Paul Mudau

Digital platforms have become important tools for enhancing youth representation and policy advocacy within South African municipal governance. This study, focusing on Vhembe and Capricorn District Municipalities in Limpopo Province, addresses ongoing challenges such as youth disengagement, low voter turnout, and limited influence in municipal decision-making processes. The research aims to deepen understanding of how digital technologies can amplify youth voices and support more inclusive policy advocacy, thereby strengthening youth democratic participation at the local level. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on semi-structured interviews with youth activists, policymakers, and technology experts to explore perceptions and experiences related to digital engagement in local governance. The theoretical framework is grounded in participatory democracy and digital inclusion theories, which guide analysis of the intersections between technology, youth engagement, and policy influence. Findings reveal that digital platforms offer significant opportunities for youth to participate in municipal governance and advocate for policy change. However, challenges such as the digital divide and unequal access to technology constrain these opportunities. The study underscores the need for targeted policies to address these disparities and promote equitable access to digital resources. The implications of this research are relevant to policymakers, civil society, and electoral management bodies, highlighting the importance of integrating technology-driven approaches to foster meaningful youth participation in local governance. By focusing on South Africa, the study contributes to broader discussions on democratic renewal and socio-political inclusion, offering practical recommendations to empower young citizens through technology.

The African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration (the Charter) was adopted ) by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (the AU Assembly) on 31 January 2011 and came into force on 23 July 2016. The Charter is the first binding legal instrument adopted by member states of the AU with the objective of comprehensively confronting all the frailties that have plagued the African public service and administration. A major drawback to the Charter is the lack of track record for its effective application and implementation which could possibly best expedite its vast continental ratification, implementation and effectiveness. Hence the absence of established benchmarks on the Charter’s useful role necessitates pioneering efforts which would demonstrate its significance in the promotion of good governance. This work therefore critically analyses the role of the Charter in promoting good governance in Uganda and South Africa, focusing on the complex but a symbiotic correlation between public service ethics, professionalism and political governance.

Since the early 1990s, the move towards decentralisation has been given prominence in African constitutions. Countries that embarked on ambitious decentralisation processes had to make the necessary constitutional reforms. The emergence and proliferation of constitutional entrenchment of decentralisation in Africa was long overdue and thus necessitated by the popular widespread discontent expressed against leaders who ‘personalize power and concentrate it within a privileged clique in the capital city’. While stifling the inroads of liberal democracy, authoritarian rulerships, single-party state systems and military dictatorships contributed immensely to the downward trajectory of political development in post-colonial Africa. Evidently, the intent and purpose for the quest to consolidate the complementary relationship between decentralisation and constitutionalism is aimed at domesticating the Leviathan – the untrammeled ruler. Thus, this paper draws a comparative study on South Africa and Zimbabwe. Both the 1996 Constitution of South Africa, and the 2013 newly adopted Constitution of Zimbabwe, which are the supreme laws of each country, provide for decentralised systems of government. These constitutions establish government at three levels – national, provincial and local. South Africa has a multi-sphere system of government operating in accordance with a quasi-federal state structure, whereas Zimbabwe’s multi-tier system of government functions within the parameters of a decentralised unitary state structure. In spite of the fact that both countries have adopted decentralised forms of government in order to seek solutions to the challenges they faced, the ramifications of having different state structures and systems as per their constitutional frameworks inevitably warrant that the implementation of decentralisation in South Africa and Zimbabwe are on separate and distinct planes. While the state of decentralisation and constitutionalism has made significant strides in South Africa, contrastingly, since the adoption of the new Constitution in 2013, devolution has not yet been fully implemented in Zimbabwe.

This Thesis deals with the role of local government in overcoming spatial inequalities in South African cities, with a particular focus on housing and access to well-located urban land. The primary focus is on whether the legal role of local government in housing matches its rights-related responsibilities and its role in achieving spatial equity. Municipalities have limited legal powers, policy scope, and budget for housing. With overstretched programmes and fiscus, certain municipalities are reluctant to assume housing delivery roles. However, numerous court cases bind municipalities by assigning them increased rights-based responsibilities which they may not be adequately equipped or empowered to implement. The problem which therefore unfolds relates to the inevitable need to address the obligations to realise the right of access to adequate housing of the urban poor within the limited legal, institutional, and structural role that local government plays in housing delivery, as well as with the limited resources at its disposal. The challenges associated with the realisation of local government’s housing-related powers, functions, and responsibilities become simultaneously more complicated and less insurmountable when viewed together with local government’s legal powers and functions pertaining to spatial planning. As a result, this Thesis investigates the articulation between housing and planning-related legal competencies and responsibilities of local government, in seeking to ensure that local government can fulfil its constitutional developmental role and contribute to the achievement of spatial equity. Selected case studies of the metropolitan municipalities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, and eThekwini are utilised to explore the emerging trends, issues, and challenges in practice.

