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South Africa is undergoing a rapid decline in social and political cohesion at various scales. This paper explores Cape Town's experience of socio-territorial messages and identities deployed by the City administration and the leading party, the Democratic Alliance. I focus on relational constructions of the subjectivity of the 'ratepayer' and the deserving Capetownian as constructed in the City and the DA's discourse and policy measures in juxtaposition to 'street people' and other supposedly deviant urban subjects and how, as such, the wilful ignorance of the first remains both unchallenged and in service of an exclusionary and unjust spatial order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the question of what accounts for South Africa's current deep political and economic crisis. The paper argues that most theories of development do not take into account the important role of what Partha Chatterjee describes as political society. In polities such as South Africa, political society encompasses the vast majority of voters who are marginal to the capitalist economy yet central to democratic politics. Democratically elected leaders provide resources to the electorate on the basis of a 'politics of exception' which benefits groups rather than individuals and is distributed unevenly. As a result, many of the assumptions about political and economic development in the global economy are undermined by local political conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of representative democracy in South Africa is questionable, given the lack of confidence in the Parliament and the recurring service delivery protests, which indicate that citizens’ opinions are unheard. Due to this, the Members of Parliament (MPs) devise strategies such as democratic innovation to involve citizens in policymaking as the platform for deliberation. Given this context, the paper discusses public participation in policymaking and how declining confidence in the Parliament necessitates democratic innovations as a panacea for increasing citizens’ participation in Parliament activities. The paper also identifies dilemmas that occur in public involvement. Data was generated by interviews (with 16 MPs), observation of plenary debates, minutes of the Parliament, Hansard, minutes of Select and Standing Committees, and Parliamentary speeches. Findings suggest that despite the complexity of implementing public participation in South Africa, the Parliament has made significant progress since 1994 in widening democratic innovation to facilitate public participation. However, disadvantaged people continue to be marginalized from policymaking. The paper suggests that there is a need for political education and public participation in policymaking to strengthen democratic institutions in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the ethical issues and repatriation options related to the return of museum artefacts taken from African countries, mostly during the colonial era. In the context of a relatively new democracy, like South Africa, determining the value of cultural artefacts held in foreign collections, and thus the urgency and priority of their repatriation, may be important. Using a value-based approach, this paper details the design and results of an empirical enquiry into a range of repatriation and restitution options intended to affect the return of cultural artefacts to South Africa. An invited online survey and focus group approach was deployed to investigate attitudes, experiences and the nature of the demand for repatriation, amongst South African museum curators and collection managers. Findings showed that acceptable repatriation options depend crucially on the class of artefacts being discussed, as well as the values being sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa faces several massive, interconnected challenges that reverberate through its political economy, society and education system. This paper offers lessons for the current conjuncture by exploring radical democracy and educational experiments in two other contexts: Brazil, as a point of close comparison, and Rojava (northern Syria), as a point for dissimilar comparison but which offers a "real utopia". The Brazilian student movement (2015–16) involved several waves of mass school occupations in the "student spring" (primavera secundarista), with students demanding free, quality public education and, within the occupations, experimenting with democratic, dialogical, caring educational spaces. The Revolution in Rojava, emerging in 2012 and continuing to date, offers an alternative model of social organisation guided by women's liberation, ecological harmony, and "Democratic Confederalism", a form of anti-capitalist radical democracy. It has provided fertile ground for a profoundly different education system from the statist, authoritarian models previously imposed in the region. This paper draws out several prominent themes from each context, drawing these into conversation with the contemporary South African context. First, the movements demonstrate the pedagogical importance of language and culture, history and social dynamics, the decommodification of education, feminism and ecology. Second, they highlight the political importance of education for self-organisation in relation to broader processes of social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994, South Africa's political governance changed from being a White minority-controlled apartheid state to a democracy—a relatively peaceful transition underpinned by a social cohesion and reconciliation ideology, namely, that all (both perpetrators and the oppressed) were victims requiring healing in the new proverbial "rainbow nation." Reconciling racial fractures, anti-Blackness and unevenness of the higher education landscape, however, remains elusive. In this paper, we engage narrative inquiry to reflect as academics of color on our experiences in the last two and a half decades, of negotiating a mutating higher education space still haunted by residual racial hegemony and anti-Blackness in almost every sphere of the fraternity. We draw on Grosfoguel's Fanonian-inspired constructs, namely, the "zones of being and non-being" and his conception of racism as beyond mere color racism but as a "dehumanization related to the materiality of domination." We argue that color racism as it relates to the traditional apartheid plantation model has morphed into a neoliberal plantation in the higher education space with new colonial masters (managerial elites in the zone of being) and that Black students and Black academics continue to experience the university as alien as they assimilate hegemonic western Eurocentric culture and epistemology. We consider how we might stand in the cracks, look through and prise open such cracks in agentic contemplation of a resistance to emerging new forms of racism and anti-Blackness that present in South African higher education and how we might respond to student activism (the #RhodesMustFall movement) that calls for curriculum transformation and decolonization. An agenda at risk of subversion by the neoliberal grand narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-apartheid government in South Africa has provided increased opportunities for public participation at the local government level. Local party politics tend to bedevil these local participatory processes. This paper discusses ANC party politics and how they impact on public participation. It draws on a case study of five municipalities in the Cape Winelands District of the Western Cape that was conducted through semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis. Local ANC politics has a huge impact on local government structures and their participatory processes. The ANC is a unitary structure in its policy but there is a lack of uniformity in understanding, commitment, and implementation of participatory policies at different levels of the organisation and government spheres. Some deployed public representatives work to advance themselves and their factions, at the expense of the ANC and the communities they are supposed to be leading. The findings of this study have as much significance for civil society as for the local state and its representatives. They show that it is not always the case that the state is bad and civil society is good as leaders of civil society get involved in clientelist relationships and blatant corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to create a theoretical link between land reform and development as a means to alleviate poverty in South Africa, particularly in rural areas. The then apartheid regime used unjust laws to violently dispossess the indigenous black South African landowners of their land and distributed the land to the whites who utilised them for different socio-economic purposes including farming. Methodologically this paper used a literature review (qualitative) research approach to assess the extent to which the redistributed land to the blacks have been put to use for productive purposes to alleviate poverty, create jobs and combat hunger in South Africa. The democratic dispensation which started in 1994-ushered in a black majority government, black South Africans are now clamouring for the return of all the land that was illegally acquired by the white South Africans during the apartheid regimes. To this end, previously dispossessed blacks were given back some of their lands for productive usage. Some of the findings include the following: various land reforms laws, policies, measures, strategies have dismally failed due to corruption, nepotism, charisma and patronage. In conclusion, the paper points out that land reforms were embarked upon to eradicate the land injustices and inequalities of apartheid and to alleviate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a relatively new democracy, South Africa is seeking ways to protect and promote its African heritage. There is increased interest in the repatriation of South African cultural artefacts, mostly taken during the colonial era, currently held in western museums. Internationally, calls for the repatriation of cultural artefacts from western museum collections back to their originating countries in the context of decolonisation and the 'Black Lives Matter' movement are increasing. As a means of advancing the debate and feeding into draft South African policy, this paper examines the arguments for and against the repatriation of African cultural artefacts from the point of view of an African country. A values-based approach is used to analyse the debate. The ways in which South Africa has made progress towards defining, and protecting, artefacts 'of national importance', and some of the repatriation experiences of other sub-Saharan countries are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of democracy in 1994, South Africa was faced with significant issues that necessitated action to improve the levels of domestic and foreign direct investments required to accelerate economic growth. Moreover, the South African economy comprised a narrow range of exports and an over-dependence on primary production. These challenges hindered the growth within the country as well as the continent. The emergence of Special economic zones (SEZs) internationally as a policy to support industrial development targeted at incentivising economic and infrastructure development based on specific geographical areas and responding to the needs of a particular local area. This is especially useful when the government wants to extend incentives for particular activities outside designated zones. This paper is conceptual and seeks to make a critical analysis of the contribution of SEZ to the country's economy through the use of a literature review. The article further points out the extent to which jobs, foreign direct investments, and employment were triggered by SEZ use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, community members have the constitutional right to partake in local governance and the local municipal council has the constitutional mandate to facilitate community participation. Qualitative research was used to assess the impact of power relations on community participation in the Mahikeng Local Municipality. The study findings indicate that power differentials contributed to the abandonment of the legislative provisions in the Mahikeng Local Municipality in the North-West Province of South Africa. Among other things, this paper recommends finalisation of the draft public participation framework. The framework should clearly identify and define the roles