Coalition governments across South Africa's municipalities have mostly been unstable. Are there any mechanisms or rules that can be adopted to facilitate stability in coalition governments? Does the law need to be reformed to accommodate coalition governments in local government? How can existing structures in local government be used to structure coalition governments in a way that parties are encouraged to cooperate in the coalition? This paper discusses coalition governments in municipalities and offers insight into these questions.
The Parliamentary Monitoring Group and the Dullah Omar Institute’s overall intention with this project is to support transparency and public access to information. We did this by assessing how often parliamentary committees rely on requests for information in addition to that which is presented or provided to committees during the public space of a meeting; to try to assess the extent to which departments comply with these requests; and to see how available these documents are to the public. The research concludes that the systems and processes to ensure that such additional requested information is both provided to committees by departments and made available to the public require urgent attention. Otherwise, the effect is that the Executive responses to Committees oversight questions are never made public. This is the equivalent of an ‘in camera’ meeting.
This report presents an analysis of major issues relating to the 2020-2021 municipal budget consultation process.
The report evaluates the human rights consequences of the pandemic and the government palliatives.
Municipalities procure goods and services from private entities almost daily. These goods and services are often essential for ensuring the provision of basic amenities such as water, sanitation, electricity, and refuse removal.
This submission follows two previous substantive communications relating to the functioning of the legislatures during the national disaster that were sent on 25 March 2020 and on 10 April 2020. These communications, the substantive issues raised, and our offers to support Parliament in its efforts to operate as a public forum serving the interests of the people of South Africa, have been met with silence from your respective offices. What follows is an assessment of how we have experienced the recent efforts of the National Parliament in migrating to full time virtual meetings, and proposals for enhancements in the mechanisms to be used to ensure that no citizen is left behind.
In furtherance of its Access to Food for Students' Project, the Socio-Economic Rights Project at the Dullah Omar Institute recently released a booklet on The Right to Food of Students in Tertiary Institutions in South Africa. The Access to Food for Students' Project forms a part of the Governance programme at the Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE- FS)
The first of a series of webinars on local government and COVID-19, hosted by the Dullah Omar Institute and the International Budget Partnership, took place on 04 June 2020, in partnership with the South African Local Government Association. The webinars aim to promote best practices pertaining to transparency and responsiveness in local government during the era of COVID-19.
A municipality’s Integrated Development Plan is a five-year strategic plan, where the many interests, wishes and preferences of a municipal community are mediated and put into action. The municipality’s budget allocates resources to this plan. Each year, municipalities review their IDPs and pass a budget for their financial year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June.
This booklet provides an overview of your right to food. (Published: October 2008)
On 25 March 2020, a group of civil society organisations working towards open and accountable legislatures, with a vested interest in promoting participatory democracy sent a letter which sought to engage Parliament prior to the period of lockdown. Despite making several recommendations to ready the institution and legislatures to continue their work into the state of disaster. The response from the legislatures was weak. Following a lack of response to the original letter, these organisations and others have today written again to the leadership of national and provincial legislatures appealing to them to ensure transparency, effective legislative oversight, and public engagement during the national state of disaster. The organisations have also again offered to support the legislatures as they grapple with some of these difficult, but critical questions.
11 CSOs working towards open and accountable legislatures have sent an open letter to the Speakers of Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures, and to the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces to encourage measures to support their functioning within South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy during this time of crisis and uncertainty. Even though elected representatives should not meet physically due to the lock-down and social distancing, they and the legislatures, continue to have an important democratic role to play, to exercise oversight over the executive and to ensure that the experiences of people most marginalised in our society are taken into account in planning and implementation during this period.
This paper first examines the legal framework for the appointment and dismissal of board members to state-owned enterprises.
A proposed framework to assess suitability
This book addresses poverty, one of the important issues confronting Africa, from a multi-disciplinary approach. With contributions from eminent scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book explores poverty from a human rights perspective. Its central message is that poverty is not necessarily a failure on the part of an individual, but rather caused by the actions or inactions of governments, which are often exacerbated by structural inequalities in many African societies. This in turn requires a more pragmatic approach grounded in respect for human rights. Exploring the link between poverty and human rights in Africa will be useful to researchers, policymakers, students, activists and others interested in addressing poverty.
The United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is an annual event where countries take stock of their progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. This report evaluates the status of the Voluntary National Reviews of selected countries in Africa and the extent to which they show progress in achieving SDG 16.3 on Access to Justice.
The Metro Open Budget Survey (Metro OBS) is modelled on the global Open Budget Survey (OBS) initiated by the International Budget Partnership in 2006. The OBS is an independent, comparative assessment of budget accountability: transparency, oversight, and public participation. The global OBS has been conducted six times and evaluates national government budget processes in 115 countries across six continents. The Metro OBS goes a level deeper by applying the OBS methodology to local government, and assesses five of the eight metropolitan municipalities (metros) in South Africa: City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg, City of Ekurhuleni, eThekwini Municipality, and Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. In 2018, IBP South Africa in partnership with the Dullah Omar Institute piloted the Metro OBS across the same five metros. The questionnaire used in this pilot was developed by adapting the 2017 international Open Budget Survey for the South African local government context. After using the 2018 pilot to test and refine the methodology, we rolled out the project in full from the beginning of 2019.
The Putting the People in ‘People’s Parliament’ Project (PPiPP) works to increase the participation of civil society organisations in legislatures, particularly at provincial level, including through increasing public knowledge on the role of legislatures and legislature processes. One important aspect of this is oversight of public finances. In line with that objective, this report constitutes a first attempt to understand public finance oversight processes, in theory and practice, at the provincial level. To do so, it first discusses national legislation and processes, then examines the corresponding situation at provincial level (in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and Western Cape). The drafting of provincial money bills amendment legislation presents both an opportunity to reflect on and improve these processes, but is also a risk in as much as it could cement failings of the status quo.
Report on Hung Councils in South Africa: Law and Practice