A human rights perspective to this article intertwines the rights to information and political participation. It deals with the intersections between the provision of civic and voter education (CVE), and the opportunities and threats pertaining to the feasibility of finding digital solutions for enhanced voter participation in democratic electoral processes during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa. Under normal circumstances and while conducted through physical contact sessions, CVE is aimed at providing citizens with communication, general and life skills to constructively participate in democratic electoral processes. The greater the attendance in CVE events, the greater the conviction that a significant number of participants have been enlightened and encouraged to fully participate. As a result, electoral democracy becomes enriched and consolidated. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic render the physical training and dissemination of this crucial CVE information cumbersome, principally when considering the strictly-restricted number of attendants at events, consequently placing in disarray the enhancement of voter participation. Electoral management bodies, which are inherently charged with the responsibility for promoting CVE, confront the challenges for securing meaningful voter participation. Reliance on technological systems in the promotion of a consolidated electoral democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic emerges as a measure of last resort. Cognisant of the numerous developmental challenges encountered by many African countries, the feasibility of digital solutions in this instance could be far-fetched. More so, the digital divide and its impacts militate the empowerment of poor voters in remote rural areas where access to technological infrastructure and equipment is distantly slim.

The right to have access to sufficient food (which is closely associated with the rights to health, water, life, trade, social security, land, and so on) is explicitly provided in section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 caused the government to place the country under a nationwide lockdown, with strict regulations and directives that curtailed a number of socio-economic rights. The affected rights included the right to have access to sufficient food. The situation culminated in widespread food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, as evidenced by affected poor urban families and other vulnerable groups, including the homeless living in designated shelters. These groups were unable to gain access to sufficient food or to buy it because of loss of income or lack of access to the informal market. In response, the government embarked on large-scale food-parcel distribution schemes geared towards feeding 'deserving' people.

This article critically analyses the provisions of the African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration from an interdisciplinary standpoint of law and public administration. It assesses the Charter's substance and its potential role in the promotion of good governance in Africa, subject to internationally accepted standards for good governance. Central to this approach is identifying probable legal, institutional and structural shortcomings, thus helping to set out useful guidelines required in facilitating the effective application and implementation of the Charter. Since there is a lack of track records and benchmarks concerning the Charter, the article seeks to give it substance and prominence. It aims to establish that the Charter can play a catalytic role in the promotion of good governance by requiring political commitment to the rule of law, effective implementation of state policy, enforcement of professional ethics, and adherence to sound ethical standards by public service agents. The envisioned public service governance should be an accountable and effective public administration that is based on a functional legal framework, efficient regulatory structures, and transparent systems for financial and legal accountability.

Voter turnout in Lesotho’s 2022 National Assembly elections was at an all-time low of 37%. Since the country returned to multi-party electoral democracy in 1993, voter turnout has steadily decreased. Studies have been undertaken in Lesotho and globally to investigate the reasons for this phenomenon. While the turnout in the 2022 elections is a continuation of the pattern of declining voter turnout in Lesotho and globally, factors specific to each election may provide further insight into this intractable problem. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the main reasons for the low turnout in the 2022 elections. The study uses qualitative methodology: it relies on primary and secondary data sources such as reports, targeted interviews, newspapers and literature, and legislation. The paper uses Stockemerian clustering of turnout variables to contend that election-specific factors can help to explain the steep decrease in voter turnout in the 2022 elections in Lesotho. Those factors are poor civic and voter education, political fragmentation, and some institutionalist variables.

This article examines the intersection of gender, housing access, and spatial inequality in South African cities. It highlights how historical and ongoing gender-based discrimination, rooted in colonial and apartheid policies, continues to limit women’s access to well-located urban land and adequate housing. The study emphasises that women, particularly low-income and black women, face systemic barriers such as patriarchal property laws, economic exclusion, and spatial planning practices that prioritise male-dominated interests. These factors exacerbate the feminisation of poverty and vulnerability to gender-based violence. Using a feminist lens, the article analyses how housing policies and urban development often fail to address women’s specific needs, undermining their constitutional rights to equality and secure tenure. It advocates for gender-sensitive housing policies and urban planning to promote social justice, enhance family well-being, and empower women through equitable access to urban resources.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution provides for a multi-level system of government whereby the government is constituted at national, provincial and local levels. Despite the new Constitution being relatively comprehensive about the devolution of powers to the subnational levels of government, the country is still trapped within the post-independence highly centralised unitary state design. Although the new Constitution was adopted in 2013, devolution has not yet been fully implemented in Zimbabwe. This non-implementation of the constitutional injunctions on devolution, almost a decade after the promulgation of the Constitution, brings into question the country’s commitment to the devolution of powers and constitutionalism. This article critiques this state of affairs, and identifies the politico-legal factors responsible for the country’s non-implementation of the constitutional injunctions on the devolution of powers to subnational levels of government. This article’s central thesis is that the full devolution of powers is one of the significant levers of constitutional transformation in Zimbabwe.

