The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) – established on 5 December 2013 as an independent statutory body to advance and coordinate scholarship, research and ethical practice in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences – generously sponsored this Special Edition of the Journal of Public Administration, analyzing the outcomes of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa. ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:43:22

Nelson Mandela remains, in perpetuity, the edification at the cutting edge of our historical consciousness. That the fifth local government elections went successfully, demonstrates his country's commitment to the ideals he bequeathed for emulation in securing the future that he wanted for humanity. Much that is written about him greatly assists in keeping his legacy alive. I picked up the book, Good Morning, Mr Mandela – authored by his personal ass ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:40:52

Amtaika takes a critical, yet exploratory, view in providing a strong argument for the establishment and existence of local government as a distinct sphere in the post-apartheid state. This is immediately clear from Chapter 1, which deals with three critical issues of local government: theory of governance, citizen participation and service delivery. His attempt to highlight not only the dominant variables of a developmental framework of local government in South Africa, but also the narrativ ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:38:13

From a pariah state, shunned by most of the global community, South Africa has rapidly risen to become the most celebrated constitutional democracy in the world. A Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, for instance, recommended South Africa's Constitution to the Egyptians as a model for guidance, as they pondered a new constitution, following the Arab Spring. She considered South Africa's Constitution even more appropriate than that of the United States for any country writing u ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:30:34

As a norm, the formation of political parties constitutes one of the many segments in the consolidation of democracy in modern politics. Invariably, there are different typologies of political parties. The choice of each type is informed by a confluence of factors. Each of these types of political parties has its own characteristic features. Within this context, this paper, focuses on one of the new political parties in South Africa, the National Freedom Party (NFP). The main purpose of this ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:27:54

The "left" in South Africa has attempted to influence and gain control of the state and effect changes that result in better living conditions for the "working class" for centuries. Whether it has been nationalists seeking to achieve national liberation, communists seeking to overcome "colonialism of a special type", or trade unions fighting to end the exploitation of workers, access to or control of state power has been the necessary precondition for success. Th ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:25:05

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has transformed the South African political landscape since it was established in 2013. In the 2016 municipal election, the EFF won 8.2 percent of the national vote making it the third biggest party after the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA). It did not take over any municipalities, but it performed well enough to be the kingmaker in 13 hung councils, including three metros. This paper discusses the EFF's electoral campaign and performance in the 20 ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:22:05

The ANC's loss of the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) municipality is one of the intrigues of the 2016 elections. The main city in the metro and province, Port Elizabeth, has historically been associated with the ANC. That historical association was reaffirmed by post-apartheid electoral trends, at least until the 2009 national elections. Few observers and analysts, if any at all, would have predicted an ANC loss in 2016. Even when the ANC started losing favour in 2009, none thought that would h ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:19:26

Among the metropolitan municipalities where the African National Congress' (ANC) electoral hegemony was reduced or completely lost, the City of Tshwane probably evokes more curiosity. Is the pre-poll mayhem that engulfed the City, following the ANC's announcement of Thoko Didiza as the mayoral candidate, behind its loss of the grip of power in Tshwane? If so, why did it also lose the City of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay, and only hold onto Ekurhuleni through a coalition arrange ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:16:38

On 3 August 2016, the Johannesburg electorate and opposition parties delivered a dual blow to the African National Congress (ANC) in the City of Johannesburg. Firstly, large numbers of traditional ANC voters either switched to one of the opposition parties, or voters in the ANC's core support base abstained. The voters responded to two decades of uneven local governance and service delivery, and judged the former ANC monolith in terms of the national narratives of the time – corrupt ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:13:30

Unlike previous elections in the province, there was an expectance that the Democratic Alliance (DA) would retain control of the City of Cape Town, as well as consolidate in other municipalities in the Western Cape. In the run-up to the 2016 local government election, the ANC, in the Western Cape put on a brave face indicating that it could unseat the DA. However, the 2016 election in the Western Cape saw an entrenchment of the status quo. Indeed, the story of the 2016 Local Government Electi ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:09:12

This article argues that despite the continued incumbency of the African National Congress, South Africa's 2016 municipal elections presented a marked departure from previous elections. Several factors come together to culminate in significant shifts in party support. A turnout differential between partisan groups that favoured the opposition, plus voter shifts away from the ANC to the opposition, resulted in a much reduced dominant party that experienced significant losses across urban m ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:06:35

The article sets out to examine the television news coverage of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa by examining the extent to which the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) fulfilled the mandate of public service broadcasting (PSB). The primary objective of the article is to assess how the broadcaster's newscasts mediated pluralistic politics during the local government election campaign, in line with normative public sphere principles. Drawing on conceptual unde ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:03:35

The integrity of the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) was thrown into serious doubt just as the 2016 local election approached. The Commission was a subject of litigation in a series of cases, spanning over a three-year period, and involving independents and the African National Congress (ANC) in Tlokwe Municipality, North West Province. In dispute, was the responsibility of the institution in relation to the registration of independents and the accuracy of the voters ...

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2021-Jun-23 08:00:34

Beyond being political rituals with prescribed rites institutionalising formalism in their conduct, and the Electoral Commission (IEC) managing them, "elections decide politics" (Herzog, 1987:559), there is more to elections than just the casting of votes. Lurking in the elections, as the "social construction of political worlds", is their political meaning (Herzog, 1987:559-560). Their procurement is beyond electoral statistics, which are "too often seen as the end p ...

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2021-Jun-23 06:27:39