THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

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CHAPTER 2 A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

INTRODUCTION

For the greatest part of their existence, human beings were nomads who stayed in one place only as long as they could find natural shelter, food and water. As time passed by, people started to stay in one place and construct dwellings after they had come to know how to produce food by cultivating plants and domesticating animals. The aforementioned developments made it possible for some people to undertake non-agricultural work and live in close proximity with others in restricted areas. This resulted in individuals and families no longer being self-sufficient but becoming dependent upon goods and services provided by others. Eventually the people became so dependent upon goods and services provided by others that they had to devise reliable arrangements for the provision of goods and services which were essential for closer settlement. The search for such arrangements led the self-appointed leaders of such settlements to instate sovereignty and government.
The provision of public services is directed through three spheres of government. In terms of Section 40 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996), these three spheres of government are provided for, namely:

• central or national;
• provincial or regional; and
• local or municipal.

The activity or process of implementing government policies with the explicit intention of improving the quality of life of the citizenry is referred to as public administration and also as public management. In South Africa, the perception which has been popularized is that public management is a part of public administration .
Public administration is comprised of numerous sub-fields. Municipal administration, which is one of the sub-fields is specifically concerned with the administration of municipal affairs by municipal officials within the local government sphere. Municipal administration, like public administration, is also a comprehensive field of activity, which is comprised of several sub-fields. Municipal service delivery, which is mainly concerned with the provision of services such as water, housing, health, transport and electricity is one such activity.
Municipal administration is part of the greater field of activity known as public administration . Therefore the theories and guidelines of public administration also apply to municipal administration and municipal service delivery.
In this chapter the origins and characteristics of urban areas that led to the establishment of principles of sovereignty and government, are explained . Co-operative government in the South African context is highlighted and the purpose and structure of local government as a direct provider of services and its ability to adapt to the legislative challenges of restructuring is also examined .

ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN AREAS

Every urban area was originally a piece of farm-land set apart for closer settlement by people who were no longer farmers or who farmed on or cultivated only small pieces of land . When official recognition is granted for such closer settlement, the farm-land is subdivided into small pieces which are known as building stands or, in South Africa, erven (singular erf) . These are the smallest pieces into which land may be divided (Cloete, 1997: 1).
As soon as a small number of dwellings and other buildings have been erected on such pieces of subdivided farm-land the small settlement becomes known as a hamlet or village. When the number of dwellings and other buildings increases substantially, the hamlet becomes a town and , if the development continues, the town eventually becomes a city. When the urbanized area becomes so big that it contains a core city and a number of satellite towns, the area becomes known as a metropolitan area (Cloete, 1997: 2). For example the Pretoria metropolitan area has Pretoria as the core city and Akasia, Atteridgeville, Eersterust, Mamelodi, Laudium and Centurion as satellite towns and even cities.
A municipality is established when a hamlet/village, town or city obtains its own municipal authority usually a committee or council with appointed or elected members. The term municipality originates from the Latin municipalis, which referred to a city with some self-government, but subject to the central government of the Roman Empire (Clarke, 1969: 11). The Latin term civitas is the common etymological root for the English terms civilisation and city as well as the French term cite . Originally the word civitas was used to refer to a district of the Roman Empire and afterwards it was used to refer to a bishop’s seat or cathedral city. Incorrect usage of the term city still takes place when the term is used to refer to a town which has a cathedral (Jackson 1967: 2). It is common usage now to refer to an urban area as a city only when the urban area is much larger than an ordinary town and has received official permission to be known as a city. For example, one refers to the town of Stellenbosch but the city of Cape Town, or the town of Standerton but the city of Pretoria.
Each urban area is established to serve one or more functions. For example, a village may come into existence where a church is built and a number of houses are erected around the church. In the same way, a coastal resort or a mining area may develop into a village, a town and eventually a city. Many South African towns started as religious centres which acquired trading functions or became educational and administrative centres. In the end, most villages and towns serve a number of economic, cultural, political and administrative functions for both the town’speople and those who inhabit the surrounding rural area (Cloete, 1997: 3).
The characteristics of every urban area (this means every village, town and city) are that:

• parts of it, known as suburbs, are reserved for division into building stands (generally referred to as erven) which are numbered and on which houses, churches and shops may be built;
• parts are reserved for streets and sidewalks;
• parts are set aside as parks, sports grounds and cemeteries;
• parts are zoned as business areas and there is usually a central business district (generally known as the CBD);
• parts are divided into industrial sites on which factories may be built; and
• parts are set aside for the construction of public buildings such as schools, municipal offices, government buildings such as police stations, prisons, magistrates’offices, and railway stations (Craythorne, 1980: 1-14).

The orderly division of every urban area (or land-use zoning as it is called) is essential to enable large numbers of people to live and work comfortably yet close together in small areas. The orderly division of every urban area is performed by a type of government.

