Faculty of

Economic and
Management Sciences

South African Governance

Study section 1.1 and 1.2: An
introduction to South African
Governance concepts
Learning outcomes

• Understand and explain core concepts of government and governance

• Distinguish between the three branches of government
• Explain separation of powers, governance organisations and
coproduction governance
• Recognise good governance and ethical government
• Discuss the composite concepts related to the state
• Distinguish between various government models, paradigms and
ideologies
• Understand the concept “context” and the historical context of South
Africa
• Explain and understand the political, economic, social, technological,
legal, and environmental contexts from a global perspective
• Apply the PESTLE contexts to South Africa.
 Core Concepts

• Governance and
• Government: group of people managing the affairs of a
state or country.
• core functions include making laws(legislation), enforcing laws
(execution) and interpreting laws (adjudication)
• This encompasses the legislative, executive, and judicial
branches responsible for creating and enforcing laws, managing
public services, and maintaining order.

• Governance is a broader than government. It involves a set of

structures, processes, and practices that guide how decisions
are made and power is exercised within an organisation or
society. It includes mechanisms for
• accountability,
• transparency,
• participation, and
• fairness.
Core concepts continues
 Legislative branch
 Executive branch Separation of power
 Judicial branch

• Separation of powers requires independence and

interdependence
• System of checks and balances
• Protect citizens against the abuse of power.
 Rule of law
• Everybody is equal before the law
• Government decisions should be based on the law
• Independence of the judiciary
• Supremacy of the Constitution.

“a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private,
including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally
enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human
rights and standards”.

UN Security Council, 2004

Decentralisation of government: Hybrid semi-autonomous governance organisations:
• Vertical division of powers and • Service delivery institutions
functions • Provision of specialised services and goods
• Administrative • Own legal mandate, partly or fully funded by
decentralisation government
• Political decentralisation
• Fiscal decentralisation
• Market decentralisation
Core concepts

Co-production of public services:

“…services are no longer simply delivered by professional and managerial staff in public
agencies but are coproduced by users and their communities” (Bovaird, 2007)

Co-production includes co-design, co-creation, co-delivery and co-management as related

concepts
Governance – facilitative, partnerships
Government –authoritative, controlling.
Related concepts

Good governance: Effective, efficient and ethical

• Participation government:
• Rule of law • Doing the right things and doing the
• Transparency things right
• Responsiveness • What is the impact of the government
• Equity, efficiency and effectiveness action?
• Accountability • Ethical values, e.g. integrity, honesty,
• Strategic vision. accountability, leadership.
Related concepts continues
• Good leadership and • bad leadership
• Effective rule of law • -poor communication
• High service delivery • -poor service delivery
• High security • Failure to accept responsibility
• Economic growth • Lack of transparency
• Increased levels of unemployment
• Lack of involvement
• Decline in economic growth
• No accountability
• Management Unavailable
• Sets unrealistic goals
• Micromanaging
• No clear vision and mission
• Low morale
• Economic instability
• Fear of change
• Inability to address key issues
• Unequal distribution of resources
• Cadre Deployment
• Authoritarianism
• No growth
• Inflation
Supplementary concept

• The state; collection of institutions, territorial unit,

philosophical idea, and an instrument of coercion.
• 5 key features of a state – sovereignty, publicness, legitimacy, domination and
territoriality (Schwella, 2021)

• States need enforceable power to govern

• State authority must be legal and legitimate
• Legitimacy: citizens accept that government has the right to rule
• Legality: the state has acquired and exercises power in accordance with the law
• Accountability – administrative and political, democratic and hierarchical.
• “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Composite concepts related to the state:

1. Constitutional state (Rechtsstaat): 2. Authoritarian state (Machtsstaat):

• Supremacy of the constitution • No respect for constitution or
• Rule of law democracy
• Separation of powers • Absolute power centralised in the
• Justiciable bill of fundamental rights hands of ruler(s)
• Opposition is suppressed

3. Developmental state: 4. Failed state:

• Strategic and deliberate – planning • Weak ineffective central
and implementing policies for government
development • Failure to deliver services
• Use ideas and capacity of the state • Widespread corruption and
and society for development criminality
• Strong symbolic and guiding ideas • Refugees and involuntary
to strengthen legitimacy. movement of people
• Economic failure
 Governance models

Bureaucratic governance model: New public management (NPM):

• Hierarchy • Some form of market system
• Rules-based • Public choice and competition in service
• Top-down accountability delivery
• Well-defined areas of responsibility. • Encourage entrepreneurship
• Set targets and performance management.
Criticism:
• Distrust in big government Criticism:
• Inefficient, ineffective, insensitive • Weakens traditional values of public service
• Not neutral. • Increase transaction costs
• Undermines coherence in service delivery
• If abused, can create opportunities for
corruption

Network governance model: Market governance model:

• No bureaucracy • Government power creates a market for public
• Flexible and innovative purpose
• Opportunity for partnerships and co-
production. .
Public value governance model: Learning governance model:
• Authorising public value • Effective and ethical governance can
• Creating public value benefit from many influences and inputs
• Measuring public value. • Using ideas, information and knowledge
in a constructive learning process
• Leadership that facilitates learning
• Learning organisation.

