Thesis (Ph.D.(Public Affairs))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

The work to keep a nation safe from threats or potential threats has become very difficult in the 21st century. The advent of globalisation and the advances in technology resulted in borderless societies and a complex world of changing global threats. It is inconceivable that there would be a government worth its salt that would not create and sustain security institutions to safeguard its people, installations and critical infrastructure that form the bedrock of the economy and government operations in terms of services. Post 1994, South Africa developed an oversight model for the country’s intelligence services, in an effort to ensure that abuses associated with the apartheid era of intelligence remain a thing of the past. Noting that a number of design, functional and implementation changes have occurred in the past 18 years within the accountability and oversight model, this study sought to establish the extent to which the current accountability and oversight model is effective and still relevant in dealing with the 21st century challenges of intelligence. This was the main research question. The study was grounded in the institutional theory in its different variants. This study argued that the South African accountability and oversight model needs to be reviewed and aligned with the latest international developments which bring an institutionalised civilian oversight as part of the central pillars of the model. Through a combination of documentation analysis and interviews of a targeted sample of experts, the study found that while a sound legislative framework is in place within an appropriately designed model, there are inadequate skills at the parliamentary level for oversight. Policy gaps in respect of the control of intelligence at the ministerial level have also been found to be a serious limitation of the current accountability model. The study also found that civilian oversight suffers from a lack of an institutionalised framework. The study concluded with a number of recommendations pertaining to amendments of legislation to provide for an institutionalised framework for civilian oversight, introduction of mandatory training programmes for members of the parliamentary committee on oversight, as well the need to close prevailing policy gaps.

The provision of public services has changed significantly over the years. One of the more recent changes has involved the increased delivery of public services by non-governmental organizations, whether these organizations be private in nature or belong to the so-called third sector. The third sector is known by a number of different terms, including the non-profit sector, the voluntary sector, civil society, and the social economy. Of particular interest in this study are those social economy organizations (SEOs) that receive the whole or a part of their revenue from the government. These organizations must be accountable to the government for the funds that government provides to them. The purpose of this accountability is to ensure SEOs undertake their obligations to use public resources effectively and to deliver quality public services. One potential accountability challenge involves the limitations associated with the performance evaluation of SEOs, since performance is often not easily observable. Performance is comprised of two parts: the work done by the organization (output) and the impact of this work (outcome). The difficulty in the observation of both outputs and outcomes may result in a conflict for the SEOs between focusing on observable parts of their work that can be more readily measured and reported to meet accountability requirements versus work with less tangible outputs and outcomes. In a funding agreement between an SEO and government, the SEO might have to agree with government requirements, for instance, to follow standardized procedures so that the government can monitor the observable aspects of its work. This requirement may conflict with the SEO’s desire to focus on things that are not observable, and consequently not funded by the government, but are important to the SEO’s mission and social goals. The goal of this research study is to examine the challenges that arise in the operation of SEOs, given that they need to be responsive to government’s expectations and at the same time follow their mission requirements. In-depth interviews were used to examine the extent to which outputs and outcomes are unobservable in SEOs as well as the possible conflicts that might arise between competing objectives within SEOs. Interview participants are three SEO executive directors and one manager, each of whom is responsible for the work carried out by his or her respective SEO. A government employee involved in providing funding to one of the SEOs was also interviewed. The results of this study suggest that the SEOs that were examined have varying degrees of unobservable outputs and outcomes. This study also found that organizations with a greater percentage of unobservable outputs and outcomes experienced a greater degree of conflict in their relationships with government. One of the reasons for the conflict is that the SEO personnel felt that the government focused its attention too much on the observable outputs/outcomes and not enough on outputs and outcomes that, although unobservable, were nevertheless important to clients and the public. Moreover, the SEOs examined in this study that serve specific groups of clients, such as seniors or immigrants, experienced less conflict than those whose services (e.g., increasing environmental sustainability) target the general public. The results of this research have implications for the way in which government structures its activities. Over the last 25-30 years, governments have, through New Public Management (NPM), privatized the provision of public services and encouraged greater competition in the delivery of public services. The results of the analysis carried out in this thesis suggest that this restructuring may not be as effective in situations where the services are directed toward the general public and/or where the services provided involve unobservable outputs and outcomes. The added conflict that appears to accompany these situations suggests that there may be goals and objectives that are important to society but are not being met through the contractual relationship established between the government and the SEO. Since NPM is expected to remain in place, government may wish to find ways of better addressing important unobservable outputs and outcomes. One suggestion, drawn from the interviews with SEOs, is that the government officials who are assigned to work with SEOs should have a good knowledge of the SEOs and be familiar with their missions and functions. This knowledge and familiarity might enable the government officials to evaluate the degree to which non-observable outputs and outcomes are being provided, which in turn might reduce conflict and ensure a better provision of services to clients and the public.

