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Table of Contents :
The Integrated Development Planning Process’s Impact as a Tool for Increasing Community Participation in South Africa
Daniel Francois Meyer and John Mamokhere7
The South African Municipal Systems Act of 2003 and the 1996 Constitution encourage community-based organisations (CBOs) and communities to actively participate in the municipal planning process. It is significant for CBOs and communities to be engaged in drafting the Integrated Development Plan (hereafter IDP) to guarantee that the municipality considers their expectations and needs in the final IDP document. Thus, this article intends to determine the impact of the IDP process on increasing community participation using the Tzaneen municipal areas under the jurisdiction of GTM as a case study. It is argued that the design and implementation of the IDP process are confronted with many contemporary challenges. To comprehend the challenges, the study has adopted a mixed-method research approach. Using probability and non-probability selection approaches, 410 participants were selected from the Tzaneen municipal areas in South Africa. The data was collected and analysed until saturation was reached. The researchers used an online structured questionnaire and face-to-face semi-structured interviews to collect empirical data and review the existing literature. The study found a continuous lack of community participation in municipal affairs. The service delivery backlog is still challenging despite constitutional mandates and democratic principles. The participants indicated that they are unable to hold municipal officials accountable. Lastly, there needs to be more political will to partake in the IDP process. Based on the above, this study recommends that municipal policies should be influenced by community involvement. The study also recommends that the Greater Tzaneen Municipality's officials and politicians should at all times uphold democratic principles by ensuring active public participation, transparency, and accountable governance.
One of the many impediments to a country's political, social, and economic growth prospects is corruption, and this is particularly true from an African perspective post-colonial era. In recent years, corruption has manifested itself in many ways, forms, and sizes in the South African public sector, particularly post-1994, when the first democratically elected government emerged. Corruption diverts funds and resources meant to benefit the local populace, which makes some people rich and those needing essential delivery of services in turmoil. From a South African perspective, and just like most parts of Africa, corruption has manifested itself to be a stumbling block to South Africa's continuous socio-economic growth prospects, particularly for the majority of blacks who continue to remain marginalised in terms of service delivery mandates from local government. By narrowing this to the government's structures closer to the people, municipalities are mandated to provide essential services to the local people. However, post the apartheid era, many municipalities in South Africa have found themselves in turmoil due to many internal irregularities driven by corruption. Using a qualitative research methodology supplemented by secondary data resources, this article examines the dire effects of corruption at the municipal level and what consequences this has for people at the grassroots level in South Africa. Drawing from the engaged literature, the article finds that corruption is a global phenomenon, particularly in African states. More needs to be done by corruption watchdogs to curb this phenomenon, particularly in South Africa and at the local government level. Notably, individuals occupying top positions in local government must be appointed on merit; there is a need to support anti-corruption watchdogs; independent institutions must be allowed to function without fear; and whistleblowers must be protected.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the few African countries where human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission is still a silent issue. In the context of the DRC, the purpose of this paper was to investigate how HIV is transmitted among inmates within Congolese correctional facilities. It focuses on the ways certain Congolese correctional services’ cultures facilitate the spread of HIV. The paper argues that incarceration settings allow for the importation of pre-incarceration lifestyles and risky behaviours into prisons; hence increasing the risk of HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) transmission among convicts. Methodologically, the paper followed a qualitative approach based mainly on secondary data. A content analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings of the study indicated that prisoners’ pre-incarceration lifestyle supplemented by prison culture and settings engendered HIV high-risk behaviour among inmates in Congo’s prisons. In addition, the paper appealed for the government to pay attention to prison cultures generated by the interaction between prison environments and a quest for a sense of psychological wellbeing inside correctional facilities.
