This study is motivated by the realisation that, in post-2000 Zimbabwe, while the contest pitting one political formation against another has been given prominence in the media, an important struggle that has attracted little attention during this period has been that of the genders, in particular the competition between men and women for the right and power to govern the country. Media organisations have participated in this struggle by developing and distributing images of the various interest groups in the political fray, including men and women. The media has, thus, played a key role in developing conceptual tools to apprehend the condition of female and male politicians in Zimbabwean society (Bhebhe, 2016), thereby implicitly distributing power to one or the other group. This study has, therefore, examined the representation of female politicians in three Zimbabwean newspapers, namely Kwayedza, The Standard and the Financial Gazette, during the four election held between 2000 and 2008. The study was guided by the following concerns: the way images of female politicians were projected in the print media in Zimbabwe during the period in question, how the political affiliation of the three newspapers influenced the coverage of female politicians, and how female politicians were represented in different languages (i.e.Shona and English). The study tested the following hypotheses: women were generally represented as unfit for public office; images developed by the different newspapers were determined by the newspapers’ preference between the two major political parties, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); the representation of female politicians was determined by the language (Shona or English) used by the newspaper; and newspaper owners determined the way female politicians were portrayed. The study made use of qualitative content analysis to examine the representation of female politicians in the above-named newspapers, coding selected stories in terms of these frames: female politicians as mothers and housewives, and female politicians as inadequate and unfit for political office, as well as double bind dilemmas. As expected, the privately-ownednewspapers, the Financial Gazette and The Standard, negatively portrayed ZANU PF female politicians negatively, while the state-owned Kwayedza was hostile to MDC female politicians. The study, however found that, beyond this inevitable trait of a polarised media, all three newspapers shared many tendencies in their coverage of female politicians. For instance, across the three newspapers, female politicians were marginalized through iv omission. They were also trivialised by being portrayed in terms of frames irrelevant to politics. Thus, of the three newspapers, only The Standard did not make use of the motherhood and wifehood frame in its representation of female politicians. More significantly, the double bind dilemma is a rhetoric device that permeates stories on female politicians in all three newspapers to the extent that, even in those stories where the two frames were used, the frames are constructed in terms of double binds. Zimbabwean female politicians are thus portrayed as hamstrung candidates, neither fit for public office nor eligible for marriage and motherhood. This double bind is particularly damaging for indigenous black Zimbabwean female politicians since a major finding of this study is that the stories examined construct motherhood as a powerful form of elevation of female politicians as it is consistently associated with a select few female politicians, the elite of Zimbabwean politics, those at very apex of the political pyramid. This makes the combination of the frames and the double bind dilemma much more harmful to the careers of Zimbabwean female politicians than it would be in a non-African context. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Esta Pesquisa investiga como os meios de comunicação, entendidos como todas as tecnologias de media, são centrais na construção de um capital cultural simbólico para os atores políticos. A visibilidade que constrói a credibilidade e alavanca carreira é a mesma que as destrói através dos escândalos de poder. Numa era de cultura e visibilidade midiáticas, o ambiente de informação é menos controlável em face da proliferação das formas mediadas e das redes de comunicação, tornando-se difícil aos atores políticos encobrirem suas atividades, bem como prever as consequências da exposição midiática. A importância da credibilidade político-pessoal é uma das variantes do capital simbólico ancorado na confiança pública dos eleitores e no meio político. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é demonstrar a relação entretida pelos meios de comunicação e pelos atores políticos na construção do fato político midiatizado, entendido este como o fato noticiado. Busca também identificar e analisar os fatos narrados nas entrevistas com Políticos das Esferas Federal, Estadual e Municipal, em exercício ou na expectativa de nova eleição. O intuito é fomentar a crítica sobre o fenômeno comunicacional enquanto poder dissociado dos demais poderes constituídos legitimamente. Para interpretação dos dados foi empregado o referencial metodológico da Hermenêutica de Profundidade, considerando o contexto sócio-histórico dos partidos políticos e da comunição, análise discursiva dos dados e a reinterpretação dos achados. Os resultados demonstram uma interdependência aparente, uma vez que as estratégias utilizadas convergem aos acordos de bastidores, excluindo o povo e o espaço