education institutions’ governance crisis. It highlights overcrowding, infrastructure deficiencies in the form of inadequate accommodation, shortfalls in knowledge resources such as libraries as well as Information and Communication Technology, inequitable access, racial inequality and weak funding mechanisms as the primary causes of violent student protests. Since 1994 attempts towards transformation of the South African education system within the developmental state approach continued under complex socio-economic, political and legal contexts. In spite of the ambitious new policy framework that espouses progressive quality education for all citizens, evidence shows that the state has demonstrated its limitations in mobilising requisite operational resources and creating the conducive settings to fulfil this mandate in higher education. Currently, universities are experiencing violent and disruptive student protests, reminiscent of the predemocratic student uprisings of the 1970s and 1980s. This trend has the potential to erode institutional viability due to vandalism and related forms of insurgencies in the affected universities. Elitist commentaries have highlighted the contradistinction of government’s grand transformational intentions against the material conditions that obtain at the various campuses in South African universities. This article argues that, while there could be several major limitations towards effective transformation, the absence of a comprehensive and sustainable systems-level policy framework is paramount. This has led to piece-meal isolationist implementation of institutional strategic initiatives that, in most instances, have continued to harbour remnants of an inequitable apartheid education system. The article concedes that recurrent collapsed stakeholder negotiations have legitimised untenable circumstances of heavy-handedness on the part of security agents and student violence. Notwithstanding its starting point, it turns to corroborate the notion of stakeholder mandates and façade transformation as the primary governance conundrums for South Africa’s higher education institutions.
Internal controls, governance and audit outcomes : case of a South African municipality
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Ncgobo, P.; Malefane, S.R.
The inextricable interdependence of internal and external environments of public institutions implies that institutional decisions that are taken by managers have impacts on governance in both directions. This article holds that internal controls enforce transparency and accountability, adherence to legislative requirements, efficiency and effectiveness as well as responsiveness to the needs of beneficiaries. From a literature review perspective, the article argues that research on internal controls enriches the understanding of governance requirements and the ability to distinguish between good and bad. The article is premised on public financial accountability as an area of interest in the discipline of Public Administration; and, it reveals how the assessment of internal controls could influence governance and audit outcomes, using the Roodepoort City Theatre (RCT), trading as Joburg Promusica, case. It examines the general reports of audit outcomes, annual reports and internal audit function reports of the Roodepoort City Theatre (RCT), to corroborate the primary assumption of external control enforcement of good governance.
Complexities of governance formality and informality for developing countries : editorial perspective
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Sebola, M.P.
The shift from government to governance, which was expected to be inclusionary and empowering to multiple actors, has not been unproblematic, especially for developing countries that have experimented with liberationist democratisation (Givens 2013; Croucamp & Malan 2016). Africa, in general, and South Africa, in particular, have not been exceptions to the norm, notwithstanding the latter’s international acclaim for its democratic dispensation. In recent years, South Africa has been afflicted with seemingly intractable governance problems wherein informal processes have evidently trumped formal constitutional and institutional frameworks. To this extent, perceptions of the liberationist-democratic experiment being exploited to legitimise distributive regimes and patronage through, among other modes, state capture have become stronger. To this extent, the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), is now openly acknowledging governance challenges, which require indepth insight beyond the generalised rhetoric of good vis-à-vis bad. To this extent, this Issue of the Journal delves into the complexities of governance to uncover the associations of the shift from government with the overcompensation of formal constitutional and institutional frameworks with the informalised networks that legitimise a diversity of societal ills such as corruption, governing party ill-discipline and so on. Governance structures, systems and strategies are underwritten by philosophical tenets, therefore raising theoretical and pragmatic questions about domestic and foreign policies of nations (Buscher & Dietz 2005; Givens 2013; Jinping 2014; Croucamp & Malan 2016). Such questioning cannot be framed outside the parameters of the relationships of the party, state and society. China has, for example, sought to “modernise the national governance system” the Chinese way (Jinping 2014); therefore, South Africa’s ongoing crises of governance could as well be traced back to the unfettered endeavour to emulate the Western philosophies without couching them with Africanism or Africanist characteristics. According to Buscher & Dietz (2005:5), decisional and regulatory powers have traditionally been attributed to the state; and, the shift from government to governance implies that the majority of subjects of traditional authorities had to re-orientate themselves overnight as they were then expected to be actors in publicly contested power relations. Discursive power, which has traditionally resided with the state, has shifted significantly to non-state actors with the transition from government to governance in the contexts of globalism and localism. To this extent, Strange’s (1996 cited in Buscher & Dietz 2005:6) concept of hollow state has tended to gain traction in Africa as most states failed to manage their obligations. As a result, non-state actors, especially those that command resources, have increasingly developed “their own sets of rules or standards to fill ‘institutional voids’ where rules to guide behaviour are needed but not provided by the state” (Arts 2003 cited in Buscher & Dietz 2005:6). Generally, countries that trotted with democratic experimentation after long periods of liberationist struggles have commonly exploited the later logic to create a bond between the governing party and state in ways that serve distributive regimes and patronage on behalf of the elites and private financial interests. Notwithstanding South Africa’s democratisation, questions need to be asked: Has a democratic South Africa degenerated into a hollow state? This question does not deserve simplistic responses; instead, they entail convoluted yet rigorous analyses because insinuations of state capture, corruption of the elite, party and state patronage cannot be taken for granted.
