Outsourcing Governance: Local Government and the Future of Democracy in South Africa

Abstract

This article analyses the decline and near collapse of local government in South Africa through a political and legal lens. Given the paralysis of constitutionally envisaged political accountability procedures in the post-Mbeki period, residents and local businesses have increasingly resorted to courts and chapter 9 institutions, in addition to local organisation, protest and a range of direct actions. Courts previously afforded municipalities a significant margin of discretion in dealing with local government affairs and stayed out of constitutionally mandated political oversight processes, but have, since 2016, become increasingly interventionist. Some recent judgements go as far as to bypass conventional accountability processes altogether and to endorse community self-help, thereby potentially signalling an evolution in judicial conceptions of civic responsibility. At a political level, however, the future of local government is treacherous, given the loss of faith among voters.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• local government
• litigation
• political parties
• democracy
• corruption

Acknowledgements

Our thanks for the very constructive comments by JSAS reviewers.

Notes

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8 P. Harper, ‘ANC Loses Hung Metros as Opposition ‘Coalition’ Strikes’, Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg (23 November 2021), available at https://mg.co.za/politics/2021-11-23-anc-loses-hung-metros-as-opposition-coalition-strikes/, retrieved 30 November 2021.

9 W.P. Visser, ‘From MWU to Solidarity – A Trade Union Reinventing Itself’, South African Journal of Labour Relations, 30, 2 (2006), pp.19–41.

10 Chapter 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (‘the Constitution’) includes, inter alia, the Public Protector, the South African Human Rights Commission, the Auditor-General and the IEC.

11 C. Olver, How to Steal a City: The Battle for Nelson Mandela Bay (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 2017).

12 A. Butler, The Idea of the ANC (Auckland Park, Jacana Publishers, 2012), p. 5.

13 A. Sparks, ‘The Comradeship of the Struggle against Apartheid has Become a Twisted Condonation of Corruption’, The Star, Gauteng (24 January 2007), available at http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles10/root.html, retrieved 13 May 2022.

14 Strategy & Tactics, ‘ANC Gauteng: Leadership, Office Bearer and Membership Perspectives’ (report commissioned by ANC Gauteng, 2008). This report is not in the public domain.

15 S v Shaik, judgement of Durban High Court (per Squires J), 31 May 2005, quoted in https://web.archive.org/web/20090322095241/http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Shaik_trial/0,,2-7-1708_1718857,00.html, retrieved 1 March 2022. See also Shaik v S [2006] SCA 134 para. 50.

16 Strategy & Tactics, ‘ANC Gauteng: Leadership, Office Bearer and Membership Perspectives’.

17 A. Wordsworth, ‘How the “Fire Pool” at Nkandla could Finally Sink Jacob Zuma’, National Post, Toronto (20 March 2014), available at https://nationalpost.com/opinion/how-the-fire-pool-at-nkandla-could-finally-sink-jacob-zuma, retrieved 3 March 2022.

18 J. Netshitenzhe, ‘State Formation and State Capture’, address to Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education (25 August 2016), available at https://mistra.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tshisimani_20160825_Lecture-on-State-Capture.pdf, p.3, retrieved 5 February 2021.

19 ‘R57,064,461,144.82. That is the total amount of money that the South African government spent on contracts tainted by State Capture involving the Gupta enterprise’: P. Holden, ‘Part One: What Gupta Enterprise Corruption Cost South Africa’, Daily Maverick, South Africa (27 June 2021), available via https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-27-part-one-what-gupta-enterprise-corruption-cost-south-africa/, retrieved 28 June 2021.

20 See, for example, ‘Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto’ radio show (17 September 2020), hosted at Open Secrets, an NGO that ‘exposes and builds accountability for private sector economic crimes through investigative research, advocacy and the law, available at https://www.opensecrets.org.za/dont-forget-about-the-private-sectors-role-in-state-capture/, retrieved 20 September 2020.

21 M. Jonas, Foreword, in I. Chipkin et al., Shadow State: The Politics of State Capture (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2018), p. xviii.

22 See, for example, Chipkin et al., Shadow State; Olver, How to Steal a City.

23 Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture (Call for Evidence/Information), 22 June 2018.

24 M. de Haas, ‘South Africa Fails to Get to the Bottom of Killings in KwaZulu-Natal’, The Conversation (21 January 2020), available at https://theconversation.com/south-africa-fails-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-killings-in-kwazulu-natal-128167, retrieved 1 July 2021.

25 T. Lodge, ‘Countering Public Corruption in South Africa’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 46 (2001), p. 53.

26 S. Booysen (ed.), Marriages of Inconvenience: The Politics of Coalitions in South Africa (Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, Johannesburg, 2021).