of the community, elected councillors and traditional authorities. The paper recommends the development of a strategy that includes clear and comprehensive public participation guidelines, protocols and processes to facilitate implementation of the framework. In consultation with the community, a detailed community participation schedule must be developed, implemented and continuously monitored and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separation of powers among the three branches of government, in most Constitutional democracies, is a design to avert the tyranny of a personalized rule. With specific roles, in relationships characterized by separated but shared powers, each branch of government is a watchdog against the other in case of any abuse. In the South African governing system, the Constitution guarantees functional power relationships among the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary branches of the government. Nevertheless, the dominant party system, in practice, has weakened the legislative oversight and accountability powers to tame the excesses of the executive, contrary to the intendments of the drafters of the Constitution. Judicial review of the various legislative and executive actions, however, has created precedents that seek to reassert legislative capacity to hold the executive accountable. At one time or the other, the judiciary had indicted the legislature and the executive of dereliction of duties. Using primary and secondary data from judicial pronouncements, constitutional provisions, and other public documents, with extant literature, respectively, this paper reviewed the environment that prompted the activist posture of the South African judiciary. An entrenched culture of party loyalty and the incapacity of the legislature to enforce accountability have bolstered the need for assertive judicial review in ensuring accountability. The failure of the legislature to exercise its oversight power has provided the platform for the judiciary to rise as a formidable accountability instrument. Judicial independence, guaranteed by The Constitution, would continue to sustain the tenets of South African representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper on student mobilisation or youth activism in South Africa from a critical race theory, black consciousness and cultural studies perspective with an emphasis on meaning construction, symbolic action and locating the author centrally in the empirical-analytical process. It is presented through the personalised experiences and reflexive-narrative style (i.e. story-within-the-story) of the author's own point of view, which makes it an auto- (personal experience), ethno- (rich cultural and historical context) -graphic (descriptive and visual) piece. Using the autoethnographic method of narrating observations in the field, at the event of the 23 October 2015 "Fees-must-fall" gathering at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the paper offers a reflexive comparison of the experiences of the author present at two distinct (but historically related, i.e. past related to present and vice versa) political junctures of student mobilisation for higher education in South Africa—first as a student in the late 1980s and then as a passive observer-cum-social science researcher at the 2015 student protests at the Union Buildings, in Pretoria. In adopting this novel qualitative method of interrogating student mobilisation from a personal experiential point of view, this paper offers a different approach to reporting qualitative field research that conventionally presents the ideas and opinions of its participants as the main interrogation point, not that of the author's. The main narrative is therefore premised on the author's own experiences with student mobilisation for educational reform during the height of apartheid and under this current democratic social context of the "hashtag fees-must-fall" (#FMF) movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates the legacy of apartheid as a socio-economic and political system on the emerging democracy and citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa. Following the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, South Africa was subjected to the Dutch and the British political administrations. The political conquest of South Africa by these nations left the indigenous peoples stripped of their dignity, land and political rights. As well as being deprived of their human right to exist, the indigenous people experienced brutal wars, social exclusion and economic marginalization. This paper argues that apartheid and the democratic system of governance both created binaries based on inclusion and exclusion, race and class, gender and ethnicity. The failure of the democratic government to address the structural and institutional challenges not only reinforced these binaries but also perpetuated democratic inequalities, pushing poverty and unemployment to high levels. This paper traces the legacy of apartheid's social implications on a nation branded on the concept of the rainbow nation. Economically, the adoption of neo-liberal policies has failed to yield the economic growth needed for South Africa to tackle poverty, unemployment, inequality and other social issues. Although democracy has been institutionalized through the Constitution of 1996 and other relevant legislation, the South African democracy is unable to address the socio-economic and political challenges. The data for this paper was elicited from discourse analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation has been viewed as a method for strengthening local governance at the grassroots level of administration through an inclusive democracy and as an imperative portion of unprejudiced administration. Information sharing in administration is the foundation of continuous participatory procedures seen as the facilitators of aggregate insight and comprehensiveness, which are formed by the longing for the participation of the entire group or society. Using documentary method of analysis with empirical observations in the selected local municipalities in South Africa, this paper provides an insight into community and public participation in South Africa's local municipality. It further looks at the significance of public participation in governance and decision-making at the local level, the relevance of South Africa's decentralization of municipalities for local development and the effect. This paper concludes that public cooperation and participation in local government administration is a two-way imperative embracing and setting obligations for both local government authorities and the general public with persuasive communication, and a community critical thinking system, with the objective of accomplishing better governance for effective service delivery at the grassroots level. Using a content data analysis, it therefore recommended that, IDP as a process must democratically engage the public, in the assessment of current social, economic and environmental reality with the municipality.