Local government restructuring

ABSTRACT

The apartheid value system in South Africa manifested the strongest at the local governmental level where racial communities were separated by law in every sphere of society. This situation became increasingly unacceptable to the black communities in the country. The National Party government was forced into negotiations at local level in 1993 by deadlocks developing in various communities between activist civic associations in especially the black communities and the discredited ethnically based local authorities in those communities. Over a period of ten months, a bilateral negotiated settlement about future local government was hammered out between them, and the principles on which this settlement was based, were formulated in three historic documents: The Local Government Transition Act, 1993; the 1994 Agreement on Services; and chapter 10 of the Interim Constitution, 1993. The process through which a settlement was reached among the different stakeholders and the contents of this settlement are summarised and assessed in this article.