Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2005

The Municipal Structures Act of 1998 mandates the Municipal Demarcation Board to declare part of an area that must have both district and local municipalities as a district management area, if the establishment of a category B municipality in that part of the area will not be conducive to fulfilling the objectives of section 24 of the Demarcation Act.

After some delays, the Municipal Property Rates Act of 2004 was finally brought into operation on 1 July 2005. This comprehensive Act institutes a uniform structure to the levying of property rates, which was previously governed a number of old provincial ordinances. This article highlights only a number of key features of the Act.

Contract renegotiations and amendments are a relatively common feature of long-term service delivery agreements and public-private partnerships. The legislature has recognised this in existing and newly promulgated legislation which clearly aims to limit risks associated with contract amendments.

The Public-Private Partnership procurement process overlaps in many respect with the recently published Supply Chain Management Regulations. The overlap occurs where a proposed transaction is both a PPP and one of the matters to which the SCM regulations apply. Although the focus in this article is not on the SCM regulations, any attempt to discuss the PPP procurement process separately from the SC, regulations would be incomplete.

Africa has a rich history of indigenous and traditional forms of local government. However, lack of coherence between local government and traditional forms of local government are prevalent throughout the continent. The time for unified local government has arrived.

The recent controversy surrounding the municipal manager of the Central Karoo District Municipality raised important questions regarding which sphere of government is responsible for the conduct of a municipal manager. Ultimately , who has the power to dismiss a municipal manager?