Research Articles (Faculty of Law)

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Browsing by Author "Ayele, Zemelak"

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    The Judiciary in Federal Systems in Africa
    (Perspectives on Federalism, 2020) Steytler, Nico; Ayele, Zemelak
    Eight states in Africa that have federal or federal-type government systems and most of these federations emerged in the post-Cold War period. The African federations are in various degrees characterised by a limited extent of self-rule and the concentration of power at the centre. The question this article addresses is whether, and if so, how, the federal character of the state organisation impacts on the administration of justice. In other words, is the judicial branch of government also part of the federal arrangements, and if so, how has that been manifested? Four sub-questions are posed in this regard. First, does the structure of the judicial institutions also follow the vertical division of powers between the central and subnational governments? Secondly, given the non-centrist or centrist structure of the courts, how are judges appointed? Thirdly, as language and ethnic diversity are often the key reasons for the establishment of federal arrangements, how is the language question dealt within in the administration of justice? Finally, what role have the courts played in realisation of the federal character of the state?
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    Local government in Ethiopia: still an apparatus of control?
    (University of the Western Cape, 2011) Ayele, Zemelak
    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. The centralisation process reached its zenith under the rule of Colonel Mengistu in the 1980s. This centralisation gradually diminished the autonomy of local authorities which incrementally became structures of control of the central government. Local authorities were used to actively suppress resistance against the central government, extract revenue in the form of tax and tribute, mobilise free labour, and even act as agents to conscript for the army. This policy and practice continued until Colonel Mengistu was ousted by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1991. Soon after seizing power, the EPRDF declared its intention to reverse the century-long centralised rule and introduced a semi-federal structure in the country in 1991. Ethiopia officially became a federal country in 1995 following the promulgation of a new Constitution. In 2001 a local level decentralisation programme was initiated. The decentralisation programme included the establishment of elected local government structures and the devolution of certain political, administrative and financial powers to local government. This paper seeks to demonstrate how local authorities were used as a means of control in the past. While a decentralised system of governance has formally been introduced in Ethiopia, this paper argues that local authorities still remain instruments of political control by the central government. In so doing it highlights the factors that continue the trend of central control of local government despite extensive formal decentralisation.
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    The (mis)management of ethnolinguistic diversity in Ethiopian cities
    (Taylor & Francis, 2016) Ayele, Zemelak; de Visser, Jaap
    Ethiopia has an ethnic federal system that is based on the assumption that the ethnolinguistic communities of the country are located in neatly defined, or definable, territorial areas. On the basis of this assumption the federal system aspires to accommodate the ethnic diversity of the Ethiopian people through, principally, if not exclusively, territorial schemes. This assumption is, however, incorrect as far as urban areas are concerned which, despite being territorially enclosed within one of the ethnic-based regions or sub-regional units, have thousands of multiethnic dwellers. The territorial scheme thus fails to cater to a large contingent of multiethnic urban dwellers.