Magister Legum - LLM

One of the more frequently heard criticisms of local government is that it is not delivering the required services or it is not delivering an efficient standard of service. Performance management for local government contributes to creating a performance culture in the public service at municipal level. Performance management is a mechanism that is used to ensure that the municipality is doing its work and delivering on its mandate. The SALGA HRD Policy Conference held in March 2003 endorsed the spirit of the relevant legislation on performance management in municipalities. As the employee body and the only recognized voice of municipalities in the country, SALGA has been of the view that the legislative imperative placed on municipalities to be developmental and performance orientated cannot be overly emphasized. Concomitant with the legislative imperative has been the political will or unwavering political commitment to ensure that municipal administrations are accountable to their respective councils, and by extension, the communities they serve. The successful implementation of the Performance Management System at all municipalities will certainly serve as a yardstick in objectively measuring the performance of municipal and provincial local government officials. It is believed that the ongoing measurement of performance will inevitably lead to better delivery of services to our people. The Constitution of South Africa places a developmental mandate on local governments, with the express purpose of them providing effective and efficient services to their communities and to promote local social and economic development. Further to this, the Municipal Systems Act of 2000 provides a legislative framework for municipalities to embark on integrated development planning. Thus all municipalities require an Integrated Development Plan (lDP) to be in place in order to fully realize their objectives as set out in Section 152 of the Constitution. In the interpretation of the legislation, it is clear that the Council (the political body of the municipality) is held responsible to ensure that its municipality has an lDP and PMS in place. Thus both the political principal and the leadership of a municipality are, by law, required to fulfil their obligations in implementing the PMS, while the provincial local government department is charged with the obligation to ensure that such objectives by municipalities are realized by way of providing financial and human capital assistance. Since the lDP and PMS have been legislated in such a manner, it thus becomes legally imperative that municipalities comply with the legislation. The Auditor General is thus required to audit a municipality within this context. Failure to comply may entail certain legal repercussions. Generally, there has been a drive to inculcate improved performance in all three spheres of government. However, it becomes integral that municipalities are performance oriented, especially since it is the sphere of government closest to the grass-roots levels where the real impact of service delivery is experienced. There is undoubtedly a link between lDP and PM. However, it has been observed that both in municipalities and provincial local government there is no synergy between these two components and they tend to operate in isolation of each other. Logically, the scorecards of the organisation and individuals should be derived from the municipality's IDP; however this is not always the case. It is also evident that both the municipality and provincial local government approaches the two issues as different disciplines. Having said this, it is important for SALGA and Provincial Local Government to encourage and ensure better alignment of lDP and PMS in both the province and municipalities.

The local governance system has undergone positive changes since 1994 when the Government of National Unity took over power in Rwanda. The government has instituted democratic changes in the structure and functioning of local government through decentralisation. Since 2000 when the decentralisation policy was launched, Rwanda has evolved a model of local governance that has come to be emulated by its neighbouring countries. Since 2000, when the Local Government Act affected the decentralised structures of local government, some changes have occurred, challenges have emerged and constraints have been experienced in the implementation of the policy of decentralisation. Methodology used in the impact assessment study The researcher administered questionnaires, conducted interviews and documentary analysis. The assessment covered (3) three districts which were purposively selected on the basis of criteria that were considered sufficiently representative and based on the rationale of the study. Key findings of the study The study established that the restructuring exercise streamlined the structures of local governments, aligned mandates to the structures, and graded jobs in line with responsibilities. These reforms have improved the performance of the local governments. Despite notable improvements, the study established that there were still gaps in the local government system that needed to be addressed. These included: i. There is a big skills gap in most local governments. Some positions in local government are not filled due to inadequate resources. ii. Some local governments are finding it difficult to attract qualified and competent personnel to take up jobs at technical and managerial levels. iii. Local government lack attractive working environments. iv. There are limited career growth opportunities in local government service. xiv v. There is low local revenue. This has imposed limitations to accountability, supervision and monitoring of local government programmes. vi. Professional staff in local government is not adequately facilitated to do their work efficiently and effectively. vii. The existing capacity building programmes contribute marginally to career growth of individual staff members. viii. New reform programmes for improving service delivery such as results oriented management (ROM) and fiscal decentralisation strategy (FDS) have been rolled out but are not yet utilised in some of the local governments.

