African Journal of Public Affairs Volume 9, Number 6 (2017)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/61045

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Monitoring legislative oversight and accountability for sector based transformation in South Africa : a petroleum downstream perspective
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017-03) Ile, I.U.; Makiva, M.
Parliamentary Portfolio Committees are engine rooms in legislatures, as their key role includes ensuring policy objectives are met through effective implementation by the executive branch and State owned Enterprises (SoEs), quality oversight and enforced accountability. In South Africa, transformation targeted at Historically Disadvantaged South Africans (HDSA) has been a government mandate since the dawn of democracy in 1994, given the dispossession and disempowerment that disadvantaged South Africans suffered under the Apartheid government. In this article, an empirical investigation to evaluate effectiveness of legislative oversight and accountability towards ensuring transformation targeted at HDSAs in the petroleum downstream industry is conducted. The research relied on qualitativetriangulation research paradigm; gathering information through observations, document analysis and interviews with relevant committees. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy (PPCE), which oversees the petroleum industry, among other sectors, was the major focus of the investigation. The PPCE conduct numerous activities such as ‘questioning, committee hearings, legislation processing, and site visits’ in order to ensure that government departments and relevant SoEs are up to date on implementation of policy. From these activities, researchers analysed the quality and focus of ‘questioning’ conducted by parliamentarians in the period 2009 to 2014. Research revealed that PPCE questions for instance were insufficiently linked to HDSA transformation in the petroleum industry and for which oversight is sought.
Front matter, African Journal of Public Affairs, Volume 9, Number 6
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017)
Moving towards Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 : ethical considerations for public service M&E practitioners
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Kimaro, Josephine Rogate; Fourie, D.J. (David Johannes)
In 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, listing the required Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The African Union endorsed the 2063 Agenda, the continent’s shared strategic framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development. The public service in Africa, as globally, is under pressure to produce and show outcomes as a measure of government’s effectiveness in meeting these goals. Genuine change requires critical self-reflection. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of government performance is essential to document and report on performance, promote learning and improvement. M&E is a mechanism to assess and analyse pre-determined levels of performance, and to report progress on the adoption of performance information. The National Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (NMES) contribute to the establishment of a continuous improvement culture in service delivery and feed information into SDG and Agenda 2063 implementation reports. M&E is an effective public administration tool to plan, coordinate, document and share results effectively and timeously, as translated into ministerial/departmental, and sectional units of project M&E systems and plans. The article argues that the capacity of public service human resources is key in the M&E function and agenda. Ethics in M&E processes enhance M&E systems to underpin national priorities and collect information that feeds into M&E of global strategies such as SDGs and Agenda 2063.
Communication in the South African public participation process : the effectiveness of communication tools
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Sebola, M.P.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the importance and the effectiveness of communication tools used by the legislatures in the South African public participation process. Public participation is one of the cornerstones of democracy in modern governments which if well cherished may satisfy the needs of the majority of the citizens and gives them pride as contributors to adopted policy decisions. People’s voices are important in decisions that are taken by the government on their behalf. The people and access to information about public participation is not as easy as it sound in the public administration environment. This article therefore uses literature approach in order to argue that communication in the public participation process would not improve policy decision making in South Africa unless effective communication tools are adopted. This article concludes that improved effective communication approach to the citizens of the country can assist the communities to participate in policy decision-making in a manner that is effective.
The role of access to information in enabling transparency and public participation in governance : a case study of access to policy consultation records in South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Marais, D.L.; Quayle, M.
The operationalisation of good governance principles such as transparency and public participation depends largely on the degree of access that citizens have to government information. This article is based on the notion that citizens should be informed about what government is or does (transparency) and provided with sufficient opportunities to influence this (public participation). Both of these depend on the provision of reliable information before, during and after policy consultation. The article explores how transparency may be operationalised through access to information and how this is implemented in South Africa through the Promotion of Access to Information Act. It then focuses on policy consultation as a mechanism for government transparency that can only function adequately if the public has access to information concerning both the policy and the consultation
Does democracy enhance economic growth? The case of Anglophone West Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Owusu-Sekyere, Emmanuel; Jonas, S.
