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Table of Contents :
Editorial Note
Victor Ojakorotu 9
In this article, we assess the motivations, scope and options available for governments that seek to renegotiate public-private partnership (PPP) concessions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Existing literature reveals that scholars have made efforts to study PPPs and provide recommendations for maneuvering renegotiations in turbulent times such as Covid 19 era. The uniqueness of COVID-19 and its impact on PPP concessions have largely remained unnoticed despite the creation of a hypothetical environment that is likely to increase voluntary and involuntary renegotiations by governments in SSA and the world. Based on a review of the literature, the study reveals that during uncertain times, renegotiations of the terms of PPP concessions are imminent. To understand the dynamics and complexities of renegotiations, the study was guided by game theory since the negotiation and renegotiations operates on principles of a game. While the existing literature, focuses on reasons for renegotiation, provides general renegotiation outcome options, it has not provided guidance on appropriate options for various situations, such as turbulent times manifesting in the context pandemics and recessions, and when the public purse is constrained. The outcome of the study reveals that in such case traditional cash demand guarantees are impractical. Therefore, the study contributes to the body of knowledge of PPPs by departing from the elusive approaches of earlier studies and provides more context based alternative renegotiation options that governments can offer as tradeoffs when renegotiating PPP concessions in turbulent times.
The laws that govern financial management in South Africa are ignored by municipal officials at all levels. The disregard of statutes by municipal officials is a norm rather than an exception. As such, poor financial management controls and effective application of legislation put municipalities under enormous financial pressure. These predicaments have a negative impact on the provision of services to citizens; therefore, it is imperative that the finances of municipalities are managed and handled with diligence. This study aimed to propose a conceptual framework to assist municipalities in implementing financial controls to combat and deal with financial crimes. The study used a qualitative approach in the form of desktop and secondary data analysis. The study found that municipal employees disregard legislation such as the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 when it comes to financial management, and as such public funds are constantly abused by municipal officials. The study concludes that financial crimes negatively affect the financial performance of municipalites, ultimately affecting the delivery of services. On that note, the study recommends stricter financial management controls and the enforcement of laws and policies. This study further recommends municipalities that are found to have mismanaged finances should be referred to Financial Intelligence for futher invesigations.
Transforming the local government needs a holistic approach in the manner in which employees’ Human Resources Management best practices are implemented to boost creativity and offer meaningful service. Central to the issue at hand is the ineffectiveness of HRM best practices exhibited by Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), such as their performance management system, which has shown signs of imbalances that render it ineffective in cultivating the innovation culture necessary for improving service delivery. Performance appraisal is viewed as an imperative Human Resource Management function in both public and private organisations geared at encouraging, guiding and supporting a performance-oriented culture among employees. Through a qualitative research process, the research found that the BCMM’s performance appraisal system mainly focuses on attaining the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as set out at the beginning of each appraisal year and not considering innovation performance as a key performance indicator. Focus on innovation is peripheral as evidenced by the lack of recognition of innovation performance by the employees to improve service delivery. It is recommended that a shift towards innovation which could emerge by the amendment of the KPIs could go a long way in advancing innovation culture enabling productivity and improved service delivery.
Dialogues on waste management procedures are scarcely examined through public views and awareness narratives. Existing studies have largely interrogated waste management procedures from the prism of environmental and health concerns. The present study addresses this research chasm through the dissection of public views and awareness of waste management procedures. The study employs a quantitative approach with a random sampling of 110 community members through questionnaire administration to unravel their views and awareness of the waste management procedure. The findings show a range of issues including that the community members are not satisfied with the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) management procedure, low or non-existing consultation between customers and DSW operators and poor monitoring of waste management. Others are poor awareness of waste management procedures and lack of explicit management intervention in the management of waste procedure by the DSW. The study recommends improved services, management intervention in the areas of consultations and monitoring. DSW officials should conduct daily monitoring within the community to ascertain if proper services are being delivered. Any irregular activities such as illegal dumping and littering must be severely dealt with for the health of members of the community at large. In other words, frequent monitoring will be able to swiftly determine if any service challenges exist, which can be given immediate attention and solution.