This dissertation seeks to examine why democratic systems and electoral competition can sometimes fail to secure clean government in the interest of the electorate. The question of why voters support corrupt politicians, despite disapproving of corruption itself, is of critical importance if it is to be believed that corruption has a detrimental effect on development. The core argument of this dissertation is that party system features that improve accountability by shaping the efficacy of elections as tools to select and control politicians, play a vital and overlooked role in conditioning the scope for corruption. I conceive of governmental corruption as a classical principal-agent model, in which voters‘ relationships with their representatives are mediated by the extent to which party systems enable the electorate to select non-malfeasant politicians who seek to curb corruption and to hold accountable those who do not. This thesis purports that party systems which reduce agency problems confronting voters, by making available information regarding the quality of their incumbents and potential challengers and structurating effective, choices at the polls, decrease the latitude for governmental corruption. This thesis probes this argument through a controlled comparative analysis of corruption in 91 contemporary democracies and three nested-design case studies. The large-N analysis and the case studies of Panama, India, and Mexico offer broad support for these hypotheses.

Access to water services in South Africa still remains a dream for most people, especially those who live in remote areas. The poverty stricken communities of the former Transkei in the Eastern Cape are in need of water and sanitation services. The findings of the study reveal that most community members are dissatisfied with the water service delivery. During an interview with ward 6 residents who reside in an urban area of the OR Tambo District Municipality (ORTDM), they revealed that pipe bursting is one of the main causes why from time to time they do not have water. The other factor is when there is no electricity; the water system depends on the availability of electricity. The South African local government has been mandated to consult with its citizenry in respect of the processes relating to water service delivery. South Africa has developed a wide range of legislation that ensures community consultation on a continuous basis with regard to how water services should be delivered. It is the community‟s right to be consulted and to give input on issues that directly affect them. The researcher used a qualitative research method since it would provide the reader with more insight into how water services are delivered in the ORTDM. Both community members and municipal officials were interviewed. A number of findings have been made during the research. Some community members are of the view that constant community consultation could reduce service delivery protests. Political intervention needs to be made by the leadership with regard to service delivery and more resources need to be committed toward those processes. This study was conducted from April 2012 to November 2012 and was aimed at assessing the performance of OR Tambo District Municipality regarding water service delivery. According to OR Tambo DM (2011/12: 3), the communities through the consultation processes conducted throughout five (5) local municipalities made it clear that ensuring increased access to water and sanitation services is still the main priority.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in 50% fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Public Policy. June, 2017 / The notion of good governance in municipalities has gained prominence in the discourse around the performance of local government which is at the coal face of service delivery. The study aimed to explore the governance practices prevalent in Westonaria Local Municipality by examining how the rule of law is maintained through the enforcement of policies and by-laws in the municipality; how the executive is held to account for performance by the Council and the extent to which the community is involved in the affairs of the municipality. The study sought to understand the governance challenges experienced in the municipality that contribute to poor audit outcomes and to propose recommendations for improvement. The study found that human and financial resource constraints affect municipal performance. Furthermore, the study established that effective oversight by council and enforcement of consequence management by management are necessary in fostering good governance in the municipality. / MT2017

Monitoring and evaluation practice is an imperative for a country to ensure good governance in government departments, including transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency. Successful implementation of Government-Wide Monitoring and Evaluation (GWM&E) systems results in a government that is well co-ordinated, legitimate, credible, relevant and a government that seeks operational excellence (Kusek & Rist: 2004). The South African government seeks to achieve greater developmental impact and one of the ways government is increasing effectiveness is by concentrating on monitoring and evaluation. Improving monitoring and evaluation leads to improvements in the quality of planning and implementation systems. The implementation of GWM&E and its strategies should be characterised by a management culture within government departments, which demands performance and utilises monitoring and evaluation (M&E) findings for planning and budgeting. Otherwise M&E systems could degenerate into superficial ‘tick the checklist’ exercises which comply with the GWM&E framework, but undermine its spirit. This study investigated the implementation of the GWM&E system, using the KwaZulu -Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT) as a case study. This study explored how the intended aims and objectives of the GWM&E have been realised at a provincial level and the understandings and processes employed in institutionalising it. The research methodology used is interpretative, using semi-structured interviews and content analysis to establish the relationship between what needs to be done according to legislation and what is done in practice. Theories of change, organisations, implementation, results-based evaluation and public policy were reviewed to examine the interrelationships between context, mechanisms and outcomes, with regards to GWM&E. The review of implementation of the GWM&E system found that public institutions craft impressive monitoring and evaluation frameworks but it will take time before these frameworks are actually fully operationalised and M&E findings are influential in shaping policy and strategy formulation in public resource allocation. Implementation of GWM&E requires clear aims and objectives of the M&E systems, co-ordination and integration in a decentralised system like the South African system. There needs to be a balance between top-down guidance and bottom-up expertise. There is a need for M&E to be taken more seriously in South Africa in order for government mandates to be met and policy initiatives and programmes to be improved. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2010. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed February 19, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-206).

