Browsing by Author "Stevens, Curtly Keagan"

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    Towards a suitable regulatory framework for the effective performance of municipalities in South Africa
    (Universty of the Western Cape, 2025) Stevens, Curtly Keagan; Steytler, Nicolaas
    This thesis explores whether and how the regulatory framework for local government in South Africa is hampering the ability of municipalities to discharge their constitutional mandate. The study specifically explores whether the phenomenon of over-regulation has manifested itself in South Africa, and what steps can be taken to address it. Claims of over-regulation and poorly designed rules are not new in regard to municipalities. However, until now, scholars in South Africa have often mentioned misgivings about rules, but there is no empirical evidence to back them up, particularly in the context of municipalities. The study begins by reviewing the comprehensive literature on decentralisation and regulatory design, which includes law-making, and finds that no universal model exists for designing a regulatory system applicable to local government. Much of the current literature focuses on general law-making principles without direct link to local government. The study further finds that several regulatory pathologies documented in the literature, such as duplication and complexity (cumulative load of laws and costly regulatory systems that do not consider the capacity constraints of regulators), have all manifested themselves within local government, particularly in Australia and South Africa. With particular reference to South Africa, the study examines the evidence and arguments by means of desktop analysis and empirical data gathered through open-ended interviews. In South Africa, various initiatives have been taken to address the pathologies above by government, including the courts. The study, however, establishes that these initiatives have failed to yield any results in the absence of a clear guiding framework and the institutions necessary to ensure implementation.