Since attaining independence in 1980, the government of Zimbabwe has adopted numerous reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance. These include the leadership code, the central bank’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, the Corporate Guidelines for State Enterprises and Parastatals (SEPs) and the Zimbabwe Code on Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE). Furthermore, corporate governance principles and best practices were embedded in the Constitution of Zimbabwe in 2013, the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19] and the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10:31]. Despite the adoption of the aforementioned reform measures, corporate governance principles and best practices have not taken root in Zimbabwe’s public sector. Scholars such as Moyo, Zhou, Chigudu, Ncube and Maunganidze and Chavhunduka and Sikwala have conducted research on public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe. However, their work does not comprehensively explain why public sector corporate governance has failed to take root in Zimbabwe’s body politic, especially among SEPs. Thus, this paper seeks to fill this lacuna in academic literature. Data was collected through documentary search. Government policy documents such as ZIMCODE and legislation that provides for corporate governance, ruling party policy documents such as the leadership code, reports by the Bretton Woods institutions journal and newspaper articles were analysed. The research findings reveal that public sector corporate governance reforms have failed to take root in Zimbabwe because of systematic corruption or rent seeking behaviour, captured anti-corruption bodies, patronage networks, party/state conflation, militarisation of the state and absence of political will. We argue that before reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe can take root, Zimbabwe’s body politic needs to be demilitarised and liberated from the predatory securocrat comprador bourgeoise and politically linked cartels that have captured the state.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa has recently held that there must be a legal protection for the personal cultivation, possession and use of cannabis in the private setting in South Africa. This presupposes that the use of cannabis is decriminalised but at the same time regulated because it was meant to be utilised only in a private setting. However, the socio-economic aspects such as the commercial cultivation, trading and sale of cannabis for purposes of earning income to improve livelihoods and alleviate poverty were overlooked. These aspects are so significant because commercialisation of cannabis would generate taxes and revenues, create employment opportunities and alleviate poverty. Therefore, this paper argued that there should be a commercial cultivation and trade in cannabis for socio-economic benefits. It explained further that the decriminalisation and legal protection granted the personal cultivation, possession and use of cannabis should also be extended and allowed for vast and massive cultivation, trade and sale of cannabis, which will, in turn, foster socio-economic benefits to the people, society and the country.
The apartheid regime caused a disastrous conundrum regarding racial segregation that ushered the majority black, indigenous population into an inevitable and visible state of despair in South Africa. Thus, the transition into a democratic dispensation in the early 1990s brought a season of hope to the black majority. This was because the South African democratically elected government, led by the African National Congress (ANC), committed itself to redressing past imbalances and inequalities between and among racial categories – per the apartheid policy. In the midst of the transition, corruption arose, and the government’s developmental mandate came to a halt. Hence, the democratically elected government is battling to address high unemployment rate, severe poverty, and poor service delivery, among other social ills that affected South Africa during the apartheid era. Based on this background, this paper discussed corruption and the disparity between the governing class and the rest of society in the quest for democracy and sustainable development in South Africa. Recent papers on corruption look at centres of government at large. However, this article set out to specifically look at the disparity between politicians and society. The paper adopted a content analysis of existing scholarly literature, such as books, articles, government documents, and theses to yield trustworthy findings. The findings of this article established that corruption by the ANC has significantly hampered the success of the country’s economy. The corruption in South Africa has become visible and requires serious attention to restore the economy. The paper concluded that if those in the political class continue to compromise democratic values, including honesty and dignity, and perpetuate corruption, there are indisputable signs that South Africa will continue to fail in its developmental mandate of addressing socio-economic inequalities.
Political party affiliation and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) opportunities have led to the deployment of cadres, leading to 'the wrong foot being put into the right foot' in South Africa after Apartheid. Those with historical knowledge and experience of Apartheid, especially from the erstwhile homelands/Bantustans were relegated to nobodies and comrades were given opportunities not even qualified for. As if that was not enough, the South African government awarded state tenders to comrades without the necessary skills. The recent revelations at the State Capture Commission have exposed names of political elites involved in corruption. From this premise, this paper used the concept of meritocracy as the base of deep thorough investigation into this maladministration using the qualitative method of research through document review. The document review method utilized search engines, relevant journals, and books. A well-informed conclusion was made of the view that political networking is a threat to South Africa's democracy. The findings of the research paper show that the cadre deployment created by political networking poses a threat to South Africa's democracy. Similarly, the findings also show the overlapping nature has opened a leeway to political networking which is the root cause of undermining democracy. The paper has concluded by recommending the employment of meritocracy in political appointments to limit the threat towards the country’s democracy.