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper acknowledges that different agencies acting against poverty and participating in poverty alleviation use different languages, for example, diakonia versus development and transformational development, while dealing with the same issues. Against the background of poverty in South Africa as well as development policies from South Africa, this paper discusses the importance of diakonia as founded in the trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Using a missional paradigm, the paper discusses the missioDei as it unites with the covenant, forgiveness, empowerment, and to make God known. The paper concludes that although diakonia has a more holistic and comprehensive approach, it is important to use language which is generally understood and accepted. It therefore suggests using the term "transformational development" to educate society about the concept of diakonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty five years after the advent of democracy in South Africa, indigenous language education for San communities in South Africa is a goal that still needs to be realised. There have been various attempts, though none of these have resulted in sustained programmes or projects. In particular, attempts to implement the recommendations of a report on Khoe and San language education in schools submitted to the Northern Cape Education Department (NCED) in 2001 are reviewed. Two types of language programmes are relevant, namely language revival programmes to reintroduce languages no longer spoken by communities, and mother tongue education (MTE) programmes to ensure home language maintenance. This paper will focus on the latter, namely the possibility of providing some form of MTE within the context of the two San speech communities of Platfontein township located outside Kimberley. Different scenarios are provided taking into account the South African policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores debates and politics over the place of regulatory democracy in contemporary South African constitutionalism. Twenty-five years after the formal legal transition from apartheid, regulatory institutions – by and large not the focus of negotiations in the early 1990s – have increasingly assumed prominence within the South African state. Such organisations and their functions do not fit easily within one 'branch' of the classic legal theory of the separation of powers into three parts, namely the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive. A typology of regulatory institutions in the South African polity includes at least four distinct types. The work of these regulatory organisations in formulating and implementing law in post-apartheid South Africa has become significant in politics, especially over the past decade. While the existence and operation of regulatory institutions does not itself comprise the whole of regulatory politics, such organisations do constitute a crucial component of and locus for such politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than two decades since the advent of democracy in South Africa, the place of small-scale agriculture in rural development, poverty alleviation and food security remains ambiguous and highly contested. However, there is now some new evidence that official income poverty estimates in South Africa may be underestimating the contribution of rural, land-based livelihoods when measuring household well-being. This paper aims to explore this possibility further by identifying how household production activities are associated with improved food security among rural Eastern Cape households in the former homelands. The analysis is based on data from Statistics South Africa's 2008/9 Living Conditions Survey and its annual General Household Surveys. In adopting a food poverty lens, the findings suggest that hunger levels are lower among farming households in the Eastern Cape even though a higher percentage of these households (relative to non-farming households) live below the national food poverty line. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratic transition in South Africa was accompanied by large-scale institutional re-engineering at all levels of government. This was an extremely complex process in local government, where a racially fragmented system of municipalities underwent extensive reorganisation. Despite this, historical patterns of settlement based on race have entrenched socio-economic inequalities and highly uneven experiences of local democracy. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the differing roles of ward councillors. It examines a stratified sample of low-, mixed- and high-income wards in the City of Cape Town, and finds general yet qualified support for a view that ward councillor roles are conditioned by the socio-economic character of the areas they represent. In broad terms, councillors in low-income wards play a service broker and conflict mitigator role; councillors in mixed-income wards act as reconcilers and integrators; and councillors in high-income wards perform a placeholder and maintainer role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of universal suffrage in South Africa in 1994 brought about democracy and with it the anticipation that good governance will meet the people's fundamental needs. Such democratic dispensation was founded on democratic aspirations of service delivery and development for all, especially for the poor, the majority of whom were black Africans - the most oppressed group during apartheid in South Africa. Most