Browsing by Author "De Visser, Jaap"

Now showing 1 - 19 of 19
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    City regions in pursuit of SDG 11: Institutionalising multilevel cooperation in Gauteng, South Africa
    (Routledge, 2019) De Visser, Jaap; De Visser, Jacobus Wilhelm
    Metropolitan areas are becoming more and more important in shaping the future of the planet. In 2017 there were 34 megacities worldwide, i.e. cities with a population of over 10 million. It is expected that this number will grow to 41 by 2030 (United Cities and LocaJ Governments (UCLG) 2017a, p. 44). There arc many more smaller urban conglomerations that can be defined as metropolitan areas, using criteria such as continuous growth, levels of density and perhaps most importantly, functional interdependence (UCLG 2017a, p. 44). Metropolitan areas are growing fast and face tremendous challenges. In both developed and developing countries, they experience sprawl, social fragmentation, economic challenges and environmental threats. In developing countries this is compounded by the reality that 880 million people worldwide live in slums, most of them within metropolitan areas (UCLG 2017a, p. 46). The growth of metropolitan areas presents tremendous opportunities for an increase of the well being of the city dwellers within them, but the reality is that many of the challenges fly in the face of the aspirations of Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Decentralisation in Uganda : a critical review of its role in deepening democracy, facilitating development and accommodating diversity
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Singiza, Douglas Karekona; De Visser, Jaap
    Uganda, like many African countries in the 1990s, adopted decentralisation as a state reform measure after many years of civil strife and political conflicts, by transferring powers and functions to district councils. The decision to transfer powers and functions to district councils was, in the main, linked to the quest for democracy and development within the broader context of the nation state. This thesis' broader aim is to examine whether the legal and policy framework of decentralisation produces a system of governance that better serves the greater objectives of local democracy, local development and accommodation of ethnicity. Specifically, the thesis pursues one main aim: to examine whether indeed the existing legal framework ensures the smooth devolution process that is needed for decentralised governance to succeed. In so doing, the study seeks, overall, to offer lessons that are critically important not only for Uganda but any other developing nation that has adopted decentralisation as a state-restructuring strategy. The study uses a desk-top research method by reviewing Uganda's decentralisation legal and policy frameworks. In doing so, the thesis assesses decentralisation's ability to deepen democracy, its role in encouraging development and its ability to accommodate diversity. After reviewing the emerging soft law on decentralisation, the thesis, finds that Uganda's legal framework for decentralisation does not fully enable district councils to foster democracy, facilitate development and accommodate diversity. The thesis argues that the institutions that are created under a decentralised system should be purposefully linked to the overall objective of decentralisation. Giving a historical context of Uganda's decentralisation, the thesis notes that institutional accommodation of ethnic diversity in a decentralised system, particularly so in a multiethnic state, is a vital peace building measure. It is argued the exclusion of ethnicity in Uganda's decentralisation is premised on unjustified fear that ethnicity is potentially a volatile attribute for countries immerging from conflict. It maintains that the unilateral creation of many districts, the adoption of a winner-takes-all electoral system, the absence of special seats for ethnic minorities as well as the vaguely defined district powers and functions do not serve the overall objective of decentralisation. The thesis also finds that district councils are overregulated, with little respect for their autonomy, a phenomenon that is highly nostalgic of a highly centralised state. The thesis therefore calls for immediate reforms of Uganda's decentralisation programme.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Decentralisation, development and accommodation of ethnic minorities: the case of Ethiopia
    (University of Western Cape, 2012) Ayele, Zemelak; De Visser, Jaap