Corruption continues to be the bane of development globally, particularly in emerging democracies. In Ghana, despite the existence of constitutional, legal, and independent anti-corruption institutional establishments to deal with the canker, corruption continues to be deeply entrenched in many facets of people’s life. Even though corruption is a global phenomenon, its magnitudes are different from one region to the other. This study investigates system-oriented corruption in Ghana. Moreover, this article seeks to explore the manifestations of corruption in Ghana’s democracy. In this study, I argue that Ghana’s democracy depicts the case of exceptionalism. The argument here is that Ghana is flaunted as one of the most successful democracies in Africa. The pervasiveness of corruption poses more challenges. Methodologically, this study used the desktop research approach. The outcome of this study indicates that adhering strictly to the democratic tenets of good governance is crucial for curbing corruption in Ghana.
Many countries across the globe have adopted devolutionary reforms, which transfer governing powers from the centre to subnational governments. This trend has been necessitated by the need to bring the state closer to the people; increase local democracy and citizen participation; and strengthen accountability and good governance in general. Zimbabwe adopted devolution in its Constitution of Zimbabwe (CoZ) (2013). However, nine years later, constitutional provisions for devolution have not yet been fully implemented. The reasons for such a disturbing trend have not yet been adequately studied from a political economy perspective. Guided by the political economy of decentralisation, this article drew evidence from an empirical qualitative study. The findings indicated that devolution is submerged in politics and concluded that, given opposition dominance in strategic provinces and cities and the threats they pose to the ruling regime, Zimbabwe has limited chances of successfully implementing devolution.
This article explored the global development targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of a global pandemic, using South Africa and Zimbabwe as case studies. The coronavirus disease of 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19, has arguably triggered a renewed focus on the SDGs as the pandemic has impacted the Agenda 2030 trajectory. The eradication of hunger is an overarching theme in this global discourse of development. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Africa’s progress or lack of it in achieving SDGs. The continent remains burdened by poverty and hunger and these twin challenges have retarded development in Africa. Using Zimbabwe and South Africa as case studies, the study analysed literature on the extent of hunger and how this influenced the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that while South Africa and Zimbabwe prioritised the fight against COVID-19, the pandemic exposed their shortfall in meeting the SDG agenda. The pandemic disrupted the production and distribution of food and aggravated the challenge of hunger in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study concluded that South Africa and Zimbabwe are far from achieving the SDGs, only eight years from the target year of 2030.
Negative labellings or bad names are timely descriptors appropriated as the underlying instruments of political mobilization for competing political elites in most ethnically politicized countries, such as Ethiopia. Nevertheless, studies on the enduring implications of these strategies of political mobilization in contemporary Ethiopia are rare. Hence, the central objective of this article is to explain why the country’s dominant political elites instrumentalized negative labelling as a tool of political mobilization. Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources as well as from relevant qualitative data collection instruments. This article argues that all negative labellings are context-oriented, artificial, transferable, and may have double meanings. Anarchists, Chauvinists, Gunmen, Gangs, Narrow-Nationalists, Quislings, Juntas, and Hybrids are some of the adverse labellings devised by Ethiopia’s contending political elites to blame and exclude one another. These strategies have been instrumental among the country’s contemporary elites for mobilizing their political support and excluding opponents from political power. To summarize, the contradictions among contemporary political elites are accompanied by negative profilings, which facilitate political mobilization against opponents.
The year 2022 marks twelve years since the international community witnessed a series of protests that would become an important turning point in the history of modern Middle East, which is now known as the Arab Spring. It began with the self-immolation of a young Tunisian street fruit seller named Mohammed Bouazizi on 18 December 2010 and morphed into a series of the social upheavals and protests that followed in the spring of 2011; hence, the name–Arab Spring. These remonstrations energized the average Arab—hitherto weakened by decades of autocracy—with a new self-confidence and consequently, four powerful Arab political leaders were overthrown. The Arab Spring demonstrated the capacity of aggrieved citizens to question years of brutality and poor governance. Presently, there are indications that the Arab Spring may be replicated in Sub-Saharan Africa. To examine the relevance of the Arab Spring to the sub-Saharan African region, this study focused on a textual examination of current media and non-media sources.
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