This study is a policy analysis of the merits of policy networks in policy-decision making: A case study of the Premier's Office, KwaZulu-Natal. This study aims to identify some of the merits of policy networks as identified by the literature. It is also aimed to understand what some of challenges are that face policy networks, and also to determine what type of policy networks are within government, more particularly the Premiers Office in KwaZulu-Natal. This study proves that in theory policy networks allow for participation and coordination between different stakeholders across different levels of government. In practice the time available to members to meet is limited. The absence of key members because of multiple meetings simultaneously. This study is divided into four parts in which part one explores literature on policy networks. The second part looks at the policy issue. The third part looks at the findings and the forth part looks at what has been learned from the literature. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2004-05].

This research focuses on policy networks as a framework to analyse the implementation of the South African Land Reform (Labour Tenant) Act 3 of 1996 (LTA) and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (ESTA) more generally. In particular, this research looks at the Association for Rural Advancement’s (AFRA) implementation of the farm dwellers project, specifically, how this organisation has been using the policy networks approach to implement its farm dwellers project. The LTA and the ESTA guide the South African post-apartheid land reform programme. This programme responds to the racially-based system of land access created by colonialism and apartheid. It is against this system of land access that the post-apartheid, democratic government undertook a vast land reform programme, intended to redress the injustices of the past (Drimie 2003:39). The LTA and ESTA are situated within this perspective and their objectives were derived from an understanding that land reform has the potential to make a direct impact on poverty through targeted resource transfers and by addressing the economic and social injustices caused by colonial and apartheid dispossession. However, after sixteen years of democracy and policy implementation of the land reform programme, little progress has been made. This includes an undertaking in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of 1994, which provided a set of guidelines and principles for the evolving land policy, to redistribute, by 2014 (extended from 1999), 30% of the 80% of commercial farmland (mostly white owned) to black South Africans and to make land reform the driving force of rural development (Drimie 2003:39). By March 2009, a total of 5.2% of the targeted 30% of commercial farmland has been transferred through the various land reform programmes (Kleinbooi 2009:1). Concerns have been raised that attribute this seeming failure of the land reform programme to the government’s market approach (Mkhize 2004). This has been sustained by the government’s shift from the RDP to Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR). AFRA, in its funding proposal of 1998-2000, has identified this shift as “disturbing because it implies that government’s economic and political direction is likely to result in reduced resources for rural and agricultural development, a shift which will impact hard on the already tough conditions of poverty that people live in.” From this understanding, this research hopes to establish that the seeming failure of the implementation of the South African land reform can be improved through a more effective utilisation of policy networks. More particularly, this research hopes to establish how AFRA has been using policy networks to implement its Farm Dwellers project from 1994 until today. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The current organisational framework of public policy management offers a powerful tool that of network management. Policy network theory revolves around the idea that no one can work in isolation, and therefore, the notion of interdependency between different organisations becomes very important in order to achieve policy goals efficiently and with efficacy. This encompasses the interactive relationship that is based on information sharing as well as resources. The assumption behind policy network is that nobody is an expert in everything, and nobody has sufficient resources to address every problem. The concept of interdependence entails the co-operation and collaboration of various autonomous actors who have different interests and yet collaborate to achieve certain policy objectives. There is then a need to build "bridges" to facilitate these interactions. The size and scope of policy networks depend on the nature of each policy and the context in which it is formulated, implemented and evaluated. Environmental networks in South Africa, and especially in Pietermaritzburg, has been utilised in order to address the problem of environmental management. The Keep Pietermaritzburg Clean Association has been instrumental in implementing waste management programmes using a policy network strategy. This research focuses on one such programme "Adopt a Spot". Here there are 123 stakeholders all with the aim to beautifying P ietermaritzburg. This research indicates the usefulness of policy networks particularly as an instrument to facilitate policy implementation. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Public policies are not designed and implemented in a vacuum. Instead, policy design and implementation are processes which require that all relevant stakeholders be involved in all stages of a policy process. It is for these reasons that this study was undertaken. Environmental policy implementation has proved to be a challenge for most municipalities in South Africa. The municipality which was chosen by this study as a case study is Msunduzi Municipality. Faced with different challenges which are attributed to a lack of resources and appropriate forms of organisation which are required for environmental policy implementation, this Municipality has struggled to meet its responsibilities. It is for these reason, then, that this study argues that one of the possible ways in which effective design and implementation of environmental policy in Msunduzi Municipality could be achieved is by collaboration and partnership through policy networks involving government agencies, businesses and civil society organisations. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.