    Decentralisation of political, financial, and administrative powers to sub-national units has been, and remains to be, a major trend in both developing and developed states. Very often decentralisation is not optional for a state. However, a state has the option to choose what to achieve through its decentralisation programme. After choosing what it intends to achieve through its decentralisation programme, a state may design it in such a way that it may attain the intended purpose. Many countries design their decentralisation programmes with the purpose of ‘deepening’ democracy and empowering their citizens. Other states decentralise power with the purpose of achieving development. They do so based on the postulate that development is preferable when it is achieved through the participation of those who benefit from it and that decentralisation enhances the extent and quality of citizen’s direct and indirect participation. States also decentralise powers based on the assumption that decentralisation brings efficiency in planning and implementing development projects. Several states also use their decentralisation programme to respond to the ethnic, religious, or other diversities of their people. They use territorial and non-territorial arrangement to accommodate the diversity of their people. Therefore, in some cases they create ethnically structured regional and local units and transfer to such unit political powers including the power to decide on cultural matters. Like in so many countries, the wind of decentralisation has blown over Ethiopia. The country has been implementing a decentralisation programme starting from 1991. Ethiopia has selected to achieve two principal purposes through its decentralisation programme namely, to achieve development and to respond to the ethnic diversity of its people. It is axiomatic that the success of a decentralisation programme, whether for achieving development or accommodating ethnic diversity, is greatly impacted on by its institutional design. This thesis, therefore, examines whether Ethiopia’s decentralisation programme incorporates the institutional features that are likely to impact the success of the decentralisation programme for achieving its intended purposes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Examining the parameters of the powers of the Minister of Local Government to issue policy directives to urban local authorities in Zimbabwe in terms of section 313 of the Urban Councils Act
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Muchapondwa, Varaidzo Violet; De Visser, Jaap; Steytler, Nico
    This is a desktop based study which will analyse relevant books and chapters in books relating to supervision of local governments by national and other higher level governments. It will also examine legislation, journal articles, newspaper articles and press statements in the field of multi-level government. The study will examine three Ministerial directives in chapter four. Due to challenges in accessing government policies the study will assess two directives that the author has on file. The study will rely on secondary sources such as newspaper articles for the third directive.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Examining the parameters of the powers of the Minister of Local Government to issue policy directives to urban local authorities in Zimbabwe in terms of section 313 of the Urban Councils Act
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Muchapondwa, Varaidzo Violet; De Visser, Jaap; Steytler, Nico
    This is a desktop based study which will analyse relevant books and chapters in books relating to supervision of local governments by national and other higher level governments. It will also examine legislation, journal articles, newspaper articles and press statements in the field of multi-level government. The study will examine three Ministerial directives in chapter four. Due to challenges in accessing government policies the study will assess two directives that the author has on file. The study will rely on secondary sources such as newspaper articles for the third directive.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Food security, urban governance and multilevel government in Africa
    (Springer, 2021) De Visser, Jaap
    Realising the right to food requires more than an increase in food production. Increasing access to food is equally important, so this contribution adopts a “food systems approach”. Against the backdrop of a growing number of countries on the continent that are decentralising powers to cities and regions, this chapter assesses the role of local governments in South Africa with respect to food security. It argues that food security is not just a national and/or provincial government concern, but that the Constitution demands of municipalities to contribute to realising the right to food. Against the backdrop of a general introduction into the division of responsibilities between national, provincial and local government, it deploys two arguments to make this assertion. The first is located in the jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court on socio-economic rights. The second is located in the division of powers between national, provincial and local government. This contribution explores various linkages between a municipality’s constitutional powers and food security. Specific emphasis is placed on the municipality’s responsibility to regulate trade and markets as well as its responsibility to conduct spatial planning and land-use management. The argument made in this chapter is also relevant in other countries on the continent that combine socio-economic rights with multilevel government arrangements.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Implementing the spatial planning and land use management act of 2013: an examination of the intersection of the role of traditional leaders and municipalities in spatial planning and land use management.
