ABSTRACT
Local government is the sphere closest to the people and is described as the most
important sphere of government. The end of apartheid in the early 1990s has left South
Africa with permanent social and economic legacy which is characterised by racial
division and discrimination. Over the last decade all local government institutions in
South Africa had been totally restructured and transformed into a single uniformed
system of local governance in which all municipalities area given a new status, new
powers and functions and a new constitutionally entrenched vision of achieving specific
municipal objects and to be generally developmental in nature (Bekink, 2006). Most
important shifts in direction for local government are enshrined in Chapter 7 of the
Constitution (Act 108 of 1996), which provides the objectives of local government as
being to provide a democratic and accountable government for local communities and to
encourage the involvement of stakeholders, including the communities in the matters of
local government. This marks the difference between the new form of local government
and that of the past. The new local government has a dynamic developmental role to
ensure maximum impact on poverty alleviation and to address socio-economic inequalities. Local government cannot achieve their new goals on their own. They need
the support and assistance of the two higher spheres of government. This is because
developmental local government requires a system of intergovernmental planning in the
decision-making of local development. This entails mutual understanding with inclusive
decision-making between government spheres, private sector and communities. This
needs to take place within the framework of Integrated Development Planning.
Therefore, stakeholder involvement in the IDP process is relevant.
Over the past few years in the democratic South Africa, local government has seemed to
reflect a system of government characterised by low levels of service delivery by local
authorities, lack of transparency in decision making and inability to participate in
municipal affairs.
Various efforts have been made to bring about a system of co-operative governance to
enhance intergovernmental planning, economic regeneration and social reconciliation in
South Africa’s municipalities. In general, the results thus far have been somewhat mixed,
but as case-study evidence (chapter 4) suggest, it is clear that some significant
improvements have taken place in municipalities, particularly in terms of the
implementation of the IDP. This study was undertaken in an effort to assess the extent to
which intergovernmental planning plays a role in the IDP implementation of Makhado
LM.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/5383 |
| Date | 15 August 2008 |
| Creators | Mulaudzi, Marubini Maryjane |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 19140 bytes, 392966 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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