There is a growing realisation that urbanisation has overstretched the ability and efforts of central governments to serve from the centre, giving rise to the search for a robust decentralisation policy that vests urban local government with some level of autonomy. However, efforts to capacitate urban councils through the process of decentralisation are futile if urban local government lacks the financial means to fulfil their responsibilities.
{"title":"Fiscal autonomy of urban councils in Zimbabwe: A critical analysis","authors":"S. Marumahoko, Yt Fessha","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V15I1.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V15I1.9","url":null,"abstract":"There is a growing realisation that urbanisation has overstretched the ability and efforts of central governments to serve from the centre, giving rise to the search for a robust decentralisation policy that vests urban local government with some level of autonomy. However, efforts to capacitate urban councils through the process of decentralisation are futile if urban local government lacks the financial means to fulfil their responsibilities.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123859567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
South Africa’s transformative Constitution calls for a holistic approach to realising the right to human dignity. To marginalised groups, such as domestic workers, this right is not confined to achieving better wages and working conditions; it touches every aspect of their lives. Central to this endeavour is the quest for adequate housing. This article discusses the experience of a housing cooperative consisting predominantly of domestic workers in campaigning for adequate housing, especially at local government level, as part of the struggle to achieve a secure and dignified existence. While identifying formidable obstacles, it also shows the interconnectedness of the various challenges and the need for a integrated approach in addressing them.
{"title":"Forum Contribution: The plight of domestic workers: The elusiveness of access to adequate housing","authors":"A. Tonkin","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V14I1.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V14I1.12","url":null,"abstract":"South Africa’s transformative Constitution calls for a holistic approach to realising the right to human dignity. To marginalised groups, such as domestic workers, this right is not confined to achieving better wages and working conditions; it touches every aspect of their lives. Central to this endeavour is the quest for adequate housing. \u0000 \u0000This article discusses the experience of a housing cooperative consisting predominantly of domestic workers in campaigning for adequate housing, especially at local government level, as part of the struggle to achieve a secure and dignified existence. While identifying formidable obstacles, it also shows the interconnectedness of the various challenges and the need for a integrated approach in addressing them.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124165365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It is the task of government to turn the basic rights contained in the Constitution into lived reality for South Africa's people by means of legislation and policy. Marius Pieterse focuses on the crucially important right of access to health care services, examining the extent to which the legislature and executive have translated this right into concrete, claimable individual entitlements. The author draws links between the creation of statutory or policy-based socio-economic entitlements, the establishment of processes through which they may be enforced and the extent to which beneficiaries are able to access them. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that non-enjoyment of the right to have access to health care services is due to lack of implementation of laws and policies rather than weaknesses in the laws and policies themselves, the author argues that legislative and executive "translation failures" are impacting detrimentally on access to treatment, especially by the most vulnerable. Against this background the article considers whether the current judicial approach to socio-economic adjudication is adequate to perceive and correct such "translation failures".
{"title":"Legislative and executive translation of the right to have access to health care services","authors":"M. Pieterse","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V14I1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V14I1.7","url":null,"abstract":"It is the task of government to turn the basic rights contained in the Constitution into lived reality for South Africa's people by means of legislation and policy. Marius Pieterse focuses on the crucially important right of access to health care services, examining the extent to which the legislature and executive have translated this right into concrete, claimable individual entitlements. \u0000 \u0000The author draws links between the creation of statutory or policy-based socio-economic entitlements, the establishment of processes through which they may be enforced and the extent to which beneficiaries are able to access them. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that non-enjoyment of the right to have access to health care services is due to lack of implementation of laws and policies rather than weaknesses in the laws and policies themselves, the author argues that legislative and executive \"translation failures\" are impacting detrimentally on access to treatment, especially by the most vulnerable. Against this background the article considers whether the current judicial approach to socio-economic adjudication is adequate to perceive and correct such \"translation failures\".","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123687777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
South Africa in reality harbours two separate education systems in its public school domain: one consisting of the former white schools, which is adequately resourced, and the other constituting the township and rural schools entrenched in abject poverty. The current school funding system perpetuates this state of inequality
{"title":"The school funding system and its discriminatory impact on marginalised learners","authors":"Lorette Arendse","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V15I1.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V15I1.12","url":null,"abstract":"South Africa in reality harbours two separate education systems in its public school domain: one consisting of the former white schools, which is adequately resourced, and the other constituting the township and rural schools entrenched in abject poverty. The current school funding system perpetuates this state of inequality","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125486143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of Land, Power & Custom: Controversies Generated by South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act , edited by Aninka Claassens & Ben Cousins; xv and pp 392 with accompanying DVD. Legal Resources Centre & UCT Press, Cape Town, 2008 Ann Pope gives a detailed overview of a book on a topic that has assumed critical importance in South Africa and, at the same time, analyses and comments on difficulties and dilemmas that have been encountered in securing indigenous land rights. The book was collated following the enactment of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004 and the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act 41 of 2003, in preparation for a challenge to the constitutionality of the former Act by alleging that it “undermines the rights of rural people to make them less secure than before”. Judgment in Tongoane and Others v National Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs and Others (11678/2006) [2009] ZAGPPHC 127 (30 October 2009) has since been delivered, its findings being mostly in favour of the applicants. An analysis of the judgment is followed by further reflection on a number of issues. The discussion shows that, while the applicants in Tongoane can rightly claim victory for succeeding in having several provisions of the CLRA declared unconstitutional, important questions remain unanswered. The author suggests that the implications of such omissions will need careful and thoughtful treatment by the Constitutional Court during the confirmation hearing at the beginning of March 2010. At the time of publication the judgment in this hearing was not yet available.
