Search

The legacy of colonialism in Africa, characterized by artificial boundary imposition, has resulted in engrained conflicts rooted in ethnic and cultural divisions. The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon illustrates this enduring socio-political unrest, with the North-West and South-West regions demanding greater autonomy and recognition of their socio-cultural, linguistic, and legal identity. In response, the Cameroonian government granted special status to these regions in the 2019 decentralization law, promising greater self-governance. This study critically gauges the effectiveness of this special status in responding to Anglophone demands through the lens of autonomy and conflict resolution theories. It explores whether this measure genuinely empowers these regions or merely represents a façade of autonomy. Employing qualitative methods, the research includes textual analysis, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions with government officials, Anglophone leaders, and civil society. The findings reveal that despite hastily granting the special status, its implementation has been ineffective in addressing the grievances of the Anglophone regions. Consequently, the special status has remained a façade of autonomy because of excessive state control over regional institutions and a lack of political will to effectively devolve powers and resources. This paper emphasizes the need for inclusive strategies to address protracted conflicts and advances the discourse on sustainable autonomy solutions in subnational conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a threat to good governance and hinders the growth and development of an organisation and the delivery of services. It is of international interest to establish organisations within the public and private sector realms for enhancing accountability and designing effective mechanisms and tools to enable these organisations to fight corruption. Corruption negatively affects economic development and increases poverty as public resources that are meant to fight poverty are appropriated by a small group of corrupt people for their benefit. Under these circumstances, South African society will continue to be characterised by economic inequality. There is strong empirical evidence that some public servants, in particular those at senior and executive levels, are continuing to loot public funds to benefit themselves. This has been done mostly by illegally influencing the processes of tenders for public institutions. The objective of this paper is to determine whether SAPS members encounter any difficulties in the process of completing the financial disclosure. This paper is qualitative and primary data has been collected from SAPS officials. Secondary data was collected from books and journal articles, official government documents such as gazettes. The main finding is that some SAPS officials disclose incorrect information about their income and properties. This article concludes that financial disclosure is a powerful tool for ensuring that the SAPS is free of corruption if it is administered properly. It recommends that streamlining and clarifying the financial disclosure procedure will effectively simplify the process of financial disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the role of municipal collaboration in addressing migration-related challenges within the diverse contexts of the UK and South Africa, aiming to promote DEI in the process of nation-building. Through a secondary data research method and comparative evaluation of policies, initiatives and procedures in both countries, the paper examined how municipal collaboration strategies contribute to fostering unity amidst dynamic migration patterns. The findings highlighted the essential role of collaboration in harnessing collective expertise and resources to tackle migration challenges, enhance social cohesion, and advance the DEI principles. The key components of the paper include an examination of unique migration challenges, an analysis of initiatives, policies, and procedures in both countries, and an emphasis on the importance of collaboration in shaping inclusive societies. Overall, this paper advocates the significance of municipal collaboration as a cornerstone of nation-building, facilitating the creation of cohesive and harmonious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intricately examines Vhavenda indigenous governance systems in juxtaposition with the modern administrative systems in South Africa. Through a comparative analysis using qualitative research methods and secondary data analysis, the paper reveals nuanced strengths and weaknesses in each framework, suggesting avenues for collaborative synergy and improved service provision in rural areas. Purposive and snowball sampling, along with a focus group discussion, were employed for data collection. Textbooks, academic journals, papers, and online sources were analysed. The findings not only enrich the understanding of indigenous governance but also provide actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners to enhance governance efficacy and community well-being. This paper represents a vital step towards fostering inclusive and equitable governance practices in a rapidly evolving socio-political landscape, emphasising the importance of embracing the complexities of tradition and modernity for a system that meets the diverse needs of all community members. Thus, the findings and recommendations presented in this paper are at the heart of efforts to foster sustainable development and promote social cohesion -- a foundational aspect of effective nation-building endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African government has been focused on repealing unconstitutional laws, passing transformative policies, and building democratic and transparent policies responsive to the demands of the