público da possibilidade de participar. Encontraram-se relações assimétricas de poder para manutenção da dominação, o que caracteriza o uso estratégico da ideologia, tais como a legitimação, a reificação, a dissimulação. Afirma-se a necessidade de estudos ampliados das relações constitutivas do fato político midiatizado como forma de acesso, conhecimento e participação da esfera pública enquanto poder originário da política. / This research investigates how the media, understood here as all its technologies, is central in the construction of a symbolic cultural capital for the politicians. The visibility that builds credibility and promotes political carreers is the same that destroys them with power scandals. In an era of culture and media visibility, the information enviroment is less controllable due to the proliferation of different forms of media and its communication networks, making it difficult for the politicians to both hide their activities and predict the consequences of media exposure. The significance of the personal and political credibility is one of the variables of the symbolic capital, which is based on both voters and other politicians’s trust. The main aim of this research is to demonstrate the relationship developed between media and politicians during the construction of the mediatized political fact, defined herein as the reported fact. It also aims at identifying and analyzing the facts narrated in interviews with politicians from the federal, state and municipal spheres, both in current assignment and expecting the next elections. The intention is to foster critical analysis on the communication phenomenon as a power that is decoupled from the other legitimately constituted branches of power. For the data interpretation, the methodological framework of Depth Hermeneutics was used, taking into consideration the historical and social context of the politicians and the media, discursive analysis and reinterpretation of the data. The results demonstrate an aparent interdependence, since the applied strategies converge to the backroom deals, excluding the people and the public sphere from any possibility of participation. The research detected assimetric power relationships to maintain dominance, which caracterizes a strategic use of ideologies, such as legitimation, reification and dissimulation. The results prove the necessity of broad studies on the relationships that compose the mediatized political fact as a way to create access, knowledge and participation of the public sphere while political originated power.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Buscamos com este trabalho investigar a representação social que moradores de comunidades de baixa renda têm em relação aos políticos. A Teoria das Representações Sociais de Moscovici fundamenta o estudo, que conta ainda com o Modelo Estrutural de Abric, conceitos da Lógica Natural de Grize e procedimentos básicos de estatística descritiva para a análise dos dados. O instrumento da pesquisa foi subdividido em quatro partes, dedicadas às coletas de dados de caracterização socioeconômica dos sujeitos, evocações livres a partir do termo indutor "político", respostas às perguntas do questionário semi-aberto e relatos de casos que envolvessem políticos nas entrevistas abertas. Com as evocações, procuramos determinar os prováveis elementos centrais e periféricos da representação social; com as entrevistas, verificamos relações de causalidade entre os temas mais recorrentes nos discursos. Com a análise, as evocações indicaram um núcleo central com elementos que estão consistentemente em torno da noção de "corrupto": "ladrão", "mentiroso" e "safado". A estrutura da representação social parece, a despeito disso, revelar a possibilidade de uma visão embrionária, por parte dos sujeitos, onde os aspectos mais sociais se sobrepõe à percepção mais pessoal e individualista a respeito dos políticos. As respostas ao questionário denotaram interesse e desconhecimento sobre a atividade política, além de um pensamento marcadamente crítico em relação à questão da representatividade: os políticos são vistos como individualistas, defensores de seus próprios interesses e não acessíveis ao eleitor. As entrevistas revelaram seis temas gerais ("são corruptos", "só querem o voto", "fazem falsas promessas", "manipulam as pessoas", "somem depois das eleições" e "não resolvem os problemas") que foram organizados em uma estrutura, formada pelos seus significados articulados entre si como causa ou efeito, para descrição da representação. Esta, parte de uma condição implícita, a corrupção e o individualismo, passa pelas falsas promessas e pela manipulação das pessoas, e termina na incompetência, na não resolução dos problemas. / The aim of this study was to investigate the social representation which people from low-income communities have in relation to politicians. Moscovici's Social Representations Theory formed the basis for the study, which also made use of Abric's Structural Model, concepts from Grize's Natural Logic and basic descriptive statistical procedures for the data analysis. The research instrument was divided into four different parts to collect the following information: data to classify the participants socioeconomically; free evocations using "politician" as the inductor term; answers to the semi-open questionnaire; and accounts of events involving politicians in open interviews. With the free evocations, we endeavored to determine the probable central and peripheral elements of the social representation; with the