The indistinct division of spatial planning-related powers and functions in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, often leads to the overlap, conflict, and confusion of responsibilities between the national, provincial, and local spheres of government. Due to much uncertainty, municipal planning powers are a subject of massive intergovernmental contentions, coupled with an array of litigations. This article, therefore, examines the judicial delineation of local government spatial planning powers in South Africa. Through a critical analysis of relevant case law and legislation, particularly the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA), this study explores the tensions between local government autonomy and the national and provincial regulatory frameworks pertinent to spatial planning powers. The research reveals that the judiciary plays a pivotal role in shaping spatial planning policy, often balancing competing interests and constitutional imperatives. Accordingly, judicial recourse has delineated spatial planning powers and asserted the autonomy of municipal planning. The findings highlight the need for legislative clarity on the division of spatial planning powers, the importance of an integrated and viable co-operative spatial governance, professional development initiatives, a more proactive approach in judicial interpretation of spatial planning laws, and meaningful community participation in spatial planning processes, to cumulatively ensure that local governments promote equitable development. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on local government powers and spatial planning in South Africa, offering valuable insights for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners.

Based on a critical analysis of relevant case law and desk-based comprehensive legal research, this article examines the judicial enforcement of the right to adequate housing against local government in South Africa. The article focuses on how courts hold local government accountable in fulfilling the right measured against the baseline factors outlined in General Comment 4 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The factors that determine whether a certain form of shelter amounts to ‘adequate housing’ encompass seven integral components: security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability; habitability; accessibility; location; and cultural adequacy. General Comment 4 specifically expounds on the right to adequate housing as enshrined in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. South Africa is a state party to ICESCR. Domestically, the right to access adequate housing, as guaranteed by section 26(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, imposes a legally binding duty on the state. These duties are varyingly shared by the three spheres of government: the national, provincial, and local governments. However, Schedule 4A of the Constitution allocates the functional area of housing as a ‘concurrent competency’ of the national and provincial governments. Subject to the prerequisite for competently administering national housing programmes, local government may ultimately be assigned to fulfil housing functions and powers by the national and provincial governments. Nonetheless, with an overstretched fiscus, municipalities are hesitant to assume housing delivery roles. Key findings reveal that numerous court cases bind municipalities by assigning to them increased rights-based responsibilities that they may not be adequately equipped or empowered to implement. Thus, despite courts not explicitly referencing General Comment 4, judicial enforcement of the right is consistent with the baseline factors.

This article undertakes a comprehensive legal analysis of local government’s housing roles, powers, functions and responsibilities in South Africa. It outlines the place and role of local government in South Africa’s constitutional framework of multi-level governance and the decentralisation of housing powers to local government. Although the functional area of housing is listed as a ‘concurrent competency’ of the national and provincial spheres of government in terms of Part A of Schedule 4 of the constitution, local government still has significant housing roles and responsibilities emanating from court judgments and national legislation. Primarily, these roles and responsibilities are conferred by the Housing Act 107 of 1997, the Social Housing Act 16 of 2008, and other relevant legislation. Virtually, all municipalities may exercise attendant housing powers. Depending on the ability to demonstrate the capacity to administer one of the housing programmes, municipalities may ultimately be assigned to fulfil the housing functions or powers on behalf of provinces. Using a desktop-based qualitative research approach, the article employs documentary analysis and case law review to critically evaluate the legal framework and its application. Findings highlight gaps in the current legal framework, inadequate resource allocation and capacity constraints hindering local governments’ ability to effectively address housing needs. Recommendations are made for legislative reforms, decentralisation of housing powers, capacity building, and intergovernmental co-ordination to enhance local government’s housing roles, powers, functions and responsibilities. This research contributes to the ongoing debate on local government’s role in addressing South Africa’s housing challenges, providing valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners and scholars.

This article critically examines the ramifications of the stringent enforcement of restrictive and prohibitive communication surveillance laws and practices, which unjustifiably traduce fundamental human rights and freedoms pertinent to Zimbabwean elections. Based on doctrinal legal research, this article examines how state surveillance, facilitated by laws permitting the monitoring of digital communications, impacts fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right to privacy. Evidence from Zimbabwe reveals a chilling effect on political participation, where fear of surveillance leads to self-censorship, reduced civic engagement and the erosion of trust among civil society actors. The deployment of spyware and mass surveillance tools, often lacking judicial oversight, has disproportionately targeted human rights defenders, journalists and opposition figures, undermining democratic accountability and electoral integrity. The article argues that the current surveillance regime in Zimbabwe not only contravenes human rights standards but also significantly impairs free and fair elections. It concludes with recommendations for legal reforms, institutional safeguards and advocacy strategies aimed at aligning surveillance laws and practices with democratic principles and human rights obligations.