This uniquely written and enterprising book reasons that local authorities are created to play two essential roles, namely: (i) service rendering, which is a utilitarian consideration, and (ii) democracy, which is a civic consideration. The utilitarian dimension entails the efficient and effective rendering of services to citizens. It has a bias for recipient-citizens, but also recognizes the fact that citizens, in turn, have an obligation to pay for these services. The civic consideration deals with the values of participation, representation, local autonomy, responsiveness, and fairness. It entails commitment and participation of citizens in the decision-making processes of local government--or contribution of ideas. In this book, Alexius Amtaika develops a compelling form of growing body of knowledge and literature which contend that an effective local government is vital for the provision of goods and services, in partnership with communities, in order to allow the communities themselves to lead healthier and happier lives. He tailors together conceptual issues, classical historical facts, various legislations and empirical data into a single coherent argument, and stresses that the challenges facing local government in South Africa today are historical and systemic, embedded in, and inherited, from the British colonial government's Westminster Model, which was first introduced into South Africa in 1806 and passed on to, and adopted by, various governments in South Africa. He stresses that the changes that took place in South Africa in 1994 were structural changes, and that these change altered fundamentally the structures of old the apartheid government, but maintained the Westminster Model System of governance and government, which has been in place since the beginning of the 19th Century. His case is animated by provocative discussions of topical issues, such as freedom, equality, order, nation-building, democracy, development, leadership, elections, and service delivery. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin. "Amtaika takes a critical, yet exploratory view in providing a strong argument for the establishment and existence of local government as a distinct sphere in the post-apartheid state ... It is a good example of how an academic book should be writtin: well-researched, well-organised and well-written." -- Barry R. Hanyane, Journal of Public Administration 51(3.1)

The most up to date and frank account of the developing South African crisis. An analysis of the criminalization of the South African state. A unique perspective on likely future developments there.

Democracy came to South Africa in April 1994, when the African National Congress won a landslide victory in the first free national election in the country’s history. That definitive and peaceful transition from apartheid is often cited as a model for others to follow. The new order has since survived several transitions of ANC leadership, and it averted a potentially destabilizing constitutional crisis in 2008. Yet enormous challenges remain. Poverty and inequality are among the highest in the world. Staggering unemployment has fueled xenophobia, resulting in deadly aggression directed at refugees and migrant workers from Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Violent crime rates, particularly murder and rape, remain grotesquely high. The HIV/AIDS pandemic was shockingly mishandled at the highest levels of government, and infection rates continue to be overwhelming. Despite the country’s uplifting success of hosting Africa’s first World Cup in 2010, inefficiency and corruption remain rife, infrastructure and basic services are often semifunctional, and political opposition and a free media are under pressure. In this volume, major scholars chronicle South Africa’s achievements and challenges since the transition. The contributions, all previously unpublished, represent the state of the art in the study of South African politics, economics, law, and social policy.

As South Africa has entered the third decade after the end of apartheid, this book aims at taking stock of the post-apartheid dynamics in the, so far, often less-comprehensively analysed, but crucial fields of APRM-relevant politics, social development, land and regional relations. In the first part of the book an analysis of some structuring domestic features of post-apartheid South Africa is provided, with a focus on political processes and debates around gender, HIV/AIDS and religion. The second part of the volume focuses on the land question and part three is looking at South Africa’s role in the Southern African region. Contributors are: Nancy Andrew, Nicholas Dietrich, Ulf Engel, Harvey M. Feinberg, Anna-Maria Gentili, Preben Kaarsholm, Mandisa Mbali, David Moore, Arrigo Pallotti, Roberta Pellizzoli, Chris Saunders, Timothy Scarnecchia, Cherryl Walker, Lorenzo Zambernardi, and Mario Zamponi.

This is the first comparative analysis of the political transitions in South Africa and Palestine since the 1990s. Clarno s study is grounded in impressive ethnographic fieldwork, taking him from South African townships to Palestinian refugee camps, where he talked to a wide array of informants, from local residents to policymakers, political activists, business representatives, and local and international security personnel. The resulting inquiry accounts for the simultaneous development of extreme inequality, racialized poverty, and advanced strategies for securing the powerful and policing the poor in South Africa and Palestine/Israel over the last 20 years. Clarno places these transitions in a global context while arguing that a new form of neoliberal apartheid has emerged in both countries. The width and depth of Clarno s research, combined with wide-ranging first-hand accounts of realities otherwise difficult for researchers to access, make Neoliberal Apartheid a path-breaking contribution to the study of social change, political transitions, and security dynamics in highly unequal societies. Take one example of Clarno s major themes, to wit, the issue of security. Both places have generated advanced strategies for securing the powerful and policing the racialized poor. In South Africa, racialized anxieties about black crime shape the growth of private security forces that police poor black South Africans in wealthy neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a discourse of Muslim terrorism informs the coordinated network of security forcesinvolving Israel, the United States, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authoritythat polices Palestinians in the West Bank. Overall, Clarno s pathbreaking book shows how the shifting relationship between racism, capitalism, colonialism, and empire has generated inequality and insecurity, marginalization and securitization in South Africa, Palestine/Israel, and other parts of the world."

"We Are the Poors follows the growth of the most unexpected of these community movements, beginning in one township of Durban, linking up with community and labor struggles in other parts of the country, and coming together in massive anti-government protests at the time of the UN World Conference Against Racism in 2001. It describes from the inside how the downtrodden regain their dignity and create hope for a better future in the face of a neoliberal onslaught, and shows the human faces of the struggle against the corporate model of globalization in a Third World country."--Jacket.

A compelling account of South Africa’s post-Apartheid democracy At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world, Until We Have Won Our Liberty shines new light on the signal achievements of one of the contemporary era’s most closely watched transitions away from minority rule. South Africa’s democratic development has been messy, fiercely contested, and sometimes violent. But as Evan Lieberman argues, it has also offered a voice to the voiceless, unprecedented levels of government accountability, and tangible improvements in quality of life. Lieberman opens with a first-hand account of the hard-fought 2019 national election, and how it played out in Mogale City, a post-Apartheid municipality created from Black African townships and White Afrikaner suburbs. From this launching point, he examines the complexities of South Africa’s multiracial society and the unprecedented democratic experiment that began with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. While acknowledging the enormous challenges many South Africans continue to face—including unemployment, inequality, and discrimination—Lieberman draws on the country’s history and the experience of comparable countries to demonstrate that elected Black-led governments have, without resorting to political extremism, improved the lives of millions. In the context of open and competitive politics, citizens have gained access to housing, basic services, and dignified treatment to a greater extent than during any prior period. Countering much of the conventional wisdom about contemporary South Africa, Until We Have Won Our Liberty offers hope for the enduring impact of democratic ideals.