{"title":"Forum Contribution: Get rights right in the interests of security of tenure","authors":"A. Pope","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V14I1.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V14I1.11","url":null,"abstract":"Review of Land, Power & Custom: Controversies Generated by South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act , edited by Aninka Claassens & Ben Cousins; xv and pp 392 with accompanying DVD. Legal Resources Centre & UCT Press, Cape Town, 2008 \u0000 \u0000Ann Pope gives a detailed overview of a book on a topic that has assumed critical importance in South Africa and, at the same time, analyses and comments on difficulties and dilemmas that have been encountered in securing indigenous land rights. \u0000 \u0000The book was collated following the enactment of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004 and the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act 41 of 2003, in preparation for a challenge to the constitutionality of the former Act by alleging that it “undermines the rights of rural people to make them less secure than before”. Judgment in Tongoane and Others v National Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs and Others (11678/2006) [2009] ZAGPPHC 127 (30 October 2009) has since been delivered, its findings being mostly in favour of the applicants. An analysis of the judgment is followed by further reflection on a number of issues. The discussion shows that, while the applicants in Tongoane can rightly claim victory for succeeding in having several provisions of the CLRA declared unconstitutional, important questions remain unanswered. The author suggests that the implications of such omissions will need careful and thoughtful treatment by the Constitutional Court during the confirmation hearing at the beginning of March 2010. At the time of publication the judgment in this hearing was not yet available.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133800927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parliaments are guardians of human rights due to their role of representing the people in the management of public affairs. The activities of parliaments cover the entire spectrum of human rights and have an immediate impact on the enjoyment, protection andpromotion of rights. In South Africa, the Constitution requires parliament to scrutinise and oversee government actions, thus providing it with the opportunity to promote human rights. In addition, a number of principles guide the South African parliament in carrying out its mandate. These include advancement of human rights, human dignity, equality, social justice, accountability, responsiveness and openness. This article considers the (potential) role of the South African parliament in promoting constitutional rights through ensuring compliance with IHRL. A key obligation in various IHRL treaties is the obligation to adopt laws and other measures to give effect to the rights in the treaties. As the legislative arm of government, parliament has a significant role to play in ensuring compliance with this obligation.
{"title":"Using international human rights law to promote constitutional rights: The (potential) role of the South African parliament","authors":"Lilian Chenwi","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V15I1.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V15I1.8","url":null,"abstract":"Parliaments are guardians of human rights due to their role of representing the people in the management of public affairs. The activities of parliaments cover the entire spectrum of human rights and have an immediate impact on the enjoyment, protection andpromotion of rights. In South Africa, the Constitution requires parliament to scrutinise and oversee government actions, thus providing it with the opportunity to promote human rights. In addition, a number of principles guide the South African parliament in carrying out its mandate. These include advancement of human rights, human dignity, equality, social justice, accountability, responsiveness and openness. This article considers the (potential) role of the South African parliament in promoting constitutional rights through ensuring compliance with IHRL. A key obligation in various IHRL treaties is the obligation to adopt laws and other measures to give effect to the rights in the treaties. As the legislative arm of government, parliament has a significant role to play in ensuring compliance with this obligation.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124692550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Historically, local authorities in Ethiopia enjoyed wide political, administrative, judicial, and financial autonomy. However, from the 1850s a process of territorial expansion and centralisation was initiated in the country.
{"title":"Local government in Ethiopia: still an apparatus of control?","authors":"Z. Ayele","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V15I1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V15I1.7","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, local authorities in Ethiopia enjoyed wide political, administrative, judicial, and financial autonomy. However, from the 1850s a process of territorial expansion and centralisation was initiated in the country.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"IA-16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126557703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the face of a long-standing unemployment crisis that increasingly threatens social and economic stability, employment has at last taken centre stage in South African policy, and with this, focus is shifting to the structural constraints on employment creation within the economy. The New Growth Path, approved by Cabinet in November 2010, starts to tackle these issues. Its emphasis on inclusive growth places issues of distribution more clearly on the agenda than they have been; and the Competition Commission has become poor consumers’ knight in shining armour, tackling collusion and highlighting the negative economic (and employment) consequences of South Africa’s highly centralized core economy. What does this mean, however, for what used to be called ‘the second economy’? While much scholarship has focused on critiquing the concept of the second economy – with good reason – the stark inequalities that characterize South African society and its economy mean that policy-making processes still struggle to straddle both ends of the spectrum. What is good for the developed end of the economy can seem to be far removed from concerns in more marginalised contexts. This article argues that the sharp divides in access and opportunity need to be located within the context of structural inequality. It focuses in particular on how the highly unequal structure of the economy impacts on economic opportunities at the more marginalised end of the economy, and how common sets of processes within a single economy produce and reproduce these outcomes. This locks people into poverty in ways that cannot simply be dismissed as a problem of ‘dependency’ - despite a growing tendency to do so. The article concludes by considering what this analysis means for development strategies targeting the unemployed and those eking out survivalist incomes.
