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Local government elections: Don’t expect any real change with new local government

01 July 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath and André Damons

Webinar on Gov Election June 2021 Web Read-more_web — Discussing local government elections. Panellists in the University of the Free State Thought-Leader webinar hosted on 29 June 2021.

Elections are supposed to bring better, more accountable governments into place, but at local government level this has not happened so far. No real change should be expected with new local governments. The elections are not necessarily the answer.

This is according to Prof Susan Booysen, Director of Research at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), who was one of the panellists at the University of the Free State (UFS) Thought-Leader webinar on Tuesday (29 June 2021). The webinar with the theme South African politics and the local government elections: scene setter for a capable state? is part of the Free State Literature Festival’s online initiative, VrySpraak-digitaal.

Mr Ebrahim Fakir, Director of Programmes at the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute (ASRI), and Prof Sethulego Matebesi, Associate Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Sociology at the UFS, were the other two panellists who discussed politics and local government elections – which is only four months away.

Not much progress in local government

“We've seen minor changes, more coalition governments that have been coming into power – at least in the metro cities. In the last few elections, there have been in the region of 30 or so local and major municipalities with coalition governments in South Africa,” said Prof Booysen.

According to her, she does not believe that we can go without elections; however, elections are not necessarily the answer, as there has not been much progress at local government elections as well as on other levels.

Prof Matebesi is in agreement with Prof Booysen, saying that the forthcoming elections would not bring about any change. Said Prof Matebesi: “If we agree that problems in local government – which leads to poor performance – are caused by political and not administrative leaders, if we agree that the local government system is not geared for power-sharing, and if we agree that the challenges of political leaders can partly be ascribed to the dominance of internal party politics, particularly the immense power vested in the office of the mayor – where there is sometimes a complete disregard for council resolutions – then I believe that the 2021 local government elections will not affect the changes, and produce a strong local government, capable of fulfilling its constitutional mandate.”

Decent government can withstand bad politics

Mr Fakir said it is not possible to talk about a capable state or governance or effective government if we do not talk about politics. Axiomatically, it would mean that if politics precedes government, the type of politics prevalent in society would determine the nature of government thereafter.

“Even if there is bad politics – with robust institutions, processes, and procedures according to which decisions are made and resources are allocated, society will be able to withstand a period of bad politics. The US and the UK have had bad politics for some time, with robust institutions. However, in South Africa, only 20 years into transition, our institutions are not robust enough and have therefore been available for the malevolent acts of state capture due to corruption,” says Fakir.

He outlined five markers for a capable state:

1. A strong regulatory capacity – the ability to make laws and policies that are prudent, appropriate, and that fit the circumstances of the society.

2. A technical capacity – the engineering works, the ability to technically maintain and build the infrastructure and carry out the necessary activities required to make a society functional and facilitate its social and economic activity.

3. An administrative capacity – the ability to execute and implement strong oversight, serious ways of extracting accountability.

4. An extractive capacity – the ability to raise taxes, revenues, rates, so that there is funding for the kind of things that need to happen at local government level.

5. A coercive capacity – the ability to ensure compliance with rules.

“I would argue that if one had to take each of these five measures, you would find that local government – and government in general – are lacking. So, if you have bad and malevolent politics, if you have bad ethics in society, then the ability for these five functional areas of capability in state suddenly starts to wither away, and you have a weak state,” Fakir said.

South Africa is going through transformation and transition fatigue in the local government area. “At each local level of the state, there is a cadreship of representatives who are more powerful and can exercise power over the PR system. This type of dysfunction filters through the system of accountability and oversight, and as such, people who are responsible for coalface delivery collapse because the oversight is not there.”

According to him, we have bad politics, and because of this our institutions are easily manipulated, our processes are easily undermined, and people are put in those positions because they can be easily manipulated.

“Because of that, you have poor accountability, laxity, a poor attitude of working with a sense of ‘all will do as they please’ – the one takes licence from the other, and people feed off each other’s desire for lack of compliance, giving rise to a predatory state.”

Prof Francis Petersen, who was the facilitator, said the challenges relating to local government will persist.

“Ultimately, it is about the culture of service, the trust that needs to be developed between the citizens and local government. It is not only about the technical competency, but also about the ethical and value systems,” said Prof Petersen.

According to him, the role of universities in this should never be underestimated. Platforms should be open to debate and discussion to offer potential solutions to politicians and to bring across that ethical and critical analysis.

News Archive

State of our campuses: UFS closes campuses until Friday 28 October 2016 to readjust academic programme

2016-10-15

UFS announces strategy for completion of the 2016 academic year

Agreement between UFS management and student leadership in relation to residences

After almost four weeks of student protests about fees at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the subsequent suspension of the academic programme and closing of campuses, the senior leadership announced on 14 October 2016 a strategy to ensure that students will be able to complete the 2016 academic year.

The university on 13 October 2016 announced that it will shut down its Bloemfontein and South Campuses until 28 October 2016 for crucial and complex arrangements to be put in place to readjust the academic calendar and ensure that all students can complete their studies. The senior leadership did, however, make it clear that the university will not be shutting down for the remainder of 2016.

