Local government decentralised reforms in South Africa : a comparative perspective

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:All the countries in the world at one or another stage undergo reform or transformationprimarily for political reasons and/or to adapt to the challenges and demands placed on thenational governments by their electorate or populace. The type of reforms, that is,centralised or decentralised which are implemented in turn is dependent on the politicalconditions that prevail in a country as well as its system of government.Any reforms which take place, whether in a developed or developing country, will have animpact on its political system as well as governmental structures which in turn willinfluence the intergovernmental relations in that country. Thus, any reforms implementedin a country with a centralised system of government will result in the weakening of theposition of the national government in terms of power and functions. Conversely, reformsintroduced in a country with a decentralised system of government will invariablystrengthen the national government and weaken the lower levels of government in termsof legislation and executive power and functions.For the purpose of this dissertation, the following criteria have been identified forcomparison in respect of the decentralised reforms which have been implemented in theselected developed and developing countries, namely:• political system;• local political structure;• local functions; and• local finance.The decentralised reforms which have taken place in the selected countries since the1960's were evaluated individually in respect of the aforementioned criteria, whereupon acomparative evaluation was made between South Africa and the developing countries,namely, Botswana and Nigeria, as well as between South Africa and the selecteddeveloped countries, namely, Britain and the United States of America. The foregoing evaluations infer alia revealed that decentralisation was implemented in theselected countries in various degrees or forms, namely, deconcentration, delegation,devolution and privatisation, the latter form by way of contracting out and/or by localauthorities playing an enabling or facilitating role in respect of the provision of facilities andservices.Flowing from the evaluations, an integrated approach was followed to formulate aneffective system of local government for South Africa with regard to the four criteriaidentified for the study, bearing in mind infer alia that South Africa is an advanceddeveloping country, which in turn has an impact on the extent of the decentralised reformswhich can practically be implemented.The macro organisational decentralised reform proposals regarding the political system inSouth Africa entail:• the separation of the legislative and the executive;• the granting of greater guaranteed autonomy to the provincial and local governments;and• the provision of local charters and listing of municipalities in the Constitution of 1996.Turning to the local political structure, a decentralised two tier structure is proposed formetropolitan areas, a three tier structure for non-metropolitan areas, that is, the districts aswell as the establishment of land boards in tribal areas and the appointment ofcommissioners in the districts to facilitate development planning and to eo-ordinate theactivities of the provincial and local government agencies.With regard to the third criteria identified for the study, various functions are proposed toeither be devolved or delegated to the local sphere of government, the functions to beexecuted by the different tiers of local government within the context of thedecentralisation, functions which should be eontracted out by local government and inrespect of which functions private-public partnerships should be established with relevantbodies or organisations. Finally, additional sources of revenue are proposed for municipalities in both themetropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, the increase in the rate of certain levies andtaxes, the transfer of certain taxes between the tiers of local government, the introductionof a hybrid system of local government finance and for an integrated plan to be developedfor the management of public finance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University