current generation and the public. This erected a need to have policy systems that largely resonate and address the problems upstretched in societies, intending to improve the quality of lives and advance communities. The National Framework for Municipal Indigent Policies issued a guiding document as a source of reference for the formulation and implementation of municipal indigent policies, with the intent of reducing poverty and eliminating service delivery backlogs in municipalities. The study seeks to examine and explore how indigent policies are implemented in rural municipalities to propose strategies to enhance the framework for sustainable service delivery. The objective of the study is to determine whether municipal indigent policies fulfil their dual purpose, which is to improve the lives of indigents and improve access to basic services. The study has established that indigent policies are deemed not sufficient to address the needs of indigents living in poverty and are reinforcing poverty rather than alleviating it. This has resulted in the dysfunction of municipal administration in terms of their indigent policies' implementation, failing the policies to yield their intended objectives, and as a result, most rural municipalities ended up being characterised as poor in their service delivery. The study argues that indigent policies can be consistent and serve as appropriate tools to fulfil the needs of indigent households, given that they are effectively formulated and their implementation yields desired outcomes. The study employed a qualitative research methodology supplemented by scholarly review of existing literature and document analysis. The study significantly contributes to theory and practice, concludes by proposing possible ways in which the challenges confronting municipal indigent policies can be effectively dealt with, and recommends that further empirical research be conducted to draw conclusions from both primary and secondary data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our democratic state it is vital to continue the fight against corruption. Although it has never been easy to successfully prevent corruption in any democratic society, anticorruption efforts remain important. The spread of corruption continues to affect every aspect of society in South Africa, and is a pandemic that undermines the government effort to spend public money for service delivery effectively. Acts of corruption threaten every citizen, but mostly those who are vulnerable. Effective implementation of anti-corruption systems remains the biggest challenge in the public sector. The literature argues that corrupt activities that are taking place in government structures cause citizens to lose confidence in the public sector. This paper reports on a study whose aim is to investigate what the impediments to the prevention of corruption in the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) are. The study is qualitative in nature, with primary and secondary data collected and analysed. The primary data was collected from the DHA and the secondary data from government documents, gazettes, books and journal articles. The key finding is that the DHA Counter Corruption Unit is short staffed and some officers/officials are unskilled and have too little experience to support the unit's mandate to eradicate corruption in the department. This article concludes that, in order for the DHA to effectively fight and prevent corruption, it must recruit officials who are skilled, experienced and corruptionfree for its Counter Corruption Unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African government faces the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequalities. This article focuses on the challenge of poverty. One of the ways in which the government of South Africa seeks to address the challenge of poverty is through the Child Support Grant (CSG) programme that was first implemented in 1998. The Child Support Grant is intended to ensure that the basic needs of the children of a vulnerable group of society are met. The context is Emalahleni Local Municipality, and the main objective is to investigate the perceptions of caregivers on the utilisation of the Child Support Grant. The study adopted qualitative research which focuses on the issues to be understood by applying qualitative measures. In this regard, qualitative data collection and analysis methods and primary and secondary data were used. The primary data was collected through a survey that focused on the residents of Emalahleni Local Municipality. Key findings of the study are that the Child Support Grant improves households' ability to meet basic needs such as food and clothing. In addition, the grants assists families make investments in education, which increases the chances of breaking the cycle of poverty. However, there was some evidence from community members (who are not caregivers) suggesting that there are cases of abuse of Child Support Grant money by some recipients in the community. As a result of this, the researchers suggest that SASSA must employ social workers directly to monitor whether caregivers use the grants for the intended purpose, which is to take care of the needs of beneficiaries. This, however, does not in any way suggest that the Child Support grant is not making a positive impact on recipient households. The article makes a contribution to the body of knowledge by providing empirically backed conclusions on this important social security intervention by the South African government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since attaining independence in 1980, the government of Zimbabwe has adopted numerous reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance. These include the leadership code, the central bank's Corporate Governance Guidelines, the Corporate Guidelines for State Enterprises and Parastatals (SEPs) and the Zimbabwe