Municipal governance and the space for meaningful engagement: local government, citizenship and public participation in Amahlati and great Kei Municipalities
- Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Authors: Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Date: 2015-01
- Subjects: Municipal government--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Local government--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25107 , vital:63978
- Description: Since the dawn of democracy in 1994 and the subsequent adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in 1996, new forms of “wall to wall” municipalities were created throughout South Africa in 2000 and given a mandate of a local developmental sphere. The founding blocks of this was through the creation of the three spheres of government mechanism, namely national, provincial and local, each sphere of government was regarded as distinctive, interrelated and interdependent from one another. The local government sphere however has since mid-2000’s been marred by persistent service delivery protests throughout the country, in recent years the service delivery protests have been accompanied by violence and intimidation. The Eastern Cape Province has not been spared from this phenomenon, media reports, independent monitoring think tanks and yearly statistical results released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) through the ‘Gatherings Act’ indicates that service delivery protests in the province has been on an upward trend on yearly basis since the mid-2000’s. But much more detail is required in understanding the causes behind what are sometimes termed “civil unrest.” The thesis attempts to highlight trends regarding reasons for protest, methods of protest, and the profiling of areas where the protests occur. The findings would meaningfully contribute to the local government discourse and foster alternative mechanisms of engaging communities through better governance and development mechanism by local authorities. The ultimate goal is to create alternative solutions in addressing communities’ needs at local level for policy makers. Currently there is an existing gap in investigating service delivery protests especialy in rural municipalities, most of the municipal research findings and policies are predominantly urban oriented and are not tailor made in addressing rural community’s needs on governance and development. Although the South African Constitution makes provision on steps to be followed on governance and development at local level both vertical and horizontal integration, the Constitution is however silent on addressing governance and development needs of rural communities. As a result of this silence, rural municipalities are confined to develop policies that are not specific to their local needs. Hence the research was conducted in rural communities of Amahlathi and Great Kei municipalities respectively through mixed methods between quantitative and qualitative research. The thesis primarily sought to assess the actual nature and content of forms of engagement in the current public participation discourse at the two municipalities and perceptions thereof of communities on this matter. The information gathered in this research is intended to provide policy makers and those with interests on local government with a better understanding on the dynamics of public participation involvement and service delivery protests on rural based municipalities. The research also seeks to generate new information, insights and perspectives on service delivery protests in order to develop alternative strategies in addressing and minimising service delivery protests. This would assist local government practitioners on the one hand, with planning and implementing a focused approach on governance and development for communities while on the other, introduce an alternative perspective that is evidence based for policy makers. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015-01
- Authors: Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Date: 2015-01
- Subjects: Municipal government--South Africa--Eastern Cape , Local government--South Africa--Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25107 , vital:63978
- Description: Since the dawn of democracy in 1994 and the subsequent adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in 1996, new forms of “wall to wall” municipalities were created throughout South Africa in 2000 and given a mandate of a local developmental sphere. The founding blocks of this was through the creation of the three spheres of government mechanism, namely national, provincial and local, each sphere of government was regarded as distinctive, interrelated and interdependent from one another. The local government sphere however has since mid-2000’s been marred by persistent service delivery protests throughout the country, in recent years the service delivery protests have been accompanied by violence and intimidation. The Eastern Cape Province has not been spared from this phenomenon, media reports, independent monitoring think tanks and yearly statistical results released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) through the ‘Gatherings Act’ indicates that service delivery protests in the province has been on an upward trend on yearly basis since the mid-2000’s. But much more detail is required in understanding the causes behind what are sometimes termed “civil unrest.” The thesis attempts to highlight trends regarding reasons for protest, methods of protest, and the profiling of areas where the protests occur. The findings would meaningfully contribute to the local government discourse and foster alternative mechanisms of engaging communities through better governance and development mechanism by local authorities. The ultimate goal is to create alternative solutions in addressing communities’ needs at local level for policy makers. Currently there is an existing gap in investigating service delivery protests especialy in rural municipalities, most of the municipal research findings and policies are predominantly urban oriented and are not tailor made in addressing rural community’s needs on governance and development. Although the South African Constitution makes provision on steps to be followed on governance and development at local level both vertical and horizontal integration, the Constitution is however silent on addressing governance and development needs of rural communities. As a result of this silence, rural municipalities are confined to develop policies that are not specific to their local needs. Hence the research was conducted in rural communities of Amahlathi and Great Kei municipalities respectively through mixed methods between quantitative and qualitative research. The thesis primarily sought to assess the actual nature and content of forms of engagement in the current public participation discourse at the two municipalities and perceptions thereof of communities on this matter. The information gathered in this research is intended to provide policy makers and those with interests on local government with a better understanding on the dynamics of public participation involvement and service delivery protests on rural based municipalities. The research also seeks to generate new information, insights and perspectives on service delivery protests in order to develop alternative strategies in addressing and minimising service delivery protests. This would assist local government practitioners on the one hand, with planning and implementing a focused approach on governance and development for communities while on the other, introduce an alternative perspective that is evidence based for policy makers. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015-01
Heritage transformation and the role of museums in post-apartheid South Africa: the case of the East London museum
- Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Authors: Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Museums , Cultural property , Museums -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29054 , vital:76526
- Description: The traditional understandings of museums and the heritage sector in general have been challenged in post apartheid South Africa. The main challenge has been how to transform meaning making, heritage construction, and knowledge production in these sectors from the colonial and apartheid past to represent the diversity of South Africans. Based on an in-depth study using unstructured interviews from a sample of museum staff, museum visitors and community members; this study investigated the extent to which permanent displays in the East London museum have transformed to depict cultural diversity and heritage of all South Africans, in particular the history of black South Africans. The main argument is that despite the efforts made by government to transform the heritage sector since 1994, permanent displays in South African are still Eurocentric and do not sufficiently represent the cultural diversity of all South Africans, in particular the culture of the African majority. Findings seem to confirm the initial argument, that even though government has had good policies to address the transformation of the heritage sector and museums in particular, not much has been translated into real change of permanent displays in museums. Thus, for effective transformation to occur in the museum sector, the study strongly recommends that government should put in place properly skilled personnel and accountability structures to monitor and evaluate its transformation policies. Most importantly, a clear policy framework and a transformation charter to guide the transformation processes of museums and related displays need to be developed. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2010
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Sokupa, Thabile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-477X
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Museums , Cultural property , Museums -- Management
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29054 , vital:76526
- Description: The traditional understandings of museums and the heritage sector in general have been challenged in post apartheid South Africa. The main challenge has been how to transform meaning making, heritage construction, and knowledge production in these sectors from the colonial and apartheid past to represent the diversity of South Africans. Based on an in-depth study using unstructured interviews from a sample of museum staff, museum visitors and community members; this study investigated the extent to which permanent displays in the East London museum have transformed to depict cultural diversity and heritage of all South Africans, in particular the history of black South Africans. The main argument is that despite the efforts made by government to transform the heritage sector since 1994, permanent displays in South African are still Eurocentric and do not sufficiently represent the cultural diversity of all South Africans, in particular the culture of the African majority. Findings seem to confirm the initial argument, that even though government has had good policies to address the transformation of the heritage sector and museums in particular, not much has been translated into real change of permanent displays in museums. Thus, for effective transformation to occur in the museum sector, the study strongly recommends that government should put in place properly skilled personnel and accountability structures to monitor and evaluate its transformation policies. Most importantly, a clear policy framework and a transformation charter to guide the transformation processes of museums and related displays need to be developed. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2010
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
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