interviews, we identified the causal relationships among the most recurrent terms mentioned in them. Analysis of the evocations revealed a central core with elements consistently related to the idea of a "corrupt person": "thief", "liar", and "trickster". Despite this, the structure of the social representation appears to show that the participants may have an embryonic vision of politicians in which aspects related to social issues take precedence over a more personal and individualistic perception. The answers to the questionnaire showed both interest in, and lack of familiarity with, political activities, along with markedly critical thinking in relation to the issue of representativeness: politicians are seen as individualists, driven by their own interests and inaccessible to the elector. The interviews revealed six general themes (politicians "are corrupt", "just want votes", "make false promises", "manipulate people" and "do not solve problems"), which were organized according to their meaning and the causal relationships between them to describe the social representation. This begins with an implicit condition, corruption and individualism, and extends through false promises and the manipulation of people to finish with incompetence and the inability to solve problems.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Buscamos com este trabalho investigar a representação social que moradores de comunidades de baixa renda têm em relação aos políticos. A Teoria das Representações Sociais de Moscovici fundamenta o estudo, que conta ainda com o Modelo Estrutural de Abric, conceitos da Lógica Natural de Grize e procedimentos básicos de estatística descritiva para a análise dos dados. O instrumento da pesquisa foi subdividido em quatro partes, dedicadas às coletas de dados de caracterização socioeconômica dos sujeitos, evocações livres a partir do termo indutor "político", respostas às perguntas do questionário semi-aberto e relatos de casos que envolvessem políticos nas entrevistas abertas. Com as evocações, procuramos determinar os prováveis elementos centrais e periféricos da representação social; com as entrevistas, verificamos relações de causalidade entre os temas mais recorrentes nos discursos. Com a análise, as evocações indicaram um núcleo central com elementos que estão consistentemente em torno da noção de "corrupto": "ladrão", "mentiroso" e "safado". A estrutura da representação social parece, a despeito disso, revelar a possibilidade de uma visão embrionária, por parte dos sujeitos, onde os aspectos mais sociais se sobrepõe à percepção mais pessoal e individualista a respeito dos políticos. As respostas ao questionário denotaram interesse e desconhecimento sobre a atividade política, além de um pensamento marcadamente crítico em relação à questão da representatividade: os políticos são vistos como individualistas, defensores de seus próprios interesses e não acessíveis ao eleitor. As entrevistas revelaram seis temas gerais ("são corruptos", "só querem o voto", "fazem falsas promessas", "manipulam as pessoas", "somem depois das eleições" e "não resolvem os problemas") que foram organizados em uma estrutura, formada pelos seus significados articulados entre si como causa ou efeito, para descrição da representação. Esta, parte de uma condição implícita, a corrupção e o individualismo, passa pelas falsas promessas e pela manipulação das pessoas, e termina na incompetência, na não resolução dos problemas. / The aim of this study was to investigate the social representation which people from low-income communities have in relation to politicians. Moscovici's Social Representations Theory formed the basis for the study, which also made use of Abric's Structural Model, concepts from Grize's Natural Logic and basic descriptive statistical procedures for the data analysis. The research instrument was divided into four different parts to collect the following information: data to classify the participants socioeconomically; free evocations using "politician" as the inductor term; answers to the semi-open questionnaire; and accounts of events involving politicians in open interviews. With the free evocations, we endeavored to determine the probable central and peripheral elements of the social representation; with the interviews, we identified the causal relationships among the most recurrent terms mentioned in them. Analysis of the evocations revealed a central core with elements consistently related to the idea of a "corrupt person": "thief", "liar", and "trickster". Despite this, the structure of the social representation appears to show that the participants may have an embryonic vision of politicians in which aspects related to social issues take precedence over a more personal and individualistic perception. The answers to the questionnaire showed both interest in, and lack of familiarity with, political activities, along with markedly critical thinking in relation to the issue of representativeness: politicians are seen as individualists, driven by their own interests and inaccessible to the elector. The interviews revealed six general themes (politicians "are corrupt", "just want votes", "make false promises", "manipulate people" and "do not solve problems"), which were organized according to their meaning and the causal relationships between them to describe the social representation. This begins with an implicit condition, corruption and individualism, and extends through false promises and the manipulation of people to finish with incompetence and the inability to solve problems.