Learning governance model-4 learning

questions:
• What happened?
• Why did it happen?
• What can we learn from it?
• How can the learning be put back in the
system?
Governance theories, paradigms and ideologies

• Variety of current and Governance paradigms: Governance ideologies:

emerging governance • Western polyarchies or • Sets of ideas that create
theories liberal democracies an intellectual
• Interdisciplinary approach framework
to analyse and • New democracies • Political philosophy
understand governance • East Asian regimes • Create some model for
and government. • Islamic regimes future of society
• Military regimes. • Set an agenda for
political action

Governing good, governing well

• Both ethical and efficiency elements are important.

Good governance based on constitutionalism and effective constitutions

 Governance: The context

Analysing the context

PESTLE analysis:
Political
Economical
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental.
 The historical context of South Africa
• The ancient times and people in the south of Africa
• The arrival in the area of people from other continents
and the move northwards
• The era of colonisation
• Challenges with colonisation, and the Great Trek
• The unification of the South African colonies in 1910
• The establishment of the Republic of South Africa in
1961, and apartheid
• The transformation of South African society into a
constitutional democracy under the rule of law.
Political context
Participant observer’s view:
Critical non-governmental sector
Critical media sector
Respected independent judiciary
International acclaimed universities
State institutions supporting constitutional democracy.
Global perspective:
Emerging middle power
African Governance Report
Ebrahim Index on Good Governance
BRICS.
South Africa’s performance on international comparative indices
For example: The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) decreased from -13 in the first quarter
to -25 in the second quarter and improved only slightly to -20 in the third quarter of 2022
(Bureau for Economic Research, 2022).

Politicians for the common good of the people:

Personal ethos – principled-based leadership
Interpersonal pathos – commitment to care, servant leadership
Employ logic (logos) to the benefit of society – what can I contribute to make the
world a better place for other people?
Economic context
Participant observer’s view: Global perspective:
Economic freedom – enter the SA has the 23rd largest economy in the
economy, trade, own assets world
Index of Economic Freedom Upper middle-income country
Labour freedom 5% of Africa’s population – produces
Fiscal freedom 20% of the GDP
Freedom from corruption. Gross national income per capita
(GNI).

South African perspective: Social context

Diverse economy with services sector Participant observer’s view
contributing >70% Global perspective
High unemployment Human Development Index
Poverty and inequality Fertility rates
Interest rates Mortality rates
Some economic facts. Migration.
South African perspective
Demographic changes
Migration
HIV/AIDS
Long-term implications on resources.
Technological context Legal context
Participant observer’s view Constitutional democracy
Knowledge economy of the 21st century Rule of law
Age of information and communication Supremacy of the constitution
technology Separation of powers
Physical technology, skills, physical Independent judiciary
resources. Non-partisan public service.

Global perspective
Enabling technologies:
Information technologies
Biotechnology
Material technologies
Energy technologies
Transport technologies
Environmentalism.

Environmental context Environmental context

Participant observer’s view Global perspective:
Pressure on world’s natural resources Impact of climate change
Climate change Reduction in CO² emissions
Rapid urbanisation Degradation of agricultural land
Increasing economic development Food security
Political changes. Increased energy consumption
Environmental context
South African perspective:
Water scarcity
Aging and failing water infrastructure
Excessive pollution
Declining water-management ability
Increasing energy consumption
Need for more renewable energy production
Food security
Pressure on bio-diversity.

Four possible futures

Tata ma chance Strong economy and Laduma!

technology

Weak ineffective Weak economy and Strong effective

environmental governance technology environmental governance

Skorokoro Going nowhere slowly

Topics for discussion

The state of constitutional democracy in South Africa

How can South Africa become more environmentally
conscious?
How does climate change affect agriculture in South
Africa?
How can the energy context in South Africa change to
benefit more consumers?
Technological context – utilising local expertise to
strengthen economic growth.