Land regularization has been implemented in Tanzania to promote formal land rights through the issuance of certificates of right of occupancy to land owners in unplanned settlements in peri-urban areas. However, information on challenges in the implementation of land regularization and the extent of issuance of the certificates of right of occupancy (CRO) to land owners in these settlements remains a grey area. A study to explore the challenges of land regularization and the extent of the issuance of certificates of right of occupancy was carried out in two peri-urban areas, Kimara and Buhongwa wards, in the cities of Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, respectively. A total of 441 households were involved in the study. Data were collected through a household questionnaire, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in data analysis. Findings indicate that the major challenges of land regularization were bureaucracy in the issuance of rights of occupancy, high costs in the issuance of formal land rights, and conflicts on the demarcation of land parcels for public use. A significant relationship (P<0.05) between felt challenge and socio-economic and demographic variables (education, age, and ward location) was also observed. The findings further indicate that the issuance of CROs was low and varied depending on location. Kimara Ward in Dar es Salaam City was relatively more disadvantaged than Buhongwa Ward. To mitigate these challenges, researchers recommend devolution of power to the local institutions at the ward and sub-ward level. This can reduce bureaucracy and can capture and contextualize people’s aspirations during early planning processes.
Effective budget controls are crucial for the provision of affordable healthcare at public hospitals. There has been a problem of overspending or underspending budgets in public hospitals. This has negatively impacted the delivery of health services. The study aimed to improve the effectiveness of budget control in public hospitals. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of budget control in public hospitals in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study used quantitative research method. A sample size of 120 participants was drawn from a population of 240 participants. Survey questionnaire was used to collect data from participants in the public hospitals. The results of the study showed that budget control is a management challenge in public hospitals in Limpopo Province. The study recommends that all hospital executives and responsibility managers within the hospital be developed through a work-based learning programme on the effectiveness of budget control in public hospitals.
This conceptual discourse interrogates the contributions and challenges faced by parents in supporting the supplementary feeding programme at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) level in rural Southern Africa. This conceptual paper is a literature review study that relies on secondary data to draw the findings. The research hinges on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Epstein’s theory of overlapping spheres of influence. The study notes that parents play an important role in supporting the programme through activities such as the construction of cooking sheds, providing relish, fetching firewood, cleaning, and serving meals. Factors such as lack of knowledge, financial constraints, lack of cooperation, poor communication, and time constraints hinder their ability to make a sustained and effective contribution to the programme. The study recommends that parents be educated about the benefits of the supplementary feeding programme, empowered with various projects to improve their economic status, and encouraged to contribute to the programme. Another recommendation is that the school should build strong relationships with the corporate world, government, and non-governmental organisations so that they can work with parents to participate fully in the programme.
A growing amount of academic research has focused its attention on the debate around the viability and potential mutual benefits emanating from rural-urban linkages through cultural planning in the development of smart cities. This paper interrogates the linkages and cultural planning in the proposed smart city in Lanseria, north of Johannesburg, in South Africa. The main research questions for the paper are: (1) How did the Greater Lanseria Master Plan (GLMP) in South Africa fail to integrate culture into its planning? (2) How did communities participate in the development of the plan (3) How are smart village and smart city linkages demonstrated in the GMLP? Lastly, (4) What are the benefits of the integration of cultural planning with community participation in the proposed smart village and smart city linkages? A synthetic literature-based critical analysis of planning documents was conducted to critique, reflect, and evaluate the plan. Findings indicate that cultural planning and community development approaches are missing from the master plan. The paper recommends that cultural planning and co-creation community development approaches should influence the smart village–smart city linkages at the very inception of the GMLP in order to obtain sustainable development.
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges can provide students with the knowledge and skills they need for future jobs. The study aimed to determine the mediation effects of total quality management (TQM) dimensions on employee performance and student learning outcomes. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive quantitative design, where the research collected 349 responses from a pool of colleges in Gauteng, South Africa. The results show that training has the largest mediation effect size, with 55.1% of employee performance's effect (total effect) on learning outcomes mediated by training. Knowledge and process management (34.8%) and customer focus (34.6%) also had a high mediation effect; however, no mediation effect was found with employee participation. This study helps the management of TVET colleges identify priority areas when they engage in the journey of TQM. The theoretical implication is that even though all the dimensions of TQM are critical in the organisation, they can be prioritised based on context and the environment where the implementation is taking place.