27 Section 156(1) read with Schedules 4B and 5B of the 1996 Constitution. See also sections 151(2)–(3); 152(1).

28 Ibid., section 139(1); (5).

29 Ibid., section 139(7).

30 Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000, sections 4–5; 16(1); 17–22.

31 Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, sections 9; 72–4.

32 T. Lodge, ‘Neo-patrimonial Politics in the ANC’, African Affairs, 113, 450 (January 2014), pp. 1–23.

33 Olver, How to Steal a City, p. 209.

34 M. Phadi, J. Pearson and T. Lesaffre, ‘The Seeds of Perpetual Instability: The Case of Mogalakwena Local Municipality in South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 44, 4 (2018), p. 595.

35 Ibid., p. 597.

36 I. Palmer, N. Moodley and S. Parnell, Building a Capable State: Service Delivery in Post-Apartheid South Africa (London, Zed Books, 2017), p. 258.

37 P. Fihlani, ‘Koster – the South African Town Where Residents Took Back Control’, BBC News (13 July 2018), available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44633331, retrieved 15 March 2019.

38 Auditor-General of South Africa, media release (30 June 2021), available at https://www.agsa.co.za/Portals/0/Reports/MFMA/201920/2019%20-%2020%20MFMA%20Media%20Release%2030%20June%202021.pdf, retrieved 1 July 2021.

39 J. Cronje, ‘“Nobody Really Knows” What Happened to R5.5bn at SA's Worst-Run Municipalities – AG’, News24, available at https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/industrial/nobody-really-knows-what-happened-to-r55bn-in-sas-worst-run-municipalities-ag-20210622, retrieved 23 June 2021.

40 Auditor-General of South Africa, media release (30 June 2021).

41 Ibid.

42 Palmer et al., Building a Capable State, pp. 75–102.

43 T. Ledger and M. Rampedi, Mind the Gap: Section 139 Interventions in Theory and in Practice (Johannesburg, PARI, 2019).

44 Palmer et al., Building a Capable State, pp. 102–5.

45 Phadi et al., ‘Seeds of Perpetual Instability’, p. 596.

46 M. Pieterse, ‘Out of the Shadows: Towards a Line between Party and State in South African Local Government’, South African Journal on Human Rights, 36, 2–3 (2020), pp. 139–40. See recent legal action pertaining to the ANC-run Gauteng Province’s intervention into the DA-coalition-run Tshwane Metropolitan Council: Premier of Gauteng v Democratic Alliance 2022 (1) SA 16 (CC).

47 See, for example, C. Benit-Gbaffou, ‘Are Practices of Local Participation Sidelining the Institutional Participatory Channels? Reflections from Johannesburg’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 66/67 (2008), pp. 5–8.

48 Ramaphosa’s comments to this effect were made in a speech at Davos. See ‘Rampahosa’s “Nine Lost Years” Speech Impresses Old Mutual CEO at Davos’, News24 (24 January 2019), available at https://www.polity.org.za/article/ramaphosas-nine-lost-years-speech-impresses-old-mutual-ceo-at-davos-2019-01-24, retrieved 1 March 2022.

49 K. Makwetu, ‘AG’s New Powers Will Bolster our Democracy’, City Press, Johannesburg (11 April 2019), available at https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/kimi-makwetu-ags-new-powers-will-bolster-our-democracy-20190411, retrieved 20 October 2021.

50 See Parliamentary Monitoring Group, ‘Threats and Intimidation against Auditors during Recent MFMA Audits: AGSA Briefing’ (4 December 2019), available at https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/29520/, retrieved 20 October 2021.

51 M. Pieterse, ‘Anatomy of a Crisis: Structural Factors Contributing to the Collapse of Urban Municipal Governance in Emfuleni, South Africa’, Urban Forum 32 (2021), pp. 2–4.

52 SAHRC, Final Report of the Gauteng Provincial Inquiry into the Sewage Problem of the Vaal River (17 February 2021), pp. 9; 112.

53 P. Letshwiti-Jones, ‘North West ANC's Challenge: Councillors with a “Bad Track Record” Clinging to Power’, News24 (19 June 2019), available at in https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/north-west-ancs-challenge-councillors-with-a-bad-track-record-clinging-to-power-20210619, retrieved 20 October 2021. 

54 See, for example, C. Du Plessis and G. Nicholson, ‘Gift of the Givers Pulls the Plug on the City of Saints’, Daily Maverick (17 May 2019), available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-05-17-gift-of-the-givers-pulls-the-plug-on-the-city-of-saints/, retrieved 13 May 2022; E. Ellis, ‘Eastern Cape: Panic and Protests after Makhanda’s Waterworks Fail’, Daily Maverick (23 February 2021), available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-02-23-eastern-cape-panic-and-protests-after-makhandas-waterworks-fail/, retrieved 13 May 2022

55 See L. Chamberlain et al., Makana Local Municipality: Provincial Intervention in a Municipal Crisis (Johannesburg, SERI, 2020).

