As South Africa’s democracy matures, the public sector faces ongoing tensions between political dynamics and professional administration. The decline in support for the ruling party has resulted in numerous municipalities being governed by coalition arrangements, raising questions about administrative stability and professional functioning. This paper investigates how coalition governments influence the professionalism, competence, and efficiency of the South African public service. A systematic literature review was conducted, examining scholarly perspectives on the effects of coalition governance on merit-based recruitment, cadre deployment, and service delivery. The findings reveal a dual effect: coalition politics can both challenge and reinforce public sector professionalism. In many cases, coalition arrangements exacerbate political interference, leading to patronage appointments and instability that undermine merit-based practices, administrative continuity, and service delivery. Conversely, in municipalities where coalition partners prioritise collaboration and adherence to governance norms, there is potential for reforms that strengthen administrative accountability, professional ethics, and institutional capacity. Cadre deployment practices remain a critical constraint, as political appointments continue to compete with merit-based recruitment, highlighting the need for stronger mechanisms to protect professional standards. Drawing on these insights, the paper proposes the Public Sector Professionalisation Model (PSPM), which provides a framework for enhancing skills, ethics, and efficiency within the public service despite the challenges posed by coalition politics. The study thus concludes that while coalition governments reflect democratic diversity, they present significant risks to the professionalisation and effective functioning of South Africa’s public sector, necessitating deliberate strategies to safeguard administrative competence and service delivery.
Water use authorisations (WUAs) in South Africa aim to regulate the sustainable use and distribution of water in the water sector. These WUAs are supported by compliance monitoring and enforcement (CME) processes to ensure compliance and performance in line with prescribed conditions of the authorisation. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that numerous challenges exist in the South African water sector regarding CME processes, including compliance inspections and investigations. To this end, the article aims to explore these perceived challenges and opportunities for CME by focusing on the Chief Directorate: Water Use Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement at the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants in the unit who identified a total of 13 challenges and eight opportunities for CME related to WUAs. Key challenges included insufficient skills and knowledge, interpretation inconsistencies of the water-related legislation, political interference, and undefined roles and responsibilities. Key opportunities included stakeholder engagements and increased regulatory awareness among water users. In the pursuit to improve the overall effectiveness of CME in the South African water sector, it is recommended that the DWS ensure avoidance of political interference in the sector, continuous awareness and competency training to upskill employees for ongoing capacity building and skills development. Improvements in communication and the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities will also support preplanning and collaboration among government departments. There is also a call to strengthen the base of designated environmental management inspectorates that play a crucial role in enforcing compliance in the sector.
In A History of Christianity, the Oxford scholar Diarmaid MacCulloch - a keen observer of ecclesiastical history and religious conflict - warns against facile and glib constructions of the past. “There is no surer basis for fanaticism than bad history, which is invariably history oversimplified,” he writes. Historians, MacCulloch asserts, “should seek to promote sanity” (MacCulloch 2009, 12).
Digital platforms have become important tools for enhancing youth representation and policy advocacy within South African municipal governance. This study, focusing on Vhembe and Capricorn District Municipalities in Limpopo Province, addresses ongoing challenges such as youth disengagement, low voter turnout, and limited influence in municipal decision-making processes. The research aims to deepen understanding of how digital technologies can amplify youth voices and support more inclusive policy advocacy, thereby strengthening youth democratic participation at the local level. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on semi-structured interviews with youth activists, policymakers, and technology experts to explore perceptions and experiences related to digital engagement in local governance. The theoretical framework is grounded in participatory democracy and digital inclusion theories, which guide analysis of the intersections between technology, youth engagement, and policy influence. Findings reveal that digital platforms offer significant opportunities for youth to participate in municipal governance and advocate for policy change. However, challenges such as the digital divide and unequal access to technology constrain these opportunities. The study underscores the need for targeted policies to address these disparities and promote equitable access to digital resources. The implications of this research are relevant to policymakers, civil society, and electoral management bodies, highlighting the importance of integrating technology-driven approaches to foster meaningful youth participation in local governance. By focusing on South Africa, the study contributes to broader discussions on democratic renewal and socio-political inclusion, offering practical recommendations to empower young citizens through technology.