Governance of South Africa’s Higher Learning Institutions : complexities of internal stakeholder engagement in universities
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Sebola, M.P.
This article argues that governance of South Africa’s higher learning institutions through stakeholder engagement is a complex phenomenon, rendered protracted by the wide-ranging diversity of interests and, more often than not, contradictory mandates of the multiple actors. Institutional systems for the management of the complex interactionism of the multiplicity of actors have largely been overcompensated by informal processes that reward patronage and partisanship at the expense of good governance. Modern governance systems require that the chain of management operation in organisations be based on stakeholder engagement. These stakeholders are by virtue of their existence in organisations required to work together in order to avoid conflicts which may emanate from silo operations. The article uses literature to argue that the different mandates held by individual stakeholders in institutions of higher learning in South Africa make the attainment of good governance intractable. This article concludes that only a common ground of mandate that can be established for various stakeholders can ensure successful governance through inclusive stakeholder engagement in institutions of higher learning in South Africa.
Governance of the institutional leadership and student organisation interfaces in South Africa’s Higher Education Institutions
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Sibiya, H.
This article focuses on the governance of the interface of student organisations with public higher education institutions in South Africa. It appraises relations between institutional leaders and student organisations, given the current turmoil in the institutions of higher education in South Africa. Institutions are products of mankind and their operations and evolution tend to portray the underlying human personalities and personal traits of those who hold power in key stakeholder positions. Higher education institutions have various stakeholders who are required to pursue common vision, mission and goals. Legislatively, stakeholders should ensure that they promote co-operative governance; however, the institutional interfaces of the leadership and student organisations in higher education institutions are riddled with protracted conflicts. The article asserts that shoddy transformation is stifling good governance of relations between leadership structures of higher education institutions in South Africa. As a result of position-making and the making of positions, which are broader characters of the South African society, albeit democratic, compromises are hard to establish in circumstances wherein stakeholders unidimensionally pursue rigid mandates driven by powerful interest groups.
Political education for good governance in South Africa’s local government and communities
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Thebe, Thapelo Phillip
The political landscape within the South African government has changed with the inception of democracy in 1994, affecting institutional arrangements such as the creation of the third sphere of government, denoted municipality. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 stipulates that a municipality must strive, within its financial and administrative capacity, to provide democratic and accountable government to local communities. Years after implementation of this sphere of governance, municipal communities continue to be afflicted by seemingly intractable problems and challenges. This article examines political education in the context of the notion of good governance, in order to situate certain aspects related to experienced social reality associated with practical public service protests, maladministration, corruption and fraud (unethical conduct). There is no insinuation that all challenges and problems of local communities in South Africa derive from the dearth of political education. But note has to be made that good governance is associated with the governing party’s disciplined knowledge and understanding of the societal values of responsiveness, accountability, professionalism and ethical conduct. The article acknowledges that political deployment of cadres, based on loyalty and patronage alone, reflects adversely on governing party discipline, which is itself a function of political education. The political deployment of cadres has evidently been interconnected to laxity in service delivery as a result of unused funds, lack of capacity, improper planning and absence of community participation. The article points to a need for critical rethinking of cadre deployment, which could be configured for good governance through political education that instills governing party discipline.
Governance of the party, state and society triad in a democratic South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Tsheola, J.P.
This article asserts that the concept of governance is inherently complex, and its practice elusive, for both developing and developed countries alike. Whereas democratisation experiments enforced a shift from government to governance due to recognition of the multiplicity of actors, the move was simultaneously undergirded by configuration of power relations and authority that legitimised informalisation. The latter meant that formal constitutional and statutory institutional frameworks of governance would be overcompensated by complex informal networks that shaped the party-state-society interactionism in favour of distributive regimes and patronage. For former colonies that experienced extended periods of liberation struggles, democratisation and liberationist-democratic experimentation were exploited to legitimise infusion of informal governance for the governing party, state and society triad in favour of the elite and private commercial interests. A democratic South Africa involves a society that is dominated by self-entitlement psychology wherein actors have astronomically secured exponential regulatory, decisional and discursive powers over the state itself, with the result that the claims of state capture have come to dominate headlines over twenty years after democratisation. This article concludes that the current public contestations in a democratic South Africa about President Zuma, Constitutional Court Ruling on the Public Protector’s Nkandla findings, the recklessness of the resources-squandering State-owned Enterprises, the executive’s encroachment into and abuse of apparatus of state for political ends, ill-discipline in the governing party and so on, are symptomatic of a steeply informalised governance that operates through complex networks, largely beyond the reproach of formal constitutional and statutory institutional frameworks.

Browse

Recent Submissions