A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals Johannesburg, 2016 / This research sought to defend the proposition that not only do corporations have a moral right to lobby, corporations also have a moral duty to influence public policy through lobbying. The research has considered the ethics of corporate lobbying within the context of the extent literature in Business Ethics and from a South African perspective. An argument for corporate moral personhood has been advanced as the basis for a corporation’s moral right to lobby. The rights and duties of corporations as citizens have also been considered, and a case has been made for a normative theory of corporations as political actors with an associated moral obligation to seek to influence public policy to promote public interests. A set of ethical principles to guide responsible lobbying has been articulated as a morally justified basis for restricting a corporation’s moral right to lobby which arises from its status as a type of moral person to ensure that the power of corporations is harnessed in service of society. / MT2017

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 2007, Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) conducted a survey amongst European and United States venture capital and private equity investors (VC/PE) to ascertain their public clean energy policy preference and concluded that VC/PE investors view the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme to be the most preferred policy option. In this research study, the author re-conducted part of the Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) survey with thirty South African VC/PE investors to determine their perceptions on clean energy public policy preference. It is evident from the survey, that opinions are varied and at times even contradictory. This in itself demonstrates an important feature of the South African VC/PE and clean energy industry: it is young, dynamic, changing rapidly and can look very different, depending on the vantage point. The investors surveyed were mainly optimistic about the long-term development of the South African renewable energy industry led by private investors. VC/PE investors in South Africa have mixed views on various investment options, and are concerned about both the regulatory and macro-economic trends. The interviews and survey results show a number of recurring issues. Altogether, the survey results indicate that VC/PE investors consider FITs to be the best public clean energy policy instrument in leveraging private investment and finance for renewable energy in South Africa. This study serves to illustrate and confirm, in line with empirical studies, that VC/PE investors in South Africa believe that clean energy market-pull policies provide an impetus and indeed spur private investor participation in clean energy in developing countries. While it is true that most VC/PE investors would prefer the price certainty associated with a FIT regime, this is almost an irrelevant question in South Africa since constitutionally the state is bound to procure through competitive tendering. This study also serves to highlight the need for more active research and attention in this field.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Since its establishment in the 19th century, the City of Johannesburg has metamorphosed from a gold mining dormitory, a segregated town to a modern metropolitan municipality that is one of the flagships of South African municipalities. The formerly apartheid city had the legacy of fragmentation along racial lines based on the disintegrated economic logic that systematically developed areas disproportionately with black urban and peri-urban areas at the mercy of the white urban areas1. The advent of democracy in 1994 necessitated the city’s transformation into a democratic, non-racial, developmental and mega municipality encompassing the townships that were previously on its periphery. This required the national government, as the superior government to formulate a regulatory framework for local government to foster a developmental orientation, democracy, good governance and accountability to the constituent inhabitants, provincial and national government. Similar to all other municipalities country wide, it became paramount to improve the provision of public services to cover the backlogs that were created by the previous separate development policies of apartheid, but specific to Johannesburg, to maintain its position as the biggest city by population, gross domestic expenditure and economic growth. In this study the researcher maintains the seven assumptions advanced by Caiden (1982:14-6) about public administration i.e. that it is unavoidable, expects obedience, has priority, has exceptional size, has political top management, poses difficulties in performance measurement and that more is expected from it. Although public management is not entirely unique in the above ways due to the phenomenon of new public management (NPM), it is easy in the South African context to identify public administration through the schedules in the Constitution (1996), the Public Finance Management Act, 2002 (PFMA)2 and the formation structures of service providing municipal entities. Public policy analysis literature documents the paradigm shift in public management from traditional bureaucratic structure to decentralisation, NPM and policy networks amid the complexity theory in the public service endeavour to provide services. The local legislature i.e. the municipal council is granted the authority over the sphere of work of the municipality and therefore has the final say in the running of the municipality to meet the expectations of the electorate. In this study the researcher focuses on the analysis of the council’s choices of the above public management structures or policies options in exercising its authority. The council has to decide on functional activities i.e. municipal services from what the Constitution (1996) allows and decide on the executive institutions that are tasked to execute the functions within the budgetary allocations. Regarding research methodology, annual reports, departmental reports, AG performance reports, community complaints, council meeting minutes, provincial government reports, national treasury reports and primary data from questionnaires and expert interviews were consulted to answer the questions on the levels effectiveness and efficiency. It was found that the provision of services has substantially improved as from the beginning of the 21st century and the reason for this improvement is the public service reforms that include NPM. The semi permanency of entities and utilities could inhibit the provision of services in future. It was also found that the weaknesses with the utilities and entities can well be covered by the implementation of policy networks and the municipality finds it difficult to cope under exogenous complexity challenges.

Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In recent years scholars and researchers have been paying specific attention to the performance and results produced by government activities. This is seen as a direct consequence of trends in the public policy field, specifically the New Public Management (NPM) approach. The South African Government has demonstrated its commitment to the NPM approach by advocating the assessment of government’s performance and putting in place substantial guiding, policy and discussion documents that would promote the monitoring and evaluation of public outputs and outcomes. This research study takes its cue from the NPM approach and evidence-based public policy analyses as it sought to evaluate the performance of a government programme by considering reported performance outputs. The researcher evaluated the performance for the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature’s (NCPL) Administration programme over a 3-year period as a case study. The research methodology is evaluative in nature and the specific design employed is programme evaluation. To solicit data from respondents, an Organisational Profile Survey was conducted. The survey responses from participants were combined with a review of media reports and scrutiny of documented reports to provide comprehensive evidence about the performance of the NCPL Administration. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate performance with a view to the improvement of future performance. The findings of the thesis indicate that the planned services and activities of the NCPL Administration are not being implemented effectively and that the overall programme is not functioning effectively. The effectiveness of the NCPL Administration can be improved by means of the resolution of organisational challenges. Recommendations are made to address performance deficiencies and further research opportunities are also identified. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Navorsers het oor die afgelope paar jaar spesifiek begin fokus op die prestasie en uitslae van regeringsaktiwiteite. Die onlangse tendens kom as ‘n direkte gevolg van huidige openbare hervorming, en meer spesifiek die Nuwe Openbare Bestuurs- (NOB) benadering. Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering demonstreer hul toewyding aan die NOB benadering deurdat die evaluasie van regerings prestasie voorgestaan word, asook deur die instelling van substansiële beleid-, leidings- en gespreksdokumente wat die monitering en evaluasie van publieke uitsette en uitkomste bevorder. Hierdie navorsingsstudie volg die NOB benadering en bewys-gebaseerde publieke beleidsontleding na. Dit is gemik daarop om die prestasie van ‘n regeringsprogram te evalueer deur die gerapporteerde prestasie uitsette in ag te neem. As deel van hierdie gevallestudie evalueer die navorser die prestasie van die Noord-Kaap Provinsiale Wetgewer (NKPW) se administrasie program oor ‘n drie jaar tydperk. Die studie se navorsingsmetodologie is waardeoordelend die spesifieke navorvingsontwerp wat gebruik word is Programevaluering. Om data van respondente te bekom was ‘n Organisasie Profiel Opname onderneem. Hierdie data was gekombineer met ‘n oorsig van koerant berigte en die noukeurige ondersoek van verslae met die oog daarop om omvattende bewyse te lewer oor die prestasie van die NKPW Administrasie. In geheel poog die studie om prestasie lewering te evalueer met die doel om toekomstige prestasie te verbeter. Die bevindinge van die tesis dui aan dat die implementering van beplande dienste en aktiwiteite van die NKPW Administrasie nie doeltreffend is nie en dat die program in geheel nie effektief is nie. Die prestasie van die NKPW Administrasie kan verbeter word deur die aanspreking van uitdagings wat in die organisasie ondervind word. Aanbevelings word gemaak om die prestasiegapings aan te spreek en verdere navorsinggeleenthede is ook geïdentifiseer.