Governance is on the agenda of many of the world's leading pension and investment institutions. Prompted by the challenges posed by global financial markets and closer scrutiny of performance by sponsors and stakeholders, investment goals and objectives have demanded innovation in how funds are governed. In South Africa, there is a need for a proper governance of retirement funds in the public sector. There are discussion papers which were issued by National Treasury which promotes good g ...

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2021-Jun-21 16:13:10

Violence associated with service delivery protests has over the past few years skyrocketed resulting in the loss of lives and damage to property. Political violence is a historical phenomenon in apartheid South Africa. However, under the democratic dispensation violence service delivery protests persists and is estimated to have escalated from 41.66% in 2007 to 54.08% in 2010. While service delivery protests are not solely South African phenomena the level of violence that goes with it is pec ...

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2021-Jun-21 16:08:25

The world is facing a daunting challenge of receiving refugees who flee their countries because of, inter alia, persecution meted against them by being associated with social groups that are perceived to be against the ruling governments. As the number of refugees grows worldwide each year, South Africa has become one of the countries that receive refugees from neighbouring countries, Africa and around the world in large numbers. In an attempt to control the movement of refugees into South Af ...

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2021-Jun-21 16:03:49

The National Development Plan consists of fifteen chapters and Chapter 12 deals with "Building Safer Communities". One of the key components of this chapter is the establishment of a National Policing Board equipped with multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary expertise. According to the NDP, the Board should set standards for recruiting, selecting, appointing and promoting police officials and police officers. Furthermore, the NDP states that "the National Commissioner of Police ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:59:17

The pre-1994 education and training was premised on the policy of separate development which prevented the majority of the African people from accessing relevant human resources training and development opportunities. The post-1994 training and development landscape, which aims at accelerating and empowering the previously disadvantaged in South Africa, have assumed priority since the adoption of a constitutional democracy. This is also relevant at the Local Government Sphere which constitute ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:55:03

The apartheid government of prior 1994 prioritised community needs and service provision on a racial basis. The subsequent post-1994 regime has made attempts to introduce new policies and laws which geared towards correcting the legacy of apartheid system. In particular, sections 26 and 27 of the South African Constitution, 1996 introduced changes and improvements which emphasises on "the rights of citizens to basic services such as health care, food, social security, housing, education, ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:51:09

Developments on the public and national discourse landscape are suggestive of the imperative of a much more professional public service. This paper however does acknowledge that there are pockets of excellence in the public service, more especially where professionalism is concerned. This paper is an attempt to further provide the guidelines that will inform the content of the profesionalisation initiative. One of the dimensions is that of the need for the public servants to provide leadershi ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:46:47

Despite the existence of numerous policy frameworks pertinent to fraud and corruption in the South Africa's public sector, the statistics and reports of corrupt activities in the government of South Africa remain epidemic. The enactment of pieces of legislation such as the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, to mention but a few augured a positive turning point in corruption after the ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:43:13

Are South African public representatives accountable to the voters? If so, how far accountable are they? Is accountability the weakest link in South Africa's democratisation process? This paper assesses the accountability (or lack thereof) of public representatives in South Africa in the background of the country's attainment of two decades of democracy. It examines the accountability of local government councillors, government ministers and provincial MECs (Members of the Provincial ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:39:10

Barely two decades ago, many doomsayers and commentators believed South Africa was headed towards possible prolonged civil war or even serious racial conflict. While this never happened, is the country's post-1994 situation a sign of political stability? Is South Africa a politically stable and economically prosperous society? How unique or exceptional is the county's democratic transition? If so, what explains such 'exceptionalism' and apparent triumph over so many hurdles th ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:35:30

Collection of own revenue in municipalities is a legislative requirement. The White Paper on Local Government (1998) emphatically states that municipalities need to have access to adequate sources of revenue in order to enable them to undertake the functional responsibilities assigned to them. In terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act, Act 56 of 2003, the municipal manager, as the accounting officer of the municipality, is mandated with the responsibility to manage the revenue of the m ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:31:06

Performance management and development system is central to effective and efficient public service delivery. To understand current challenges in performance management, it is necessary to trace the evolution of the performance management system in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. The envisaged paper probes the challenges encountered during the implementation of the performance management and development system in the Department of Education (Gauteng North District). The method adopted ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:26:41

The emergence of climate change in recent years is seen as an extension to the continuous focus on sustainable development, whose governance created ideological contestations about the relevance and irrelevance for developing and developed nations. When sustainable development was codified at the Stockholm conference in 1972, the underlying complexities and contradictions surrounding it created contestations, controversies and mistrust among first and third world countries. Developed countrie ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:16:47

Recent research from the Association of MBAs (AMBA) found that the number of people who hold the qualification and work in the public sector has doubled over the past three years. The AMBA Careers Survey 2013 showed 10% of all MBA graduates - and 41% of female MBA graduates - currently work in the sector. "'The skills developed on an MBA - from strategic thinking to policy-making and implementation - are just as relevant to those in public service as they are to private companies, if ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:10:01

Job satisfaction is a central construct that has dominated the attention of both practitioners and social scientists for centuries. It is central to any scope of employment and work attitudes. Its value cannot however be understated due to its high correlation with important job outcomes. Thompson (2009:2) concluded that there are two types of variables which impact on employee satisfaction, namely, internal workplace factors which are within the control of management and external workplace f ...

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2021-Jun-21 15:03:31

The leadership debate has gained momentum on the political, social and economic front; however very little has been said on the issue of developing leaders who have a vision of a greener and environmentally sustainable future for the country. South Africa, and the rest of the African continent, faces tremendous challenges from a climate change perspective due to multiple stresses and low levels of adaptability to changes in the environment. The National Development Plan (NDP) makes it clear t ...

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2021-Jun-21 14:54:22

The South Africa's National electrification programme was endorsed in 1994 (through the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP) to amongst other objectives address the electrification backlog in the Country. This paper focuses on the extent and impact of the National Electrification Programme in selected areas in Buffalo City Municipality, in Eastern Cape from 1994 to date. Progress of the programme is assessed in the light of achieving universal access to electricity by 2015. The ...

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2021-Jun-21 14:47:36

Water and sanitation are constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights in South Africa. Comparatively South Africa has delivered on its constitutional obligation in providing water and sanitation. It is argued that the reasons for water related service delivery protests can be rationalised by applying the Theory of Rising Expectations. Constitutional provisions give local government municipalities extreme levels of autonomy insulating it from national or provincial interference. Munici ...

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2021-Jun-21 14:43:24

Decision-making in any democratic society is complex, cumbersome and tasking when it involves public policy in a new state. Actors involved in policy-making are numerous and in some cases, difficult to discern in complex interdependent global system. At the theoretical level, two major factors come to play in foreign policy in a state: domestic and environmental. Executive arm of government plays prominent role in policy making and implementation. Despite this, the labyrinth journey to policy ...

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2021-Jun-21 14:38:31

2014 marks yet another important milestone in the evolution of the post-1994 South African state. It is a year that democracy in South Africa turns 20 years. In the context of how democracy fared in the post-colonial Africa, some thought that South Africa would not be able to sustain its commitment to democracy. Afro-pessimists argued that South Africa is to go the same route as the rest of the continent, which their false premonition is that the future of Africa is bleak because of a myriad ...

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2021-Jun-21 14:31:29