Urban water scarcity is a pressing sustainability challenge, particularly in rapidly growing cities of the Global South, where unplanned urbanisation, population growth and weak governance exacerbate pressures on freshwater resources. This study investigates the relationship between urban expansion patterns and water scarcity in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area in Uganda. Guided by the integrated urban water governance theory, the research employs a mixed-methods design combining quantitative surveys of 400 households, qualitative data from 15 key informant interviews and eight focus-group discussions. Water scarcity was measured using the water scarcity index, encompassing availability, accessibility, affordability and reliability. Results indicate that infilling patterns have no significant impact on water scarcity, whereas extension and linear expansion patterns significantly reduce scarcity. Conversely, sprawl and large-scale project developments strongly exacerbate water scarcity. These findings highlight that coordinated and structured urban expansion through extension and linear patterns enhances water access and reduces economic and physical scarcity, while unplanned growth intensifies both access and affordability challenges. Qualitative data corroborate these trends, revealing household experiences of long distances to water sources, high costs and unreliable supply. The study contributes to the theory by linking urban expansion patterns to multidimensional water scarcity and informs policy by providing evidence for urban planning and water management interventions. Recommendations include integrating water resource planning into urban expansion policies, conducting water impact assessments for large-scale projects, and promoting structured growth patterns that align with existing water infrastructure to enhance sustainable urban water supply in rapidly urbanising contexts.
South Africa continues to battle against issues of service delivery, poverty, unemployment, and inequality. These issues persist despite numerous efforts of the South African government to become a capable, responsive, and accountable state that is characterised by transparency. Hence, the South African District Development Model (DDM) was introduced in 2019 as a cooperative governance framework aimed at building a capable, ethical, and developmental state. While this model is designed to address South Africa’s development issues, its challenges and prospects remain largely unknown. This paper aims to critically analyse the potential of DDM in building a capable South African local government. It is informed by a qualitative research approach in which government documents, newspaper articles, journal articles, books, and book chapters sourced through Google search and scholarly databases were consulted. The findings indicate that while DDM can capacitate local government, it is likely to face challenges in implementation in some contexts. These challenges include, but are not limited to, poor coordination, lack of resources, lack of capacity, and lack of community participation. Therefore, the successful implementation of DDM requires, inter alia, effective intergovernmental coordination, substantive community participation, and stakeholder capacity development.
For several decades, the apartheid state and white sport federations in South Africa regulated sport, reinforcing the apartheid regime before 1994. The relationship between government and sport evolved into a hegemonic system that perpetuated and strengthened the racist ideology of apartheid. The level and scope of state interference in sport fluctuated, varying from strict control under government regulations to more regionalised and accommodating governance. The divisive nature of sport regulation deeply impacted South African society, with most local sport bodies aligning their policies with government mandates. Rival sport organisations existed within Black and Coloured communities, who firmly believed that “no sport was possible in an abnormal society.” These communities opposed segregated sport and, in particular, rejected the Springbok emblem as a symbol of apartheid. Their opposition was expressed through a lack of support for the Springbok rugby team and a strong backing for opposing teams. This article explores how the triumphs of the South African rugby team in the 1995 and 2007 Rugby World Cups ignited support for the Springbok emblem and symbol. However, it argues that the emblem’s lack of representativeness for the broader society remained a significant barrier to its widespread acceptance. It was only during the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, when the team was captained by a Black player (Siya Kolisi) and featured a diverse team, that the Springboks received near-universal support and began to be seen as a symbol of unity.