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Poswa, Xavia Siyabonga; De Visser, Jaap
    This study examines the intersection of the role of traditional leaders and municipalities in spatial planning and land use management. More specifically, the study interrogates the factors which led to tension and conflict between traditional leaders and municipalities in three provinces, namely, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, over the implementation of SPLUMA in areas governed by traditional leaders. These are the provinces where traditional leaders, through protest action, publicly expressed their grievances and disapproval of SPLUMA soon after it came into effect in 2015. They vowed to resist its implementation in the areas they governed even if it meant being imprisoned for doing so. The study analysed data from 32 key informants, personal observations, and the relevant constitutional provisions, statutes, case law, governmental reports and White papers, including the relevant literature on the history of both the institution of traditional leadership and local government in South Africa. The study identified the underlying reasons why in practice the implementation of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (came into force in 2015) in areas governed by traditional leaders is facing opposition. There are six main reasons which emanate from the interviews that were conducted with the abovementioned informants. These reasons are (1) the lack of meaningful engagement by traditional leadership when SPLUMA was introduced at national level; (2) outright rejection of SPLUMA; (3) misunderstanding of SPLUMA; (4) the lack of trust in municipalities; (5) the lack of trust in planning instruments and processes; and (6) the exclusion of traditional leaders from municipal planning tribunals. Nevertheless, given that the institution of traditional leadership is entrenched in South Africa’s rural society, traditional leader’s closeness and familiarity with rural people in their area, and importantly the role they play in land use management, the study concludes there is a need to find ways to diffuse or manage the contestation between traditional leaders. Options proposed include, national government meaningfully engaging the National House and Provincial houses of traditional leadership about SPLUMA, recognise traditional leaders as authorities of first instance in municipal planning by-laws, include traditional leaders as members/participants of the Municipal Planning Tribunals, as well as, capacitating traditional leaders to understand the meaning and benefts of land use schemes in municipal council meetings and formulating a developmental beneficiation model between traditional leaders and municipalities on land use management matters.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The law and policy for provincial and local government in Zimbabwe: the potential to realise development, bulid democracy and sustain peace
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Chigwata, Tinashe; De Visser, Jaap
    The adoption of the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe heralded a new era with high expectations from ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. Among other matters, the Constitution provides for a multilevel system of government with government organised at the national, provincial and local levels. The design of this system of government is linked to the need, inter alia, to realise development, build democracy and sustain peace in Zimbabwe. Provincial and local governments are expected to play a role in the realisation of these goals. The question is whether the law and policy governing provincial and local governments in Zimbabwe enables these governments to play that role. It will be argued that the law and policy hinders the role of provincial and local governments in realising development, building democracy and sustaining peace. The national government has excessive supervisory powers over provincial and local governments which limit the minimum level of local discretion required if these lower governments are to assist in realising development, building democracy and sustaining peace. Moreover, the legal and institutional design emphasises coordinative rather than cooperative relations among governments, thereby undermining opportunities for effective multilevel governance. It will be argued that the 2013 Constitution, however, provides the foundation upon which an effective system of multilevel government can be built. Mere alignment of the legislative framework with the 2013 Constitution is nevertheless unlikely to give full effect to the non-centralised system of government envisaged by this new Constitution. What is required is the development of a policy, institutional and legislative framework that gives effect to the constitutional spirit of devolution of power and cooperative governance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Local government in Ethiopia: adequately empowered?
    (UWC, 2008) Ayele, Zemelak; De Visser, Jaap
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Local Government in Tanzania: does the local government law give autonomy to local government
    (University of the Western Cape, 2008) Mzee, Mzee Mustafa; De Visser, Jaap; Faculty of Law
    Despite a highly centralised system of government, Tanzania, has attempted several measures aimed at achieving decentralisation of its immense powers to allow people to have a say on matters affecting their respective areas of jurisdiction. By discussing the autonomy of local government in Tanzania, this research will highlight whether or not local government in Tanzania has the autonomy to exercise its functions without undue interference from the central government. There is not much literature on the local government laws of Tanzania .Therefore, this research will contribute to the concept of decentralisation in Tanzania in particular and Africa in general.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The (mis)management of ethno-linguistic diversity in Ethiopian cities
    (Routledge, 2017) De Visser, Jaap; Ayele, Zemelak A.
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Municipal Planning By-laws and the extent to which they give effect to the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013.
    (University of Western Cape, 2017) Poswa, Xavia; De Visser, Jaap
    The spatial legacy created by the planning laws of the apartheid regime is still apparent in most cities and towns across South Africa. The legacy of apartheid spatial planning reveals not only planning which was undertaken along racial lines and inequality in the provision of infrastructure, amenities and accessibility, but the distances between where the poor and the rich live further perpetuates that inequality. Moreover, these planning laws also created a spatial pattern which resulted in the costs of maintaining infrastructure to be very high and public transport difficult to provide and access. Berrisford notes, "the roots to this legacy are complex and varied, but the regulatory frameworks governing land tenure, development and use played a prominent role in creating problems now faced by South African towns and cities".
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Testing the boundaries of municipal supervision: an analysis of Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act and provincial legislation
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Reynecke, Ashwin Jermain; De Visser, Jaap
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Testing the boundaries of municipal supervision: an analysis of Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act and provincial legislation
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Reynecke, Ashwin Jermain; De Visser, Jaap