"He who pays the piper …", the anomaly of custom and constitution, local government and traditional leadership.

In December 2003 the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003 (No 41 of 2003) was eventually promulgated. This was the culmination of an extended process of submissions, consultation, releasing of a draft White Paper, workshops, activities of a White Paper Task Team and its subcommittees, meetings with the responsible minister and between various ministries. Stemming from the experiences and perceptions of an anthropologist commissioned to become involved in a part of this process, this paper seeks to interrogate some of the issues which emerged in the course of proceedings. In arguing that policy development and implementation is about intentional human behaviour, and that some preceding ideas, conceptions or notions are always involved, it follows that many variables can play a role in the decision-making and strategies involved. Thus the information available, perceptions of such information, political (and other) agendas and power relations between individuals and groups, and between levels of authority, all come into play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]