Esta Pesquisa investiga como os meios de comunicação, entendidos como todas as tecnologias de media, são centrais na construção de um capital cultural simbólico para os atores políticos. A visibilidade que constrói a credibilidade e alavanca carreira é a mesma que as destrói através dos escândalos de poder. Numa era de cultura e visibilidade midiáticas, o ambiente de informação é menos controlável em face da proliferação das formas mediadas e das redes de comunicação, tornando-se difícil aos atores políticos encobrirem suas atividades, bem como prever as consequências da exposição midiática. A importância da credibilidade político-pessoal é uma das variantes do capital simbólico ancorado na confiança pública dos eleitores e no meio político. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é demonstrar a relação entretida pelos meios de comunicação e pelos atores políticos na construção do fato político midiatizado, entendido este como o fato noticiado. Busca também identificar e analisar os fatos narrados nas entrevistas com Políticos das Esferas Federal, Estadual e Municipal, em exercício ou na expectativa de nova eleição. O intuito é fomentar a crítica sobre o fenômeno comunicacional enquanto poder dissociado dos demais poderes constituídos legitimamente. Para interpretação dos dados foi empregado o referencial metodológico da Hermenêutica de Profundidade, considerando o contexto sócio-histórico dos partidos políticos e da comunição, análise discursiva dos dados e a reinterpretação dos achados. Os resultados demonstram uma interdependência aparente, uma vez que as estratégias utilizadas convergem aos acordos de bastidores, excluindo o povo e o espaço público da possibilidade de participar. Encontraram-se relações assimétricas de poder para manutenção da dominação, o que caracteriza o uso estratégico da ideologia, tais como a legitimação, a reificação, a dissimulação. Afirma-se a necessidade de estudos ampliados das relações constitutivas do fato político midiatizado como forma de acesso, conhecimento e participação da esfera pública enquanto poder originário da política. / This research investigates how the media, understood here as all its technologies, is central in the construction of a symbolic cultural capital for the politicians. The visibility that builds credibility and promotes political carreers is the same that destroys them with power scandals. In an era of culture and media visibility, the information enviroment is less controllable due to the proliferation of different forms of media and its communication networks, making it difficult for the politicians to both hide their activities and predict the consequences of media exposure. The significance of the personal and political credibility is one of the variables of the symbolic capital, which is based on both voters and other politicians’s trust. The main aim of this research is to demonstrate the relationship developed between media and politicians during the construction of the mediatized political fact, defined herein as the reported fact. It also aims at identifying and analyzing the facts narrated in interviews with politicians from the federal, state and municipal spheres, both in current assignment and expecting the next elections. The intention is to foster critical analysis on the communication phenomenon as a power that is decoupled from the other legitimately constituted branches of power. For the data interpretation, the methodological framework of Depth Hermeneutics was used, taking into consideration the historical and social context of the politicians and the media, discursive analysis and reinterpretation of the data. The results demonstrate an aparent interdependence, since the applied strategies converge to the backroom deals, excluding the people and the public sphere from any possibility of participation. The research detected assimetric power relationships to maintain dominance, which caracterizes a strategic use of ideologies, such as legitimation, reification and dissimulation. The results prove the necessity of broad studies on the relationships that compose the mediatized political fact as a way to create access, knowledge and participation of the public sphere while political originated power.