citizens, whose lives were immersed in poverty, hoped that the democratic government would be responsive to the needs of the poor. On the contrary, based on the empirical research conducted with the rural women in South Africa, democratic governance is intertwined with sustained plights such as tenacious poverty, pandemic diseases, poor infrastructure (especially in rural areas), a widening economic inequality and the escalating violence against women and children (such as rape and trafficking). As a result, social movements, including women's grassroots organisations continue to find ways to survive against the predominance of social, economic, and political injustices in South Africa's democracy. This paper discusses core and structural factors that affect rural women's development agendas and which contribute to various forms of inequalities and injustices. These factors are discussed within the broader context of South African rural women; and are found to be rooted in the inequalities and injustices linked to the divides that originate from the South African history of patriarchy, colonialism and apartheid. It is therefore pivotal to critique democratic governance in the context of intersectional gendercentered issues as in the case of South African women's development agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a sequel to a 2004 article that reviewed South Africa’s introduction of new sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights laws, policies and programmes, a decade into democracy. Similarly to the previous article, this paper focuses on key areas of women’s SRH: contraception and fertility, abortion, maternal health, HIV, cervical and breast cancer and sexual violence. In the last decade, South Africa has retained and expanded its sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policies in the areas of abortion, contraception, youth and HIV treatment (with the largest antiretroviral treatment programme in the world). These are positive examples within the SRHR policy arena. These improvements include fewer unsafe abortions, AIDS deaths and vertical HIV transmission, as well as the public provision of a human papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. However, persistent socio-economic inequities and gender inequality continue to profoundly affect South African women’s SRHR. The state shows mixed success over the past two decades in advancing measurable SRH social justice outcomes, and in confronting and ameliorating social norms that undermine SRHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 25 years after democracy, South African cities are still burdened with an apartheid spatial form. Whilst some literature on the persistence of the legacy of apartheid spatial planning exists, not enough work has been done to understand the complex challenges facing the urban planners mandated with the task of spatial redress. Using a case study of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa, this article responds to this gap. The research commenced with a census survey of 87 municipal planners within the municipality, supported by five interviews with senior City executives. What stood out from the survey was that three quarters of all planners admitted that municipal planning had not been successful in transforming the built environment in Durban. In trying to understand the critical challenges facing municipal planning, the top three issues emerging from the study in order of priority were the negative influence of politics that affects technical decision-making, a compliance-driven legal framework, and an unsupportive institutional environment. In unpacking findings from the study, the paper contributes to the debates around the role of planning professionals in post-apartheid spatial transformation within the context of a market economy. In particular, it exposes how political power being exerted on behalf of private developers to influence local planning decisions, compromises the interests of the poor in the city. It also brings attention to the impact of an unsupportive institutional environment in inhibiting city spatial transformation. It does not seek to propose ready-made solutions to these challenges but suggests the urgent need for a sustained conversation with strategic role players about reimagining planning, making the call for renewed action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers citizenship formation at universities, drawing on the example of a student leadership project at the University of the Free State, a formerly White South African university, in a higher education context and society where racialised difference continues to influence peer relationships. The paper proposes a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of social citizenship, as described by T.H. Marshall, enriched by the capabilities approach, which adds specific citizenship dimensions of deliberation, acknowledgment of heterogeneity, and agency goals and activities as core elements of being able to be and to do as citizens. This is operationalised by investigating the student development intervention, based on biographical interview data from 50 of the 71 students who participated in the first iteration of the programme. The data is analysed for the three capability dimensions and for student criticisms of the programme, before an overall judgment is made of the programme’s contribution to democratic values and citizenship formation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inclusive education in South Africa has not been promoted as simply one more option for education but as an educational strategy that can contribute to a democratic society. After the end of the Apartheid era the new democratic government committed itself to the transformation of education and key policy documents and legislation stress the principle of education as a basic human right as enshrined in the Constitution. White Paper 6: Special Needs Education, building an inclusive education and training system (2001) provides a framework for systemic change for the development of inclusive education. As a philosophy, the concept of inclusive education in the South African context embraces the democratic values of equality and human rights and the recognition of diversity. Research however indicates that multifaceted