Rural settlements in the Yukon differ from their southern counterparts in that they are characterized by a number of factors such as: geographic isolation, social division of the settlement along White-Indian ethnic lines and political isolation in that many communities have no local mechanism for formulating representative inputs to senior levels of government. These conditions have given rise to difficulties in the administering of rural community' affairs. Residents of these settlements expressed discontent with the way in which community related decisions were made without their involvement. Government agencies on the other hand are confronted with conflicting inputs formulated by individuals or groups from communities so that determining what is representative of the settlement is not an easy task. The thesis addresses the problems of local participation in the governing of community affairs in six similar, ethnically mixed rural Yukon communities. A five month research program during which interviews were conducted and observations recorded and the author's three year residency in one of the settlements studied, provided the material for the descriptive section of the thesis. Descriptions of the socio-political character of six settlements and their relationships with senior government and descriptions of the government agencies which frequently interact of proposed local governments. A tentative proposal of local circulated among respondents in rural communities. Responses to the questionnaire, in addition to responses to questions about the existing type of local government provide a basis for the analysis. The analysis conducted in the thesis indicates that a type of local government with specified form, functions, and role are not flexible enough to encompass the diversity which exists among inferences from these findings are that the Territorial Government should formulate the guidelines for local government allowing the specifics to be worked out between the Territorial Government and the residents of each rural settlement so that the particular local government is perceived as appropriate to the socio-political character of the community. In closing, the thesis discusses the implications of these findings may hold for the development of local government in general. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Conceptualizations of local autonomy to date are critiqued and an alternative theory is offered. Three ideal types of local autonomy are reconstructed from existing literature: fiscal, political, and legal autonomy. Two specific criticisms are made: that each holds a deficient conceptualization of the local; and that each has a negative and constrained view of power and autonomy. Existing literature oversimplifies states' domination at the expense of local autonomy. A theory of local autonomy, I argue, must begin with the question of how localities can and cannot be autonomous rather than a prevailing focus on what they stand autonomous from. In this way, local autonomy and its absence (heteronomy) become dialectical concepts. I develop these points through a discussion of Massachusetts' inclusionary housing policy. The policy's drafting and its current impact in four suburbs provide the empirical basis for theoretical reconstruction. "Local" is viewed from a place-making perspective: places are seen as meaningful sets of social relations relative to a geographic context. Meaning is produced, reproduced, and contested within those contexts. A place's autonomy is related to the way in which meaningful sets of social relations are made to be "powerful" or "powerless" through a process of reification. Relating "local" to "autonomy" demands a relational and circulatory theory of power rather than prevailing corporeal theories. This reconceptualization is beneficial in theoretically relating power and place because it emphasizes the complexity and dynamics of relations of domination and resistance; because it highlights the relation between place making and truth/knowledge claims; and because it does not heuristically disentangle social processes whose very interaction is theoretically significant. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

D.Com. (Business Administration) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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Bibliography: pages 171-176. / This thesis is a theoretical enquiry into the financial policies of local governments in South Africa. The basic principles governing this issue are presented in Chapter Six. The theory of corporate debt capacity is drawn upon and an analogous model of local government debt capacity is presented. The Modiglian/Miller approach is adapted, and the conclusions of this model applied in the local government context. The implication is drawn that local government officials see the incurment of debt as increasing the financial riskiness of the local area, just as corporate executives see corporate debt as increasing the riskiness of the firm. It is hypothesised that local governments which are very loosely linked, politically and economically, to the people they serve will be more risk averse than fiscally or electorally sensitive governments, and will display greater reluctance to incur debt. In so doing, they will sacrifice opportunities to improve the area by favourable capital development, financed by a judicious combination of debt and current revenue. Current available data on a cross section of local governments is presented which tentatively confirms this hypothesis.

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