No teaching and learning activities at undergraduate and honours level will be offered between 17 October and 28 October 2016. The university will re-start teaching and learning at undergraduate and honours level in the first week of November 2016.

However, teaching and learning will not take place in the classrooms during November 2016, but through a different mode of delivery that consists of a combination of printed and recorded lectures, study materials and learning aids that will be provided by the university and delivered through Blackboard. In this manner no attempts at disrupting the rest of the academic year will affect our students’ academic programme. Students, however, will sit for the exam on campus.

Students in residence accommodation can return to campus as from 29 October 2016 and it is recommended that students who do not have off-campus internet access return to campus in order to access study material to complete the academic year.A new timetable for exams is still being developed and will be communicated as soon as the arrangements have been finalised.

Faculties have been differently affected by the loss of teaching time. Some faculties like the Faculty of Law have completed their curriculum, while other faculties like the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences require more teaching time. Some faculties, like the Faculty of Health Sciences, cannot do teaching through alternative modes of delivery.

The needs of the different faculties have been taken into account for developing a rescue plan to complete the 2016 academic year.

The Faculty of Health Sciences will continue its classes and clinical rotations as normal for all three schools on the Bloemfontein Campus and in the relevant hospitals. All students registered in programmes in the Faculty of Health Sciences will stay in residences for the full period of their studies and exams. Final-year medical students will graduate in December 2016 as expected.
In the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, final-year students for the Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA) will stay on campus during October through to December 2016 and their classes and tests will not change.
Arrangements for all other faculties and programmes are being prepared and within the next week, students and parents/guardians will receive communication about how curriculum content will be completed and when the final exams will take place.
The university is extending the academic year so that we can recuperate all the lost teaching and learning time. The qualifications conferred on the 2016 class will be of the same quality and standards as all UFS qualifications.

The UFS is and will remain a fundamentally contact teaching and learning education university. However, under the current circumstances faced not only by the UFS, but higher-education institutions across the country, the best way of ensuring the integrity of the academic programmes in most faculties is by using an alternative way of teaching and learning. Other South African universities have chosen the same approach to be able to complete the academic year.

Instead of students going to class, they will have content delivered to them where they are (library, computer labs, their own computers, etc.) through Blackboard and printed and electronic material. This is a different way of learning but students will be carefully guided and supported.

Faculties are currently preparing all the necessary materials and instructions to support student learning.Standards and quality will be the same as if students were attending classes. Some faculties require practical laboratory work as part of their curriculum. The exam timetable will be adapted for these students to be able to complete their practical work when the academic activities commences in November 2016. The relevant faculties will communicate the schedule of practical work directly to the students.

Students in their final year will complete their studies during 2016. It is possible that in some cases the graduation ceremony for these students will be in June 2017 instead of April 2017. This will not prejudice students with bursaries, or committed employment in law firms or other businesses. The university will provide the necessary academic transcripts as proof of the completion of the relevant qualifications. None of these changes will affect postgraduate students.

The university will maintain regular communication with students and parents/guardians to update them on the new exams timetable.Faculties will communicate directly with students about issues related to their programmes.

“One of the areas in which significant progress was made, is that we were able to agree on a basis for stability with student leaders. The student protests occurred during an important time in the university’s academic calendar and the readjustment of our academic programme has put tremendous pressure on academic and support services staff, and created anxieties for parents,” said Prof Nicky Morgan, Acting Rector of the UFS.

“The senior leadership restates its commitment to free education as well as its willingness to stand together with students and other public universities to impress on government the urgency to decide on a time frame for the roll-out of free higher education for the poor and missing middle. We will use the next two weeks to meet with the leadership of Universities South Africa to coordinate collective action in this regard. We will furthermore also roll out a series of activities to inform and educate students and the general public on different models and experiences of providing free higher education,” he said.

The strategy to readjust the 2016 academic year is applicable to students on the Bloemfontein and South Campuses.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393

State of our campuses #15: UFS closes campuses until Friday 28 October 2016 to readjust academic programme

State of our campuses #14: All academic activities on UFS campuses remain suspended on 13 and 14 October 2016

State of our campuses #13: Availability of information about plans for remainder of UFS 2016 calendar year

State of our campuses #12: All academic activities at UFS campuses suspended for 11 and 12 October 2016

State of our campuses #11: Academic activities on UFS campuses continue

State of our campuses #10: Impact of non-completion of the 2016 academic year on UFS students

State of our campuses #9: Academic programme on all UFS campuses to resume on Monday 10 October 2016

State of our campuses #8: UFS extends vacation as from 28 September until 7 October 2016, 28 September 2016

State of our campuses #7: All three UFS campuses will be closed today, 27 September 2016.

State of our campuses #6: All UFS campuses reopen on Tuesday 27 September 2016

State of our campuses #5: UFS campuses to remain closed on Monday 26 September 2016

State of our campuses #4: Decisions about the UFS academic calendar

State of our campuses #3: UFS campuses closed until Friday 23 September 2016

State of our campuses #2: UFS Bloemfontein and South Campuses closed on Tuesday 20 September 2016 (19 September 2016)

State of our campuses #1: Academic activities suspended on UFS Bloemfontein Campus (19 September 2016)

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