Democratic decentralization and central/provincial/local relations in South Africa

Local government is the second or third tier of government deliberately created to bring government to the grassroots population, as well as give its members a sense of involvement in the political process that controls their daily lives. Decentralization is a natural indispensable counterpart to pluralistic democracy, i.e. it extends the work of democracy and fulfils democratic aspirations. Consequently, any political reform aimed at democratizing institutions, will only be effective if it is accompanied by far‐reaching administrative reforms which effectively redistribute power. In South Africa’s political circumstances as a country of almost 40 million, constituted of heterogeneous cultural and political groups, the need for effective decentralized democratic local government as a vehicle for development and national integration is imperative. The current interim constitution reflects a certain degree of decentralization. It exhibits a highly visible effort and a bold move towards full autonomy. The country currently has nine provinces and approximately 700 transitional non‐racial local authorities. The November 1995 and May/June 1996 local government elections was a watershed in political history and was the last chapter in the democratization of the South African State. The relationship between central, provisional and local authorities has been debated and the view is that elected officials must wield real power and the State wishes to protect local government. Details powers, functions and structures of local government will be defined in terms of provincial legislation. However, although local governments are creatures of provincial legislation and provisional government will exercise control over them, they will still have a reasonable amount of autonomy. The process has therefore been underway to determine the constitutional and legal position of local government in relation to central and provincial government. An important issue was the possible devolution of powers and functions to local government. The State is nurturing a co‐operative system where measures to harmonize relations between central, provincial and local governments are encouraged and promoted. The new South African State as defined by the new Constitution will be highly centralized as provincial power over local government is limited. Central government’s legislative competence over local government is strengthened as the former must determine the appropriate fiscal powers and functions of each category of local government. However, the final analysis, the purpose of the Constitution should not be forgotten. It is intended to define the basic rules in terms of which the country should be governed. The Constitution proposes the idea of recognizing distinct “spheres” of government as opposed to “levels” of government. The implication of this is that one tier of government is not inferior to the other. Each sphere of government is given definite responsibilities on which the other spheres are not allowed to encroach.