The debate on the relationship between money, politics, and democracy was intensified in South Africa following the enactment of the Political Parties Funding Act (2018) and the Zondo Commission (2022). While previous literature focuses on the national level, this paper examines the influence of private party funding in post-apartheid South Africa’s municipal elections. The case analysed is the Mnquma Local Municipality (MLM) in the 2021 local government elections (LGE). This paper aims to unearth the relationships formed between successful candidates (political incumbents) and the private donors to the candidates’ parties. This paper adopts a qualitative case study research design, using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings reveal three interrelated dynamics: first, donors are deeply embedded in the local political economy, and their motivations are primarily economic; second, donor-incumbent relationships are reciprocal and based on informal networks; third, reimbursements to donors include municipal tenders, influence over municipal procurement, regulatory gatekeeping, and privileged political access. These patterns are shown to be structurally linked to incumbency and control over municipal authority rather than confined to a single political party. The neo-pluralist theory of the state guided the interpretation of these findings. The study contributes a focused municipal-level account of political finance in South Africa, demonstrating how economic resources shape access to political authority and the allocation of public resources within local governance. It highlights the implications of these dynamics for democratic governance and democratic consolidation, particularly where rule-bound procurement and political equality may be weakened by structured financial influence.
This article analyses the data-driven crime-fighting strategy implemented by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government, focusing on the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan and the Emergency Policing and Incident Command system. Although these initiatives, backed by significant investment in surveillance technologies (CCTV, drones, ShotSpotter, body/dash cams), have demonstrably increased crime detection and arrests, there is limited evidence of a corresponding decrease in crime trends in hotspots. This discrepancy is attributed to systemic capacity issues within the national South African Police Service and a clear lack of strategic intergovernmental cooperation, despite some operational collaboration. The analysis, based on open data and descriptive statistics, concludes that effective crime reduction necessitates clarified roles, aligned efforts and fundamental reforms across all spheres of government and the broader criminal justice system.
The South African government has expressed interest in setting up a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). This study examined the views of experts in various fields regarding their perceptions of whether the proposed SWF is desirable, feasible and sustainable. The research was based on a qualitative research design, where interviews, secondary data and credible documents were triangulated. Employing economic institutionalism as an analytical framework in which societal actors act within a system that defines relationships between formal and informal actors of society regarding how they influence behaviour and transact, the study concluded that South Africa is in a weak economic position to establish an SWF. The findings suggest that South African policymakers would benefit from integrating long-term economic plans into the country’s fiscal and monetary frameworks, as the country has neither the capability nor has it defined the need for an SWF. By investigating the elements that can determine the desirability, viability and sustainability of an SWF for South Africa, the implication is that for African SWFs to be successful, particularly in South Africa, governments must improve governance, transparency and investment strategies. SWFs are not a panacea for the issues that resource-rich nations face and are not a substitute for the rule of law or badly crafted rules. South African policymakers have not defined the rationale and financing of the proposed SWF. Against this background and findings, the study proposes a blueprint for an SWF, predicated on six key considerations that serve as critical success factors for sustaining an SWF.
This essay uses a review of Steven Friedman’s book, Good Jew, Bad Jew, to identify an ideological logic, which it calls “scapegoating”. In this regard, the book conjures a totemic figure, something Friedman calls the “Israeli state”, a racist, thieving fetish that devours, kills and lies, even transforming anti-Semitism itself into a self-serving ideology. The “Israeli State” has no history, no inner life, no complexity.
Human settlements fulfil fundamental human rights and substantially impact the quality of life. In South Africa, the Department of Human Settlements has delivered almost five million houses, benefiting more than 20 million people to date. Furthermore, the government continues to institute human settlement programmes to eradicate slums and informal settlements by providing housing options, particularly to the country’s poorest households. However, these achievements have also been tainted by severe housing defects, particularly with the poor quality of the housing’s physical infrastructure. This article examines the relationship between the physical characteristics of houses and the provision of basic services among housing beneficiaries of human settlement programmes. Quantitative techniques were utilised in the structured questionnaires. The results revealed that most human settlements are headed by households and also demonstrate that the provision of human settlement programmes accordingly features the physical infrastructural requirements of a home, the floor, walls, and roof, which human settlement occupants were happy with. The findings also revealed that, on average, the structural conditions are generally good. Furthermore, the delivery of low-cost housing has prioritised the adjacent provision of essential services like water, sanitation, electricity, and refuse removal to improve the standard of human life in Mpumalanga. In support of the theoretical framework, the findings demonstrate that housing characteristics and the provision of basic services contribute to creating conditions congruent with residents’ satisfaction in human settlement programmes in Mpumalanga province. The article concludes that although a house’s physical characteristics are important, providing essential services is necessary for human survival.