{"title":"Inequality and economic marginalisation: How the structure of the economy impacts on opportunities on the margins","authors":"K. Philip","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V14I1.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V14I1.14","url":null,"abstract":"In the face of a long-standing unemployment crisis that increasingly threatens social and economic stability, employment has at last taken centre stage in South African policy, and with this, focus is shifting to the structural constraints on employment creation within the economy. The New Growth Path, approved by Cabinet in November 2010, starts to tackle these issues. \u0000 \u0000Its emphasis on inclusive growth places issues of distribution more clearly on the agenda than they have been; and the Competition Commission has become poor consumers’ knight in shining armour, tackling collusion and highlighting the negative economic (and employment) consequences of South Africa’s highly centralized core economy. \u0000 \u0000What does this mean, however, for what used to be called ‘the second economy’? \u0000 \u0000While much scholarship has focused on critiquing the concept of the second economy – with good reason – the stark inequalities that characterize South African society and its economy mean that policy-making processes still struggle to straddle both ends of the spectrum. What is good for the developed end of the economy can seem to be far removed from concerns in more marginalised contexts. \u0000 \u0000This article argues that the sharp divides in access and opportunity need to be located within the context of structural inequality. It focuses in particular on how the highly unequal structure of the economy impacts on economic opportunities at the more marginalised end of the economy, and how common sets of processes within a single economy produce and reproduce these outcomes. This locks people into poverty in ways that cannot simply be dismissed as a problem of ‘dependency’ - despite a growing tendency to do so. The article concludes by considering what this analysis means for development strategies targeting the unemployed and those eking out survivalist incomes.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115827654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Analysing policy discourse concerning the informal economy in South Africa, the article explicates in detail the paucity of (even ostensibly pro-poor) market-oriented prescriptions for enterprise development. The author presents the Sustainable Livelihoods approach as an alternative framework for understanding the informal economy and one more attuned to the realities of impoverishment, including its gendered dynamics. The paper concludes with brief reflection on some of the institutional implications of the Sustainable Livelihoods framework.
{"title":"Informal business and poverty in South Africa : re-thinking the paradigm","authors":"M. V. Broembsen","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V14I1.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V14I1.8","url":null,"abstract":"Analysing policy discourse concerning the informal economy in South Africa, the article explicates in detail the paucity of (even ostensibly pro-poor) market-oriented prescriptions for enterprise development. \u0000 \u0000The author presents the Sustainable Livelihoods approach as an alternative framework for understanding the informal economy and one more attuned to the realities of impoverishment, including its gendered dynamics. The paper concludes with brief reflection on some of the institutional implications of the Sustainable Livelihoods framework.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126555997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Ethiopian FEACC is a dedicated anti-corruption agency, invested with expansive powers to combat corruption in the country. It was established in 2001 in the context of the accelerated internationalisation of anti-corruption law. The mandate of the FEACC is wide, spanning the prevention, investigation and prosecution of all forms of corruption in Ethiopia. This article seeks to evaluate critically the performance of the FEACC in the execution of its mandate during the first decade of its existence. To this end it situates the creation and design of the FEACC within the global context of anti-corruption agencies, and seeks to assess its performance against generally accepted criteria, such as independence and accountability. The article seeks also to identify legal, political and institutional impediments to the success of the FEACC and proposes possible routes to overcoming such impediments. The FEACC’s first decade has been a mixed one, with some notable successes offset against a number of inadequacies in need of significant and urgent attention.
{"title":"The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission: A Critical Assessment","authors":"T. Mezmur, R. Koen","doi":"10.4314/LDD.V15I1.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LDD.V15I1.11","url":null,"abstract":"The Ethiopian FEACC is a dedicated anti-corruption agency, invested with expansive powers to combat corruption in the country. It was established in 2001 in the context of the accelerated internationalisation of anti-corruption law. The mandate of the FEACC is wide, spanning the prevention, investigation and prosecution of all forms of corruption in Ethiopia. This article seeks to evaluate critically the performance of the FEACC in the execution of its mandate during the first decade of its existence. To this end it situates the creation and design of the FEACC within the global context of anti-corruption agencies, and seeks to assess its performance against generally accepted criteria, such as independence and accountability. The article seeks also to identify legal, political and institutional impediments to the success of the FEACC and proposes possible routes to overcoming such impediments. The FEACC’s first decade has been a mixed one, with some notable successes offset against a number of inadequacies in need of significant and urgent attention.","PeriodicalId":341103,"journal":{"name":"Law, Democracy and Development","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122961636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：