Many political philosophers believe that sometimes we ought to tolerate substantive injustice for the sake of the intrinsic importance of democracy. In this thesis, I argue that they are mistaken. The substantive justice of outcomes has primacy over the putative intrinsic procedural justice of democracy. This is a very strong form of instrumentalism: if we face a choice between a minor substantive injustice and massive political inequality, then we ought to accept the political inequality. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, I lay out the conceptual landscape for the discussion. I argue that assertions about justice are reducible to assertions about rights and that assertions about rights can be appropriately dealt with by the Hohfeldian analytic framework. Instrumentalists would gain from using this framework. The Primacy of Substance (POS) is true if people lack non-derivative individual or group democratic claim rights to do injustice. I defend my thesis by appealing to intuitions about injustices committed by gangs. I argue that gangs do not have rights to do injustice and this does not change merely because they choose to do the injustice democratically. Many philosophers accept this for severe injustices, but deny it for mild injustices. I argue that those positions are in error. People do not have democratic rights to do even mild substantive injustice. In the second part, I argue that popular intrinsic proceduralist arguments from equal respect and autonomy pose no threat to the POS. An appeal to equal respect in political philosophy, on one sense of respect, is equivalent to an appeal to the requirements of political morality. Interpreted in this way, in the absence of further argument, the appeal to equal respect begs the question against the POS. The POS is a theory about the requirements of political morality and so about the requirements of equal respect. Other arguments from equal respect rely on the appeal to contingent social beliefs which may be associated with political power. If this argument were sound, then there could be rights to do severe injustices such as rape and murder. Since people cannot have rights to do these things, contingent social beliefs cannot ground rights in the way suggested and so cannot ground democratic rights. Arguments from autonomy also do not threaten the POS. People's rights to act autonomously stop at the rights of others. This is true from the point of view of a variety of different theories of autonomy. Finally, one cannot, contra prominent arguments defend intrinsic proceduralism on the basis of what I call Truth Restricting Intrinsic Proceduralism (TRIP), which holds that people have democratic rights to decide on reasonably contentious matters of substantive justice. When we are responding to the fact that someone reasonably believes that a law ought to be enacted, we ought to pay attention to the content of that belief. Intrinsic proceduralism asks us to pay attention to the fact that they reasonably believe it. This is a mistake. Even if we accept that people have a right to impose their reasonable view, many voters in the real world are not reasonable, many people reasonably deny the reasonableness of others, and many people reasonably deny the proposition that people have a right to impose their reasonable view. Thus, even if we accept the premise, it does not imply that we ought to use democracy in the real world or in a large number of close possible worlds. Moreover, all of the most prominent arguments for TRIP have failed. Finally, proponents of TRIP have failed to recognise that it entails the democratic right to do severe substantive injustice. Since we ought to reject all theories which have this implication, we ought to reject TRIP. There is no remaining way to refute the POS.

South Africa is faced with enormous backlog of service delivery which is attributed to the apartheid government and performance challenges especially in areas like Eastern Cape. It was then identified that there was no uniform system to monitor and evaluate performance of government institutions and the impact of the services they render to the community. The government then adopted a monitoring and evaluation system called Government - Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System for all government departments and municipalities. This study analysed the implementation of this Government-Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System in Eastern Cape Municipalities with specific reference to Chris Hani District Municipality. It further assessed the effectiveness of this monitoring and evaluation system and whether its implementation has improved performance in municipalities, so as to identify the hampering limitations and the appropriate improvement strategies that can be recommended. In order to reach conclusions to the questions and objectives, the study was conducted using qualitative research methodology. Interviews were conducted as described in chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents the findings that were achieved from the interviews and the interpretation of these findings whilst chapter 5 presents conclusion and recommendations based on the findings.