abstract: There is a documented gap between research-based recommendations produced by university-based scholars in the field of education in the United States and the evidence that U.S. politicians' use when deciding which educational policies to implement or amend. This is a problem because university-based education scholars produce vast quantities of research each year, some of which could, and more importantly should, be useful to politicians in their decision-making processes and yet, politicians continue to make policy decisions about education without the benefit of much of the knowledge that has been gained through scholarly research. I refer to the small fraction of university-based education scholars who are demonstrably successful at getting scholarly research into the hands of politicians to be used for decision-making purposes as "university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers". They are distinct from other university-based education scholars in that they engage with politicians from both political parties around research and, as such, are able to use scholarly research to influence the education policymaking process. The problem that this dissertation addresses is the lack of use, by U.S. politicians, of scholarly research produced by United States university-based education scholars as input in education policy decisions. The way in which this problem is explored is through studying university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers. I focused on three areas for exploration: the methods university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers use to successfully get U.S. politicians to consider scholarly research as an input in their decision-making processes around education policy, how these scholars are different than the majority of university-based education policy scholars, and how they conceive of the education policy-setting agenda. What I uncovered in this dissertation is that university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers are a complete sub-group of university-based education scholars. They work above the rigorous promotion and tenure requirements of their home universities in order to use scholarly research to help serve the research needs of politicians. Their engagement is distinct among university-based education scholars and through this dissertation their perspective is presented in participants' own authentic language. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

Esta Pesquisa investiga como os meios de comunicação, entendidos como todas as tecnologias de media, são centrais na construção de um capital cultural simbólico para os atores políticos. A visibilidade que constrói a credibilidade e alavanca carreira é a mesma que as destrói através dos escândalos de poder. Numa era de cultura e visibilidade midiáticas, o ambiente de informação é menos controlável em face da proliferação das formas mediadas e das redes de comunicação, tornando-se difícil aos atores políticos encobrirem suas atividades, bem como prever as consequências da exposição midiática. A importância da credibilidade político-pessoal é uma das variantes do capital simbólico ancorado na confiança pública dos eleitores e no meio político. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é demonstrar a relação entretida pelos meios de comunicação e pelos atores políticos na construção do fato político midiatizado, entendido este como o fato noticiado. Busca também identificar e analisar os fatos narrados nas entrevistas com Políticos das Esferas Federal, Estadual e Municipal, em exercício ou na expectativa de nova eleição. O intuito é fomentar a crítica sobre o fenômeno comunicacional enquanto poder dissociado dos demais poderes constituídos legitimamente. Para interpretação dos dados foi empregado o referencial metodológico da Hermenêutica de Profundidade, considerando o contexto sócio-histórico dos partidos políticos e da comunição, análise discursiva dos dados e a reinterpretação dos achados. Os resultados demonstram uma interdependência aparente, uma vez que as estratégias utilizadas convergem aos acordos de bastidores, excluindo o povo e o espaço público da possibilidade de participar. Encontraram-se relações assimétricas de poder para manutenção da dominação, o que caracteriza o uso estratégico da ideologia, tais como a legitimação, a reificação, a dissimulação. Afirma-se a necessidade de estudos ampliados das relações constitutivas do fato político midiatizado como forma de acesso, conhecimento e participação da esfera pública enquanto poder originário da política. / This research investigates how the media, understood here as all its technologies, is central in the construction of a symbolic cultural capital for the politicians. The visibility that builds credibility and promotes political carreers is the same that destroys them with power scandals. In an era of culture and media visibility, the information enviroment is less controllable due to the proliferation of different forms of media and its communication networks, making it difficult for the politicians to both hide their activities and predict the consequences of media exposure. The significance of the personal and political credibility is one of the variables of the symbolic capital, which is based on both voters and other politicians’s trust. The main aim of this research is to demonstrate the relationship developed between media and politicians during the construction of the mediatized political fact, defined herein as the reported fact. It also aims at identifying and analyzing the facts narrated in interviews with politicians from the federal, state and municipal spheres, both in current assignment and expecting the next elections. The intention is to foster critical analysis on the communication phenomenon as a power that is decoupled from the other legitimately constituted branches of power. For the data interpretation, the methodological framework of Depth Hermeneutics was used, taking into consideration the historical and social context of the politicians and the media, discursive analysis and reinterpretation of the data. The results demonstrate an aparent interdependence, since the applied strategies converge to the backroom deals, excluding the people and the public sphere from any possibility of participation. The research detected assimetric power relationships to maintain dominance, which caracterizes a strategic use of ideologies, such as legitimation, reification and dissimulation. The results prove the necessity of broad studies on the relationships that compose the mediatized political fact as a way to create access, knowledge and participation of the public sphere while political originated power.