Worldwide, countries were forced to redirect their resources, national efforts, and attention to alleviating the widespread of the coronavirus. Efforts such as national lockdowns, restrictions on certain goods and services, and the prohibition of public or social gatherings have been among the common measures that most governments have implemented in attempts to deal with this novel disease. Actions by the South African government have been no exception to these measures, and to some extent, the implementation of government actions to curb the spread of the coronavirus has been either politically, religiously, or even economically criticised. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic presents policy implementation with several challenges. This is largely because this was associated with a change in the way that government plans, acts, and responds to societal needs. It is for this reason that this study seeks to explore challenges in the implementation of responses aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The study adopts a qualitative secondary research approach. The research looks at policies in South Africa for dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. Data is gathered from literature studies in scholarly publications, the internet and print media, government records, and survey findings from a variety of institutions. A descriptive qualitative analysis technique is adopted for the purposes of analysis. The current article adopts an integrated analytical framework to present and discuss the findings on policy implementation complexities during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The analytical framework is an integration of the 7-C protocols for policy implementation with the WHO’s guidelines for the government to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The findings of this study revealed that the government’s communication lacked an authoritative voice on the ground; despite the “family meetings” that President Ramaphosa used to address and update the general public on developments about COVID-19. In addition, the study found that the number of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was limited, and to some extent, there has been no clear tool to evaluate their impact.
This empirical study was conducted to assess community participation in the development of the IDP as a management planning tool for effectively improving service delivery in the Greater Taung Local Municipality. A qualitative research method and case study design were used in this study with the objective of obtaining the views and understanding of community members (ward committees) and municipal officials regarding their participation in the Integrated Development Planning of the Greater Taung Local Municipality. Non-probability sampling, such as purposive sampling, structured interviews, and focus group interviews, were utilised to get perceptions from community members (ward committees) as well as the municipal officials of the Greater Taung Local Municipality regarding community participation.
A key finding is that people at the grassroots level have little understanding of how government structures work, making it difficult for them to participate in meaningful and effective ways. Due to a lack of consultation on important municipal activities such as the IDP draft that affect the daily lives of community members, this has resulted in too many service delivery protests in the Greater Taung Local Municipality. We recommend that a management planning tool such as the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) be adopted to improve service delivery in municipalities and conclude that the IDP must be a requirement for successful municipal governance and service delivery as expected.
This article does not defend any corruption or nepotism acts by the actors in the process of state capture but argues that the state capture report and exposure of corruption related to the Gupta family and former President Jacob Zuma were less motivated by arresting corruption. Instead, it was more about monopolisation and competition in State-Owned Entities (SOEs). President Zuma's tenure was marked by the advent of Radical Economic Transformation (RET) policies. The RET policies meant replacing white-owned businesses in the SOEs with historically disadvantaged black entrepreneurs. Hence, the authors argue that the narrative around state capture was exaggerated by mainstream media, and this article explores various events that led to the exaggeration between the Guptas and white monopoly capital in SOEs. The article employs a Marxist perspective of the state to unpack the relationship between government officials and businesses that sought to exaggerate the state capture narrative in South Africa. Three SOEs, namely South African Airways (SAA), Eskom, and the mining industry, are utilised as test cases to showcase the exaggeration by those in competition to monopolise the economy.
