Recent developments in Africa have ignited the pessimistic idea that prospects for the consolidation of democracy and constitutionalism remain a pipe dream. Africa has seen countless disputed elections and coups d’etat in the past few years, signalling a backslide in democracy on the continent. The courts, as the final arbiter in electoral disputes, have the potential to play a crucial role in deepening democracy. This article, therefore, drawing from a comparative analysis of cases from Zimbabwe, Kenya and Malawi, examines the role of courts in adjudicating election petitions in Africa. It explores the intersection of democracy, constitutionalism, and electoral justice, highlighting how judicial decisions influence the legitimacy of elections and governance. It is observed that while some courts have demonstrated a commitment to upholding democratic principles, others have fallen short and lack the adjudicative rigour and independence necessary to entrench constitutionalism. It is argued that if the courts are to make an impact in entrenching democracy and constitutionalism, there is a need for a synthesis of adjudicative principles to ensure consistency and credibility.
In South Africa, stormwater management is a constitutional duty of local government. However, many municipalities face recurring stormwater flooding that devastates communities, interrupts schooling, contaminates water sources, and amplifies inequality, particularly in informal settlements. Therefore, stormwater flooding is a symptom of local government’s failure to manage stormwater systems effectively. This failure stems from a collapse of fundamental tenets of public value in local government, including accountability, good governance, and the political will to prioritise citizens’ constitutional rights. This paper argues that an implied constitutional duty to adopt a ‘public value’ approach to stormwater management can be inferred from South African law. While the term ‘public value’ is not explicit in the Constitution, this paper contends that the duty to infuse public value in stormwater management emanates from the Constitution’s foundational values, public administration principles, the transformative vision of the Bill of Rights and the developmental mandate of local government. This paper accordingly proposes a public value approach to reimagine municipal stormwater management through intergovernmental financing, oversight and support. These measures include strengthening provincial oversight through binding directives, mandating climate-resilient national engineering standards, ring-fencing maintenance budgets, linking national infrastructure grants to maintenance performance, and prioritising the co-production of solutions with communities, especially through the in-situ upgrading of informal settlements.
Safeguards are one of three World Trade Organization (WTO)-sanctioned trade remedies that countries may use to protect their domestic industries against various forms of increased international competition. However, few African countries make use of the instrument, with only Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco and South Africa as active users, while three more countries have each conducted a single safeguard investigation. There are some WTO inconsistencies in the way each of these countries conduct safeguard investigations, but nothing that cannot be addressed without too much effort. Other African countries, especially the more industrialised countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, should finalise their safeguards legislation and request technical assistance from the WTO and the African countries actively using the instrument to rapidly upskill to allow themselves to use the instrument. Safeguards can be instrumental in protecting domestic industries against increased imports and allow them the opportunity to adjust to such increased competition, thereby enabling African countries to participate more fully in international trade and beneficiate raw materials domestically, all of which could contribute to Africa’s economic growth.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) is currently reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government, marking the beginning of a new era for a sphere whose constitutional and legislative powers have significantly contributed to the development of local communities. Despite this recognition, local government continues to face persistent challenges, including deficiencies in administrative governance, service delivery backlogs, infrastructure constraints, and both financial and structural limitations. However, the review of the White Paper fails to acknowledge that many of these challenges can be significantly attributed to the low literacy levels of councillors—the key decision-makers in municipalities—among other factors. This omission persists despite the minister’s public admission that more than 300 councillors in the KwaZulu-Natal Province are unable to read or write. This article argues that the absence of minimum educational, expertise and competency requirements for councillors may undermine the effective implementation of the proposed reforms, especially given the increasing complexity of political, financial and administrative tasks and decision-making within the local government sphere. The article undertakes a critical analysis of political rights and principles enshrined in the Constitution in the context of the dysfunctional local government in South Africa, and in response, offers a carefully crafted councillor competency capacity development framework that does not encroach on the relevant constitutional guarantees.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 dedicates Chapter 16 (Articles 255, 256 and 257) to its amendment through parliamentary and popular initiatives. These initiatives are multi-staged with various processes and actors involved including the Kenyan people, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), County Assemblies, Parliament (National Assembly and the Senate) and the President. The Kenyan experience shows that there have been several proposed amendments to the 2010 Constitution since 2013 that have all been unsuccessful. Questions have been raised including the constitutional remits of both parliamentary and popular initiative amendments. In certain instances, the superior courts have been called upon to determine this question by exercising their role of constitutional interpretation of the amendment provisions and determining the constitutionality of amendment processes and bills. This article critically analyses the composition and quorum of the IEBC in verifying popular initiatives and conducting national referenda, and the remits of both parliamentary and popular initiatives. It adopts a purposive interpretation of the constitutional amendment provisions using emerging jurisprudence from the superior courts, comparative jurisprudence and scholarly literature.