societal changes, encompassing educational reforms and contextual changes, including the management of diversity in schools, have had a negative impact on the implementation of inclusive education. After ten year of democracy, the enduring tension between changing the structure of education and changing the process of education is still influencing progress. Enhancing the recognition and acceptance of the basic rights of all South African children to be accommodated in inclusive school communities therefore remains a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comparative analysis between the media of India and South Africa, two emerging regional economic powerhouses and emerging democracies. The analysis is macro. The paper describes and analyzes media content and journalism practices in each country and how Indian and South African media have given limited attention to the deep divisions—centered around class, gender, race, and caste—which mark day-to-day life in each society. Consequently, we conclude, that delegative democracy, characterized by the exclusion of the voices of the poor and marginalized, is perpetuated by a globalized, liberalized, and privatized media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of citizen participation as a means to the equitable delivery of public services has distinguished South Africa’s democratic development trajectory over the last 20 years. While equitable resource allocation remains high on the agenda of more recently democratised states, most of which have highly diverse and unequally resourced populations. Influencing the design of more inclusive participation is the notion of a universal citizenship that applies the concept of the equality of individuals to the needs, identities and sense of agency of citizens both between and within states. The liberal democratic theoretical conceptualisation of the individual centres on the notion of universal citizen, who is the recipient and embodiment of democracy through the rights bestowed through the democratic model. This conceptualisation has been criticised for its inability to deal with the imprecision of individual and collective political identities, especially as these evolve in newly democratic contexts. The construction of a single identity citizen living in communities imbued with homogenous characteristics is carried forward into the policy construction of participatory governance. This article explores and challenges the notion of the single identity citizen that belongs to one homogenous community that can be identified and drawn into formally constructed government spaces. The paper explores the construction of political and socio-economic identities and how notions of community are constructed by citizens, on the one hand, and government policies, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts such as democracy and accountability rely heavily for their normative framing on scholarship originating in Europe and America. While these theories of democracy are useful for setting up frameworks with which to engage, it is important to assess the actually existing practices of everyday state-society engagement in informal locations and economies of the global south. Practices of everyday democracy may differ in contexts such as South Africa’s and it is important to assess what this tells us about reconceptualising democratic theory in our region. While not uncritical of the power imbalances inherent in clientelism, this article attempts to provide a clear conceptual definition of clientelism and then investigates how this practice may fulfil democratic tasks such as increasing participation and accountability at the local level of governance. By reframing democratic expectations and unpacking where traditionally vilified practices such as clientelism may hold moments of democracy, the paper advances the idea that the study of democracy can be decolonised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the technical efficiency of 231 local municipalities in South Africa for 2007 and investigates the potential determinants of efficiency gaps using the non-parametric data envelopment analysis technique. Efficiency scores are explained in a second-stage regression model using a Tobit regression model. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt, using such a technique, to assess technical efficiency at the local government level in the African context. The results show that, on average, B1 and B3 municipalities could have theoretically achieved the same level of basic services with about 16% and 80% fewer resources respectively. Furthermore, fiscal autonomy and the number and skill levels of the top management of a municipality's administration were found to influence the productive efficiency of municipalities in South Africa. Perhaps most importantly, the results depict a bleak picture of the democratic behaviour at the local level in South Africa. It appears that higher income and highly educated households do not feel the incentive to be active participants in public decision-making processes. The paper findings raise concerns over the future of local municipalities in the country, especially about their capability to efficiently deliver expected outcomes on a sustainable basis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper I look at the way in which women in a South African township practice their ‘agency’ in their personal lives, in their economic activity, and in their community commitments. In the post-apartheid period, women enjoy a supportive policy environment and an extraordinary increase in women’s representation in political spaces, yet the ANC led state has not maintained ‘invited’ spaces for women to engage with the structural conditions of gender inequality at the local level. Nevertheless, we find extraordinary accounts of women creatively ‘practicing’ their agency. I explore the way in which women push the boundaries of effective agency despite the conditions of oppression that characterise the broader social, economic, and political context. I show how the women face many obstacles to effecting transformative agency, but nevertheless carve out their independence through consciously determining the way in which they carry out their daily activities in collective and individual ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]