The migration of Basotho men in search of employment opportunities in South African diamond and gold mines dates back to the 1800s. The South African mining industry has been the source of employment and livelihood for many Basotho families by remitting incomes for centuries. However, there was a downturn in events starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when many South African mines started to downsize their foreign labour force. This contributed to the loss of remittances that were invested in farming and the maintenance of many rural households in Lesotho. This study was conducted to investigate the post-mine livelihood strategies of former Basotho migrant labourers at Koro-Koro in the Maseru district. The research followed a descriptive research design where primary data was collected from a sample of 50 former Basotho mine workers using snowballing and simple random sampling techniques. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using face-to-face interviews and observation. The collected data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using descriptive statistics, mainly percentages. It is argued in this paper that retrenchment and the loss of jobs by many Basotho men in South African mines were major blows to the livelihoods of many rural households. In addition, Basotho men who worked in South African mines are now confronted with unemployment as well as futile exertions while engaging in alternative income generating activities, both farm and non-farm.
The South African government faces the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequalities. This article focuses on the challenge of poverty. One of the ways in which the government of South Africa seeks to address the challenge of poverty is through the Child Support Grant (CSG) programme that was first implemented in 1998. The Child Support Grant is intended to ensure that the basic needs of the children of a vulnerable group of society are met.
The context is Emalahleni Local Municipality, and the main objective is to investigate the perceptions of caregivers on the utilisation of the Child Support Grant. The study adopted qualitative research which focuses on the issues to be understood by applying qualitative measures. In this regard, qualitative data collection and analysis methods and primary and secondary data were used. The primary data was collected through a survey that focused on the residents of Emalahleni Local Municipality.
Key findings of the study are that the Child Support Grant improves households’ ability to meet basic needs such as food and clothing. In addition, the grants assists families make investments in education, which increases the chances of breaking the cycle of poverty. However, there was some evidence from community members (who are not caregivers) suggesting that there are cases of abuse of Child Support Grant money by some recipients in the community. As a result of this, the researchers suggest that SASSA must employ social workers directly to monitor whether caregivers use the grants for the intended purpose, which is to take care of the needs of beneficiaries. This, however, does not in any way suggest that the Child Support grant is not making a positive impact on recipient households. The article makes a contribution to the body of knowledge by providing empirically backed conclusions on this important social security intervention by the South African government.
The paper seeks to examine the key reasons behind the recent violent community protests in South Africa. It analyses the challenges the political elites would have to navigate in order to address the concerns of the people and the impact such protests would have on peace, stability, and governance on the African continent. Suffice it to note that political and community-based protests have been a common occurrence in South Africa since the advent of democracy in the country in 1994. Though the nomenclature and manifestation of such protests have been a subject of great debate, their frequent reoccurrence is a cause for concern for many in South Africa and, to a greater extent, the continent. The magnitude and scale of the July 2021 protests in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, precipitated by the incarceration of the former president Jacob Zuma, raises key fundamental concerns. First was the spontaneity in the manner in which the riots were undertaken; second was the scale and magnitude of destruction the two provinces experienced. This calls into question whether the protests were planned or genuine concerns arising from the incarceration of a political leader? While the incarceration of the former president was the trigger, there is evidence that the protests were inspired by unmet promises and the limited capacity of the country to deliver on people’s hopes and aspirations. However, Hough (2008), Tsheola (2012), and Nyamnjoh (2018) have argued that the root causes of violent protests in post-apartheid South Africa are not so much the unmet promises to address poverty and unemployment but rather people’s experiences of inequality and relative deprivation. In other words, people are dissatisfied when they compare their own quality of life and their economic and social opportunities with those of better-off communities and households. Fundamentally, therefore, one of the reasons the country has experienced violent protests is not necessarily the fact that the people are poor, but rather that protesters consider themselves poor vis-à-vis better-off communities. Evidently, the paper attempts to clarify some of the key issues political elites need to look out for as they put in place measures to avoid the re-occurrence of such protests and provides challenges the country would have to overcome in order to address people’s grievances. Fundamentally, what lessons can the African continent learn from these protests? What measures should the African Union, together with its member states, adopt in order to ensure that people’s genuine grievances are addressed in a timely and expeditious manner. The paper concludes by suggesting that a careful reassessment of local governance structures in South Africa would have to be contemplated with an emphasis on accountability and strict measures to sanction recalcitrant councilors.
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