56 L. Langa, ‘What a Dump: Pietermaritzburg City Council Slammed by Court over Neglect at Toxic Landfill Site’, Daily Maverick (17 June 2021), available at https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/anc-meets-with-harrismith-community-to-address-residents-concerns-20210622, retrieved 20 October 2021. 

57 P. Letshwiti-Jones, ‘ANC Cautious to Make Too Many Promises as It Tries to Resolve Impasse in Harrismith’, News24 (22 June 2021), available via https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/anc-harrismith-community-leaders-to-map-a-way-forward-after-week-long-protests-20210620, retrieved 30 June 2021. 

58 Interview with A.H. (small town activist), July 2021.

59 B. Lindeque, ‘Senekal Continue to Inspire SA by Working Together to Heal Their Town!’, Good Things Guy website (1 April 2021), available at https://www.goodthingsguy.com/environment/senekal-continue-to-inspire-sa-by-working-together-to-heal-their-town/, retrieved 20 October 2021.

60 AfriForum, ‘Afriforum Concludes Agreement with Ngwathe Local Municipality for Advice with Water and Sanitation Services, press release (5 October 2021), available at https://afriforum.co.za/en/afriforum-concludes-agreement-with-ngwathe-local-municipality-for-advice-with-water-and-sanitation-services/, retrieved 20 October 2021.

61 P. Mashego, ‘Clover Closes SA’s Biggest Cheese Factory Due to Municipal Woes in the North West’, News24 (8 June 2021), available at  https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/clover-closes-sas-biggest-cheese-factory-due-to-municipal-woes-in-the-north-west-20210608, retrieved 20 October 2021.

62 P. Mashego, ‘Standerton Chicken Producer Gets Court Order to Force Govt to Supply Town with Water, Electricity’, News24 (13 April 2021), available at https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/standerton-chicken-producer-gets-court-order-to-force-govt-to-supply-town-with-water-electricity-20210413 retrieved 20 October 2021.

63 On self-help as a participation strategy in the face of breakdown of official structures, see L. Sinwell, ‘Conceptualizing Direct Action as a Form of Participation in Development: A South African Case’, Politikon, 37, 1 (2010), pp. 67–83.

64 See Chamberlain et al., Makana, p. 35.

65 R. Hirschl, ‘The New Constitutionalism and the Judicialization of Pure Politics Worldwide’, Fordham Law Review, 75, 2 (2006), p. 744.

66 H. Corder and C. Hoexter, ‘“Lawfare” in South Africa and its Effects on the Judiciary’, African Journal of Legal Studies, 10, 2–3 (2017), pp. 105–26.

67 Ibid., pp. 106–7; 120–6; Hirschl, ‘New Constitutionalism’, pp. 744–7; T. Roux, ‘The Constitutional Court’s 2018 Term: Lawfare or Window on the Struggle for Democratic Social Transformation?’ Constitutional Court Review, 10 (2020), pp. 3–11.

68 See M. Pieterse, ‘Socio-economic Rights Adjudication and Democratic Urban Governance: Reassessing the “Second Wave” Jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court’, Verfassung und Recht in Ubersee, 51, 1 (2018), pp. 24–34; B. Ray, Engaging with Social Rights: Procedure, Participation, and Democracy in South Africa’s Second Wave (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 218–29; 274–329.

69 See Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road Berea Township v City of Johannesburg, 2008 (3) SA 208 (CC); Joseph v City of Johannesburg, 2010 (4) SA 55 (CC).

70 See Beja v Premier of the Western Cape, 2011 (10) BCLR 1077 (WCC); Dladla v City of Johannesburg 2018 (2) SA 327 (CC).

71 See Mkontwana v Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, 2005 (1) SA 530 (CC).

72 See Pretoria City Council v Walker, 1998 (2) SA 363 (CC); Rademan v Moqhaka Local Municipality, 2013 (4) SA 225 (CC).

73 See Beja; Federation for Sustainable Environment v Minister of Water Affairs and Others, [2012] ZAGPPHC 128.

74 See Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg 2010 (4) SA 1 (CC); Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha Homes, 2010 (3) SA 454 (CC); Merafong Demarcation Forum v President of the Republic of South Africa 2008 (5) SA 171 (CC); City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v Afriforum 2016 (9) BCLR (CC).

75 See, for example, S. Wilson and J. Dugard, ‘Taking Poverty Seriously: The South African Constitutional Court and Socio-economic Rights’, Stellenbosch Law Review, 22, 3 (2011), pp. 669–77.

