Volume 9, Issue 4,September/ October 2007.

Crisis or Communication Breakdown? Are Our Councillors Listening?
Author: Dr Steven Friedman
Not that long ago, a democracy promotion organisation arranged a course ti help local councillors improve their capacity to represent voters. The skills it taught were how to hear what local voters were saying and how to speak on their behalf. After a while, the councillors complained that the course did not meet their needs. They wanted, they said to be taught "how to deliver services".
Local Government Bulletin lgb-governance
Levying Property Rates: A New Dispensation.
Author: Nico Steytler
With the gradual implementation of the Local Government Property Rates Act, the impact of the new constitutional regime in the levying of property rates is slowly filtering through. The latest conflict concerned whether a provision of the old Cape Ordinance requiring the administrators consent for an increase in the rate was constitutionally valid.
Local Government Bulletin lgb-municipal-revenue lgb-infrastructure
Has Floor-Crossing Seen its End?
Author: Dr Jaap de Visser
The floor-crossing window period has come to and gone, affecting the composition of 128 municipalities. Although 280 politicians tried to cross, only 250 succeeded. This is a significant reduction in the number of councillors who crossed the floor compared with the first floor-crossing period in 2002 (555) and the second in 2004 (486).
Local Government Bulletin lgb-governance
Legal Briefs.
Author: MLGA (Community Law Centre)
Does the municipal council have a say in the appointments of administrative staff by the municipal manager?
lgb-municipal-administration Local Government Bulletin lgb-governance
Local AIDS Councils and the Civic Role of Local Government.
Author: Marije Versteeg
There is widespread consensus that the severity of the HIV and AIDS epidemic cannot be curbed by the government on its own. In light of this realisation, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) the highest-level multisectoral partnership body in South Africa, was established in 2000. Chaired by the Deputy President, its objectives include providing leadership, building consensus around HIV and AIDS policy and strategy matters, promoting intersectoral collaboration and overseeing the overall implementation and review of the National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS.
Local Government Bulletin lgb-governance
Local Government in Uganda.
Author: Frederick Golooba Mutebi
Modern local government in Uganda traces its origins to British colonial rule. As it consolidated its hold on the territory, the colonial administration decided to introduce good government and ensure effectiveness and efficiency in administration by establishing elected local councils.
Local Government Bulletin lgb-local-government-africa
Service Delivery Protests: Failure to Deliver or Failure to Communicate?
Author: Annette Christmas
Service delivery protests in the spotlight. At first glance the photo accompanying this article seems more reminiscent of the protests which marked the struggle against the apartheid government than that of a recent service delivery protest.
lgb-governance Local Government Bulletin lgb-idp-budget