Includes bibliographical references: leaves 201-224 / South African authorities formalised their goal to pursue a developmental state with the
adoption of the National Development Plan (NDP) in 2012. It is clear from the reading of the
NDP that the authorities are convinced that the developmental state approach is a cause for
development. The declaration to construct a developmental state is interesting at best or bizarre
at worst in that developmental states are often identified by assessing their (economic)
performance over a period. They hardly sought out to intentionally build developmental states.
The South African governance system has implications for a quest to construct a developmental
state. Whereas the literature on East Asian countries tends to focus on the role of central
governments in economic development, the South African governance places a huge emphasis
on cooperative governance between the three spheres of government. To this end, the
constitution spells out the specific developmental objectives that must be pursued by
municipalities. This essentially means that the system of cooperative governance, and the
extent of effectiveness of local government, will either catalyse or impede the realisation of
South African developmental state.
Developmental states are often distinguished from others by their structures, roles and
outcomes. Their structures and roles are developmental and are a cause for soaring outcomes.
This logic was employed to analyse the nature of structures and roles in eight (8) selected
municipalities over a 15-year period and how these influenced the actual policy performance.
Findings that emerged from over 30 interviews with high ranking officials in various
institutions and the thorough analysis of a number of documents confirm that structures and
roles in municipalities are far from being developmental. The study also found that informal
factors have effectively ‘juniorised’ local government as a sphere of government despite the
constitution emphasising the equality of all three spheres.
In the final analysis, local government is incapacitated to carry out its developmental mandate.
It is against this reality of incapacitation of local government that the study argues that the
performance of local government, measured against its constitutional objectives, effectively
impedes the realisation of a developmental state in South Africa. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/26596 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Mohale, David Matheakuena |
| Contributors | Gumede, Vusi |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xx, 230 leaves) : 1 map (color), illustrations, application/pdf |
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