76 See, for example, G. de Bruyn, ‘The Tshwane Metropolitan Council: Multiparty and Multiple Coalitions, and Imperiled Governance’ in Booysen, Marriages of Inconvenience, pp. 318–46.

77 See cases pertaining to party-political attempts to manipulate, overthrow or sabotage coalition-council decisions discussed in Pieterse, ‘Out of the Shadows’, pp. 149–51.

78 Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly, 2016 (3) SA 580 (CC).

79 Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly, 2018 (2) SA 571 (CC).

80 United Democratic Movement v Speaker of the National Assembly, 2017 (5) SA 300 (CC).

81 See F. Cachalia, ‘Precautionary Constitutionalism, Representative Democracy and Political Corruption’, Constitutional Court Review, 9 (2019), pp. 45–79.

82 Cape Gate v Eskom Holdings, 2019 (4) SA 14 (GJ). See also the earlier attempts at interdicting similar action by Eskom in Lekwa, Kamiesberg and Madibeng local municipalities, in Afriforum and Others v Eskom Holdings, [2017] 3 A 663 (GP).

83 Ibid., paras 118; 130–40.

84 Ibid., paras 148; 154–60; 174.

85 Cape Gate v Emfuleni Local Municipality, [2019] ZAGPJHC 39.

86 Eskom Holdings v Resilient Properties, [2021] 1 All SA 668 (SCA), paras 13; 19; 23; 58–60; 74–8.

87 Ibid., paras 28; 67; 80–1; 84; 88; 91.

88 Ibid., para. 97. See also paras 93–6.

89 Unemployed Peoples Movement v Premier of the Eastern Cape, [2020] ZAECGHC 1, para. 97.

90 For discussion, see Chamberlain et al., Makana, pp. 9–14.

91 Unemployed People’s Movement, para. 16.

92 Ibid., paras 15; 46; 84–5; 97. See Chamberlain et al., Makana, pp. 21–3.

93 Ibid., para. 60.

94 T. Chonco, ‘Court Orders National Government to Leapfrog into Lekwa Local Municipality’, Local Government Bulletin, 16, 3 (2021), available at https://dullahomarinstitute.org.za/multilevel-govt/local-government-bulletin/archives/volume-16-issue-2-september-2021/court-orders-national-government-to-leapfrog-into-lekwa-local-municipality, retrieved 20 October 2021.

95 Kgetlengrivier Concerned Residents and Others v Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality and Others (18 December 2020), [2020] ZANWHC 95, paras 2–5; 11–3.

96 Ibid., para. 5. The applicants were authorised to appoint an expert to monitor the municipality’s compliance with this order for a period of ten weeks. Ibid., para. 8.

97 Ibid., paras 9; 14.

98 See Jayiya v MEC for Welfare, Eastern Cape, 2004 (2) SA 611 (SCA); MEC, Department of Welfare, Eastern Cape v Kate, 2006 (4) SA 478 (SCA).

99 Kgetlengrivier, paras 10; 15.

100 Order appended to Kgetlengrivier (18 January 2021).

101 ‘MEC Welcomes Kgetlengrivier Court Ruling’, SA News, government news agency (20 May 2021), available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/mec-welcomes-kgetlengriver-court-ruling, retrieved 20 October 2021.

102 Q. Hunter, ‘Why Residents of Two North West Towns are Back in Court, in a Bid to Resolve Water Woes’, News24 (11 October 2021), available at https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/why-residents-of-two-north-west-towns-are-back-in-court-in-a-bid-to-resolve-water-woes-20211011, retrieved 20 October 2021.

103 Kgetlengrivier, para. 6.

104 See E. Ellis, ‘North West’s Municipalities from Hell: Business Interest Group Asks High Court to Ring-fence Rates’, Daily Maverick (1 June 2021), available via https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-01-north-wests-municipalities-from-hell-business-interest-group-asks-high-court-to-ring-fence-rates/, retrieved 13 May 2022.

105 Chamberlain et al., Makana, p. 34.

106 Hirschl, ‘New Constitutionalism’, p. 747.

107 ‘Ramaphosa Describes Recent Unrest as “Failed Insurrection”’, Rédaction Africa News/Associated Press (17 July 2021), available at /https://www.africanews.com/2021/07/17/ramaphosa-describes-recent-unrest-as-failed-insurrection/, retrieved 20 October 2021.

108 National Planning Commission (n.d.), ‘Workstream One: Active Citizenry, Capable State and Leadership’, available at https://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/workstream-one, retrieved 20 October 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Everatt

David Everatt Professor of Urban Governance, Wits School of Governance, Private Bag X3, Wits 2050, South Africa. Email: [email protected]

Marius Pieterse

Marius Pieterse Professor of Law, Wits School of Law, Private Bag X3, Wits 2050, South Africa. Email: [email protected]