scholarly journals Re-engineering imperatives to enhance the effectiveness of municipal public accounts committees in South African municipalities

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malefetsane A. Mofolo ◽  
Vuyo Adonis
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Influences

Background: After 26 years into democracy and 20 years of the new local government operations, the state of the majority of municipalities in South Africa still leaves much to be desired, as they are plagued with maleficence. What is concerning is that these negative tendencies that are troubling local government occur even under the watchful eye of the municipal public accounts committees (MPACs).Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the composition and the role of MPACs, which have experienced a number of challenges since they were introduced in response to the widely held perception of the culture of lack of accountability in South African municipalities.Methods: This article is theoretical in nature, and it draws its arguments from secondary data in order to understand the composition and the role of MPACs, including its challenges.Results: This study regards the composition of the MPAC as lacking the necessary vigour to be efficient and effective in executing its duties, particularly when considering the challenges and political influences that it tends to face in its operations.Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a need for re-engineering of the composition and the role of the MPAC in order to ensure that it executes its functions efficiently and effectively. Consequently, the study recommends three cardinal pillars that must be given attention in re-engineering the MPAC: policy, authority and power.

scholarly journals “Walking the tightrope”: the funding of South African NGOs and the governance of community development

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Natascha Mueller-Hirth
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Developments

This chapter examines the role of intermediary NGOs in community development in post-apartheid South Africa, specifically exploring how these organisations have been shaped by changing funding modalities. It first summarises the socio-historical developments that have enabled NGOs to become significant actors in community development. It then examines partnerships as a specific neoliberal mode of funding that has shaped the role of NGOs in community development. It is argued that partnerships provide a context within which shared values, practices, and techniques appropriate to particular, often neoliberal, forms of community development can be developed in NGOs. Partnerships link intermediary NGOs with corporations, the state, and communities, and enable claims of legitimacy, build consensus through homogenisation, and necessitate particular auditing techniques and capabilities.

Community Participation in the South African Local Government Dispensation: A Public Administration Scholastic Misnomer

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntwanano Mathebula
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
South African ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
The South

The interpretation, application and understanding of community participation in the South African local government discourse in particular, is ambiguous, thus, creating a more simplistic and superficial meaning for operationalization. This paper seeks to challenge the notion that community participation is a substitute in its ontological and epistemological form and connotation for public participation. Many scholars in public administration have jumped on the bandwagon of dispensation, thus creating a misnomer in relation to a distinct nature of community participation and public participation which clearly undermines the authenticity of conception within the discipline and scholarship in general. Using a variety of qualitative secondary data collection and analytical techniques, this paper interrogates the misnomer in public administration scholarship in relation to the use andapplication of community participation specifically in local government. To successfully demonstrate this misnomer regarding the use, application and understanding of the concepts and their impact on scholarship, five selected articles on community participation and five others on public participation on local government published in the Journal of Public Administration (JOPA) were reviewed. The paper therefore concludes that the influential role of public administration as a scientific discipline is to forge relations with public administration as a practice for the purposes of conceptualizing and operationalising concepts and terminologies. This will ensure conciseness and bypass the contradictions which have potency of denting both scholarship and practice.

scholarly journals The impact of corruption on service delivery: a topical matter in the South African Municipalities

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabeba SJ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
South African ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The South ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

One of the topical challenges facing South African municipalities recently is corruption. From time-to-time citizens learn about and witness the corrupt practices of public officials in the Local Government sphere. Arguably, the phenomenon of corruption has both direct and indirect impact on service delivery with specific focus to municipalities. Section 152(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) states that the Local Government sphere has the mandate to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. Subsequently, some of the communities across the country still wish to have access to basic services namely: water, electricity, community halls and proper tar roads to name a few. As a result, at times it seems impossible for municipalities to smoothly render such services due to corrupt practices emanating in the South African Local Government sphere. This article aimed to explore the impact of corruption on service delivery in the South African municipalities. The article fully relied on secondary data as it collects information from newspapers, books, journal articles, conference proceedings, officials report and academic dissertations. In pursuit of all this, Afrocentricity: a theory of social change has been placed in context with a view that the needs of the society should be placed at the center of the local government sphere. To be specific, these needs are but not limited to water and electricity. Looking at the findings of the study, indeed literature can confirm that corruptions have negative impact on the ability of the municipalities in South Africa to provide basic services. Because the interests of the public are competing with those of the municipal officials. Therefore, at the end of the day service delivery is compromised due unlawful practices.

scholarly journals A man's role as a head, a burden or a blessing? An exploration of the African and Christian perspectives on the conventional role of a male person

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rev. Jacob Mokhutso
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
High Unemployment Rate ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
First Time

In 2020, during a strict lockdown in South Africa, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country experienced an increase in gender-based violence (hereafter, GBV) cases perpetrated by men. Similar incidents occurred in August 2021, declared a women’s month in South Africa, as a tribute to the over 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 to protest against the extension of pass laws. Many scholars have tried to make sense of this, giving rise to diverse views about the causes of this phenomenon. Other scholars argue that men behave in this manner because of the high unemployment rate, as many businesses are struggling, due to a loss of revenue, as a result of COVID-19, and the government’s lockdown measures. Other perspectives from different quarters indicate that GBV is due to stress and many other mental conditions, as a South African dwindling economy has impacted on families and caused losses of jobs and businesses closing. This is not the first time that the country has experienced these high cases of GBV. Over the years, men have and continue to commit heinous crimes and abuse each other, as well as women and children. This raises a question: Is this violence not a reaction by men to their role as heads of families and their socialisation by the African culture and Christian religion that teaches men to be heads of their households? Secondary data methods were applied in this research. The research found that men are under enormous pressure to meet society’s expectations of them. That pressure has turned them into monsters who are not coping and instead kill themselves, their loved ones, or resort to violence.