This article investigates the relationship between democracy and economic growth in five Anglophone West African countries using annual data from 1970 to 2014 and dynamic panel data estimation techniques which control for endogeneity, heteroscedasticity and spatial effects. The findings for the full sample estimation show a negative relationship between democracy and economic growth, however country specific differences apply. Consistent with the sceptical view we conclude that several other factors influence the ability of countries to grow, besides which political regime is in place. These factors among others are capital investments, human capital development, a productive labour force and technological progress.
Oversight mechanisms in local government : a case of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Kraai, Sonia; Holtzhausen, Natasja; Malan, Lianne Priscilla
This article aims to enhance the understanding of the separation of powers governance framework in local government. The key objective of this article is to highlight how the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality established legislative mechanisms to foster greater oversight and separation of powers within their governance structures. It demonstrates that the relevance of the available mechanisms in current legislation can lead to the practical separation of executive and legislative powers as well as sound oversight within the municipality. The article acknowledges the conflation of executive and legislative functions in the municipal council as stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 section 151(2) which resulted in a lack of clarity of the roles of office bearers including an oversight deficiency. The exploration establishes that the use of mechanisms stipulated by the current legislation can enhance accountability and oversight to ensure checks and balances in the municipality. The article illustrates the importance of the section 79 committees as an oversight mechanism (established in respect of Section 43 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 of the municipal council in relation to the separation of powers governance framework. The separation of powers governance model was utilised to obviate the concentration of abundant supremacy of the executive.
Measuring corruption risk in the South African public service : an institutional analysis
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Naidoo, N.
Corruption features prominently in assessments of the governance, performance and capacity of South Africa’s public service. However, accounts of corruption too often fail to offer systematic appraisals of its occurrence within the diverse institutional makeup of the public service. This article seeks to address this gap by investigating the relationship between the level and type of corruption, and the institutional characteristics of government departments. Based on an original dataset which assembles published data on financial misconduct, staffing and budgetary information, the article examines whether the institutional makeup of national departments render some more susceptible to corruption than others. The findings highlight the multidimensional nature of corruption, indicating that departmental risk should not simply be judged on its cumulative or aggregate effect: how much corruption do departments sustain, but incorporate the proportional effect of corruption: how much does it matter? Indicators such as overall staff size, ratio of supervisory to non-supervisory staff and functional orientation are necessary but insufficient indicators of corruption risk, whilst budget size appears to have little bearing on increased risk; although there is more, though not unequivocal, reason to be concerned about departments with a higher percentage of their budgets allocated to goods and services spending.
Normative model to alleviate corruption : a synoptic case study of South Africa
(African Consortium of Public Administration, 2017) Majila, T.; Taylor, J.D.; Raga, K.
Curbing corruption has become a key priority for a number of countries and innovative initiatives have been taken towards achieving this goal. Such initiatives have increased through the inauguration of specific anti-corruption institutions, watchdog organisations and anti-corruption legislation. These agencies and laws are required to closely monitor public ethics and they attempt to achieve levels of transparency, especially with regard to public sector decision-making. The European Commission emphatically states that the overall objective of these efforts is, inter alia, to contribute to the prevention and control of corruption so that it no longer undermines the confidence of the public in the political and judicial system, democracy, the rule of law, and economic and social development. Comprehensive anti-corruption legislation and the implementation thereof are necessary to advance the rule of law and prevent corruption. Anti-corruption agencies are regarded as part of a number of strategies that can be utilised to reduce corruption in a government. Numerous countries such as Hong Kong, India and Singapore have embarked on various anti-corruption initiatives and perceive these agencies as an integral part of these initiatives. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive literary review of anti-corruption agencies in Hong Kong, New South Wales and South Africa and to recommend a suitable normative model for the Republic of South Africa based on the findings of the review.

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