SOVEREIGNTY AND GOVERNMENT

There are essentially three types of government, which are divided into the supra-sovereign (national), the quasi-sovereign (provincial or state) and the infra-sovereign (local) governments. Supra-sovereign national governments exercise the most authority and power, have the most fully developed bureaucracies and attract the most public attention. Quasi-sovereign provincial or state governments are the major component parts of sovereign countries with a federal form of government (Humes & Martin, 1969: 27).
The essential principle of a federal form of government is that sovereignty, as the supreme political authority and power, is divided or shared between the national government (of the country as a whole) and the provincial or state government (of the major constituent geographical parts). Thus, the laws establishing and controlling local government are generally state laws and the administrative controls over local governments in countries with federal constitutions are usually exercised by state officials. From a local government viewpoint, then, both the state and the national governments are quasi-sovereign and are therefore not considered to be local governments. Local governments are the infra-sovereign geographical units contained within a sovereign nation or a quasi-sovereign provincial or state. They include intermediate units such as provinces and basic units such as municipalities (Jackson, 1967: 3-4).
National or central government therefore refers to the public entity which governs the whole country. In federal systems, this would include state or provincial governments. Local government unit or local authority refers to rural and urban political subdivisions below the national level which are constituted by law and have substantial control of local affairs, and which include counties, municipalities, cities, villages and others. The term excludes district or regional subdivisions of the national government that are set up solely for national administrative purposes. To place these types of government within the context of the thesis, a synopsis of the spheres of government as an intergovernmental relationship will follow.

SPHERES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT

South Africa is, by tradition, a union with three spheres of government. The three spheres of government in the South African context are central/national, provincial/regional and local/municipal government. According to the White Paper on Local Government, 1998 (1998: 40-41), all spheres of government must co-operate with one another in mutual trust and good faith through fostering friendly relations. The three spheres of government are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated as is reflected in Figure 2.1 .

CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH DESIGN
1.1. INTRODUCTION
1.2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND HYPOTHESIS
1.3. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.4. RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
1.5. CLARIFICATION OF TERMINOLOGY
1.6. STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH
1.7. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 2: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
2.1. INTRODUCTION
2.2. ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN AREAS
2.3. SOVEREIGNTY AND GOVERNMENT
2.4. SPHERES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT
2.5. AN INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
2.6. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3: THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
3.1. INTRODUCTION
3.2. DEFINING A LOCAL GOVERNMENT
3.3. LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEMOCRACY
3.4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
3.5. THE STRUCTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
3.6. CONCERNS IN RESTRUCTURING LOCAL GOVERNMENT
3.7. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4: THE RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE UP TO 1994
4.1. INTRODUCTION
4.2. EMERGENCE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
4.3. DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR THE URBAN AREAS POPULATED BY NON-WHITES
4.4. REGIONALISED STRUCTURES FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
4.5. RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: 1990-1994
4.6. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5: THE RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA IN THE PRE-INTERIM AND INTERIM PHASES
5.1. INTRODUCTION
5.2. APPLICATION ·OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRANSITION ACT (ACT 209 OF 1993) IN THE PRE-INTERIM PHASE
5.3. INTERIM PHASE: ELECTED COUNCILS
5.4. EVALUATING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATION FORUM AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRANSITION ACT (ACT 209 OF 1993)
5.5. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6: RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE FINAL PHASE
6.1. INTRODUCTION
6.2. EMERGENCE OF THE FINAL CONSTITUTION
6.3. CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, ACT 108 OF 1996
6.4. THE WHITE PAPER ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
6.5. LOCAL GOVERNMENT MUNICIPAL STRUCTURES ACT,,ACT 117 OF 1998
6.6. CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE
6.7. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 7: RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE GREATER PRETORIA AREA IN THE PRE-INTERIM PHASE
7.1. INTRODUCTION
7.2. NATURE AND HISTORY OF METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
7.3. LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATIONS OF THE GREATER PRETORIA REGION
7.4. GREATER PRETORIA METROPOLITAN NEGOTIATING FORUM
7.5. THE TRANSITIONAL METROPOLITAN COUNCIL AND THE PRETORIA REGIONAL SERVICES COUNCIL
7.6. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE METROPOLITAN COUNCIL AND THE SUBSTRUCTURES
7.7. EVALUATING THE PRE-INTERIM PHASE
7.8. RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN MOVING TOWARDS THE INTERIM PHASE
7.9. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 8: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GREATER PRETORIA METROPOLITAN AREA IN THE INTERIM PHASE (1 NOVEMBER 1995 UP TO 5 DECEMBER 2000)
8.1. INTRODUCTION
8.2. LOCAL SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE INTERIM ,PHASE
8.3. PRETORIA IN NATIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT
8.4. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 9: EVALUATING THE THREE CATEGORIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE FINAL RESTRUCTURING PHASE IN THE CITY OF TSHWANE
9.1. INTRODUCTION
9.2. CATEGORIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
9.3. EVALUATING A CATEGORY A LOCAL GOVERNMENT: INTERPRETATION OF THE CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE NODAL POINTS
9.4. EVALUATING A COMBINED CATEGORY BIC LOCAL GOVERNMENT
9.5. EVALUATING LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATEGORIES ACCORDING TO RESTRUCTURING PRINCIPLES
9.6. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: THE RESTRUCTURING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE CITY OF TSHWANE
10.1 . INTRODUCTION
10.2. PROVING THE HYPOTHESIS
10.3. RECOMMENDATIONS
10.4. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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