General Particulars Regarding the Conflict of Interest

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
Aurelia Teodora Drăghici
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
National Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Changing Role

SummaryTheme conflicts of interest is one of the major reasons for concern local government, regional and central administrative and criminal legal implications aiming to uphold the integrity and decisions objectively. Also, most obviously, conflicts of interest occur at the national level where political stakes are usually highest, one of the determining factors of this segment being the changing role of the state itself, which creates opportunities for individual gain through its transformations.

ROLE OF LIBRARIANS IN TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY IN ZIMBABWEAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Information Skills ◽  
The University

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.

The Prophetic Voice of the Church in a Democratic South Africa – A Theological Reflection

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lufuluvhi Maria Mudimeli
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Black Liberation Theology ◽  
Prophetic Voice ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

This article is a reflection on the role and contribution of the church in a democratic South Africa. The involvement of the church in the struggle against apartheid is revisited briefly. The church has played a pivotal and prominent role in bringing about democracy by being a prophetic voice that could not be silenced even in the face of death. It is in this time of democracy when real transformation is needed to take its course in a realistic way, where the presence of the church has probably been latent and where it has assumed an observer status. A look is taken at the dilemmas facing the church. The church should not be bound and taken captive by any form of loyalty to any political organisation at the expense of the poor and the voiceless. A need for cooperation and partnership between the church and the state is crucial at this time. This paper strives to address the role of the church as a prophetic voice in a democratic South Africa. Radical economic transformation, inequality, corruption, and moral decadence—all these challenges hold the potential to thwart our young democracy and its ideals. Black liberation theology concepts are employed to explore how the church can become prophetically relevant in democracy. Suggestions are made about how the church and the state can best form partnerships. In avoiding taking only a critical stance, the church could fulfil its mandate “in season and out of season” and continue to be a prophetic voice on behalf of ordinary South Africans.

Notary’s Responsibility in Making of Deed Due to Land Acquisition Containing Criminal Corruption

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Yogi Maron ◽  
Ismansyah Ismansyah ◽  
Azmi Fendri
Keyword(s):  
Legal Theory ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
District Court ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Prison Sentence ◽  
Ethics Code

<p align="center"> </p><p><em>As happened to the Notary Eli SatriaPilo, S.H, Mkn, who was appointed as the Notary who made the Deed of Relinquishment of Land Rights in the Land Acquisition activities for the Construction of Campus III of the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Padang which was located in Sungai Bangek District, Padang</em><em> </em><em>in 2010. The method used was descriptive, in which describing the applicable legislation associated with legal theory in the facts and realities about the Notary’s Responsibility in Making Deed of Land Acquisition for the construction of Campus III of IAIN Padang in Sungai</em><em> </em><em>Bangek. This study used a Normative Juridical approach, in which researching by using and processing secondary data or literature related to the</em><em> </em><em>study. The data collected were in the form of primary data obtained from the District Court of Padang, secondary data obtained from secondary legal materials and primary legal materials. Based on the study, it was found that the role of Notary Eli</em><em> </em><em>Satria</em><em> </em><em>Pilo, in the land acquisition of campus III IAIN was proven to have misused the authority resulting in violation of the Notary Ethics Code and was responsible for accepting termination disrespectfully. Furthermore, he was also shown to be committing a Criminal Corruption made based on the Deed of Relinquishment of Land Rights in the land acquisition for the construction of Campus III of IAIN Padang, so that the State incurred losses of Rp. 1</em><em>.</em><em>946</em><em>.</em><em>701</em><em>.</em><em>050 (one billion nine hundred forty-six million seven hundred one thousand and fifty rupiahs). And he was responsible for receiving and carrying out the sentence that had been handed down by the District Court of Padang, a prison sentence of 4 (four) years, and paying a fine of Rp. 200</em><em>.</em><em>000</em><em>.</em><em>000 (two hundred million rupiahs)</em><em>.</em></p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: Hindu experiences and concerns

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.G.J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Hindu Community ◽  
The Way

The author who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), focuses on the Hindu experience in South Africa during the apartheid years. At a special TRC Hearing for Faith Communities (East London, 17-19 November 1997) two submissions by local Hindu leaders were tabled. Taking his cues from those submissions, the author discusses four issues: the way the Hindu community suffered during these years, the way in which some members of the Hindu community supported the system of apartheid, the role of Hindus in the struggle against apartheid, and finally the contribution of the Hindu community towards reconciliation in South Africa. In conclusion some notes on how Hindus and Christians may work together in th

Ethnicity and Voting Patterns in South Africa

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Lever
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Categorical Data ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Published Research

There is some controversy concerning the role of ethnicity in South African electoral behaviour. Since the society is segmented on ethnic lines it is to be expected that ethnicity would play a crucial role in affecting political choices. Some writers have gone so far as to suggest that ethnicity is the only significant factor affecting voting preferences. The controversy arose at a time when Goodman's method of log-linear analysis for hierarchical models had not yet been developed. This method provides the most powerful tool available for the multivariate analysis of categorical data. A re-analysis of previously published research using Goodman's method shows that ethnicity is not the only significant factor having a bearing on voting preferences. The first four-way table of voting preferences in South Africa is presented. The order of importance of the variables affecting party choice is: (1) ethnicity (2) socio-economic status (3) age of the voter. The recursive model suggested by the analysis explains approximately 98 per cent of the data.

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