This dissertation studies the methods of political career of teachers in the State of Sergipe (Brazil). The main objective was to analyze the routes of politicians elected by Sergipe, who self-identified as teachers in the parliamentary elections of 2010, and in elections to the City Council of the Capital of the State, Aracaju, in the year 2008. The studied group is composed of seven politicians (1 Congressman, 4 deputies and 2 aldermen). Among the methodologies, was prioritized to direct observation, with uses of interviews with politicians and aides and election data collection. Also was gave emphasis on forms of action and the political representation of Deputies and councilmen. In the first chapter, I discuss the teachers professionalization and its relationship with politics, also present data on teachers occupation in the prefectures and the municipalities of Sergipe. In the second chapter, I discuss how the profession is used for entry into politics, ressaltan the forms of action in teaching and politics. In the third chapter, dealing with parliamentary activities, observing how they say represents various interests. / Esta dissertação estuda as modalidades de carreira política de professores no estado de Sergipe (Brasil). O objetivo principal foi analisar os itinerários dos políticos eleitos por Sergipe, que se definiram como professores nas eleições legislativas do ano de 2010, e nas eleições para Câmara de Vereadores da Capital do Estado, Aracaju, no ano de 2008. O grupo estudado é composto por sete políticos (1 deputado federal, 4 deputados estaduais e 2 vereadores). Dentre as metodologias, foi priorizada a observação direta, com usos de entrevistas com os políticos e assessores e o levantamento de dados eleitorais. Também foi dada ênfase às formas de atuação e a representação política dos deputados e vereadores. No primeiro capítulo, abordo a profissionalização docente e sua relação com a política, também apresento dados sobre a ocupação dos professores nas prefeituras e nas câmaras municipais de Sergipe. No segundo capítulo, analiso como a profissão é usada para a entrada na política, ressaltando as formas de atuação no magistério e na política. No terceiro capítulo, trato da atuação parlamentar, observando como eles dizem representar vários interesses.

Abstract The emergence of a cabinet and political parties that could be called democratic was one of the focal objectives for the Allied Occupation of Japan that lasted from 1945 until 1952. Cooperation with the local political actors was also necessitated by the model of indirect rule through domestic institutions that was adopted. The occupation authorities were actively seeking suitable political leadership to govern Japan and were ready to intervene in the development of Japan’s domestic politics for the sake of achieving their goals. Great efforts were, however, made not to distract the democratic façade that covered the undemocratic and non-transparent behind-the-scenes orders. It was important to make the selection of the new political leadership to appear as something that originated from the freely expressed will of the Japanese people. This dissertation offers the first narrative identifying and analyzing the characteristics of the occupation authorities’ policy concerning the Japanese conservatives at the beginning of the occupation. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the planning period’s influence on the actual occupation policy and introduces a wartime discussion concerning the Japanese conservatives. The process of sorting out the most suitable Japanese leaders in 1942 –1947 can be divided into several phases. What was considered suitable varied during different times, but what was expected from the suitable Japanese leadership remained rather unchanged. The planners of the occupation looked for moderate conservatives: who were to be thanked for Japan’s prewar steps toward democracy; who were not to be blamed for the war; and who were to help in the reconstruction process. At the beginning of the occupation, the occupation authorities sought for cooperative conservative statesmen who would be ready to follow the wishes of the occupier and yet claim the reforms as their own initiatives. After the first postwar general election in April 1946 this rule had to be connected with the conservative parties. Finally, the occupation authorities began to search for suitable middle-of-the-road conservatives who could, together with the right-wing of the Socialist Party, to continue the previous cabinet’s work while ensuring the social stability and the success of reforms in the changing situation.

Municipalities in South Africa are experiencing serious challenges in dealing with the interface between politicians and administrators. The study is based on the political and administrative interface (the relationship between the politicians and administration) in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. An introductory background as well as a theoretical perspective on the phenomenon of ‘politics-administration interface’ and highlights on the significant role that this phenomenon plays in promoting good governance in local government is provided. The study analyses the legislative and policy framework that regulates local government and provides various theoretical models that deal with the political administrative relationships such as the dichotomy model, politicised model and complementarity model. The qualitative research method was used in the study, that is, a secondary data design as a method to collect data, which was supplemented by an extensive literature review. Secondary data sources such as reports, policies, newspapers, books were used to collect data. The descriptive case study and the documentary analysis methods were utilised to investigate the relationship between the politicians and administrators in the municipality. The major challenge in local government is that both politicians and administrators interfere in each other’s roles and responsibilities and this results in major conflict in the municipalities and frustration among the staff because they are not free to undertake their daily functions without interference. The findings reflected that there is a need to professionalise and de-politicised local government. The study makes a number of recommendations which included, inter alia, regulating political interference in administration, clarity of roles and responsibilities of politicians and administrators and separating the municipal administration from politics.