Code on Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE). Furthermore, corporate governance principles and best practices were embedded in the Constitution of Zimbabwe in 2013, the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19] and the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10:31]. Despite the adoption of the aforementioned reform measures, corporate governance principles and best practices have not taken root in Zimbabwe's public sector. Scholars such as Moyo, Zhou, Chigudu, Ncube and Maunganidze and Chavhunduka and Sikwala have conducted research on public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe. However, their work does not comprehensively explain why public sector corporate governance has failed to take root in Zimbabwe's body politic, especially among SEPs. Thus, this paper seeks to fill this lacuna in academic literature. Data was collected through documentary search. Government policy documents such as ZIMCODE and legislation that provides for corporate governance, ruling party policy documents such as the leadership code, reports by the Bretton Woods institutions journal and newspaper articles were analysed. The research findings reveal that public sector corporate governance reforms have failed to take root in Zimbabwe because of systematic corruption or rent seeking behaviour, captured anti-corruption bodies, patronage networks, party/state conflation, militarisation of the state and absence of political will. We argue that before reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe can take root, Zimbabwe's body politic needs to be demilitarised and liberated from the predatory securocrat comprador bourgeoise and politically linked cartels that have captured the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Public Administration and Management (PAM) academic programmes as offered in many of South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges capture the very mission of these institutions, which is to curb scarcity of skills in various employment sectors? This is the guiding question of the study. It is asked in the context of a myriad of literature in Public Administration, with some indicating that public administration as a practice is not a profession and that to this far there is no clarity as to the utilisation of graduates possessing this kind of academic qualification within employment sectors. The study is qualitative in nature, and a critical scholarship review was used as the main data collection method. The study found that PAM as currently offered through the TVET's National Accredited Training Education Diploma is not highly in demand in the market. The study therefore recommends that Public Administration and Management programmes offered in TVET colleges be discontinued as traditional universities and universities of technology are doing sufficient training in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like in other South African district municipalities, the practice of Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) in Mopani District Municipality (MDM) is problematic. Lack of cooperation between municipalities is blameable for poor communication within district IGR structures in MDM. The main aim of this article is to ascertain the nature of IGR in MDM. To realise this aim, the following questions were asked: what is the nature of IGR in MDM? In addition, what are the main factors contributing to poor communications between municipalities MDM? In examining these questions, a qualitative research methodology was employed whereby triangulation of key informant interviews and documentary search was applied in collecting data. Towards the end, possible solutions for improved IGR in MDM are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the dilemma that the parliament of Zimbabwe faces in contributing to the formulation and execution of Zimbabwe's foreign policy. The Constitution of Zimbabwe is clear, stating that "all institutions and agencies of the state and Government at every level are accountable to Parliament". During the period 2000- 2017, Zimbabwe embarked on high politics in which the executive made vital, high-level impact decisions, which ordinarily should not escape the attention and sanction of parliament, including Zimbabwe's decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth in 2003. Several scholars portray parliament of Zimbabwe as a weak, if not the poorer and less helpful cousin of the three arms of the State. This tag has been made because of the tilt in balance by the existence of what in many Scholars view, as powerful dominant executive. This article will unravel the structural efficiencies and deficiencies impinging the interface between the two institutions and proffer recommendations for a healthy tension between the two arms of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land question in South Africa is a politically saturated construct that generated colossal answers in scholarly accounts. The imprints of forced removals on the social landscape of South Africa seem indelible, while the impact of restitution programme is questionable. This article contends that South Africa, having the challenge of land inequalities, the new democratic government in 1994 adopted policies aimed at using land reform as a means of fostering economic growth. The article is empirical and the context of its consideration is the Gauteng Regional Land Claims Commission. The research methodology adopted is qualitative, and the aim is to unpack the backlog problem in land claims. Both questionnaires with open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews were employed. Secondary data is limited to a literature review. The findings illustrate that the Commission deviated from its mandate. This article recommends the establishment of a restitution unit. A proposed model is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]