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Book Details
Abstract
The sustainable development goals signed in 2016 marked a new phase in global development thinking, one which is focused on ecologically and fiscally sustainable human settlements. Few countries offer a better testing ground for their attainment than post-apartheid South Africa. Since the coming to power of the African National Congress, the country has undergone a policy making revolution, driven by an urgent need to improve access to services for the country’s black majority.
A quarter century on from the fall of apartheid, Building a Capable State asks what lessons can be learned from the South African experience. The book assesses whether the South African government has succeeded in improving service delivery, focusing on the vital sectors of water and sanitation, energy, roads, public transport and housing. Emphasizing the often-overlooked role of local government institutions and finance, the book demonstrates that effective service delivery can have a profound impact on the social structure of emerging economies, and must form an integral part of any future development strategy.
A comprehensive examination of urban service delivery in the global South, Building a Capable State is essential reading for students and practitioners across the social sciences, public finance and engineering sectors.
‘The authors present a rich, comprehensive but sober analysis of progress achieved by the South African public sector in the two decades after apartheid. Their view from the local level is particularly relevant, as South Africa is one of the few African countries with empowered sub-national government.’
William Cobbett, Director, Cities Alliance
‘A landmark critical review drawing on a rich evidence base from both academic and practitioner perspectives. Its insights and analytical framework have relevance for other countries and cities facing the challenges of the “new urban” agenda.’
Stephen Essex, Plymouth University
‘This brilliantly researched book holds lessons for the many countries dealing with rapid urbanisation and growing demands for basic infrastructure in cities.’
Julio D. Dávila, University College London
'Lucid and detailed.'
Foreign Affairs
Ian Palmer is the founder of Palmer Development Group (PDG). He has 40 years experience in the fields of civil engineering and development. Ian is also an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT) attached to the African Centre for Cities. For a period of 15 years from 1997 to 2012 he was on the board of Mvula Trust, an NGO focused on providing water and sanitation for rural communities.
Nishendra Moodley currently works with the South African National Treasury’s City Support Programme. He joined the City of Cape Town in 1998 to manage local government transformation projects and subsequently joined and later led Palmer Development Group (PDG). He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration. He has worked on local government policy development, monitoring and evaluation processes for national government, and institutional transformation projects for municipalities.
Susan Parnell is a Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at UCT. She is centrally involved in the African Centre for Cities, serving on its executive. She is the author of over a hundred peer reviewed papers, and a number of books, including Africa’s Urban Revolution (co-edited with E. Pieterse, Zed 2014)
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Cover | cover | ||
Praise for the book | i | ||
About the authors | ii | ||
Title page | iii | ||
Copyright | iv | ||
Contents | v | ||
List of figures | vi | ||
List of tables | ix | ||
Abbreviations | xi | ||
Preface | xiv | ||
1. What is the ‘capable’ state? | 1 | ||
1. Introduction | 1 | ||
2. Building the capable state: a prerequisite for rights-based sustainable development | 3 | ||
3. What is the capable state? | 5 | ||
4. Keeping up with global development goals | 11 | ||
5. The South African trajectory: time and constraints on building state capability | 13 | ||
6. The structure of the book | 18 | ||
2. Twenty years | 22 | ||
1. Introduction | 22 | ||
2. The political transition to 1994 | 23 | ||
3. Inheriting apartheid’s institutions and services: 1994 | 27 | ||
4. Negotiating the post-apartheid transition | 30 | ||
5. Local government mandate and institutional design | 32 | ||
6. Changing context in the post-apartheid years | 39 | ||
7. Conclusions | 46 | ||
3. Institutions | 49 | ||
1. Introduction | 49 | ||
2. Design of the system: structure of local government | 49 | ||
3. Rationalising the structure: devolution and differentiation | 54 | ||
4. The functions of local government | 57 | ||
5. Intergovernmental relations | 64 | ||
6. The role of state-owned enterprises | 66 | ||
7. Partnerships with the private sector | 68 | ||
8. Community role in service provision | 70 | ||
9. Conclusions | 73 | ||
4. Improving capability through regulation and support | 75 | ||
1. Introduction | 75 | ||
2. Balancing regulation and support | 77 | ||
3. Assessing organisational capability | 80 | ||
4. DPME and the delivery agreements | 82 | ||
5. Regulating performance of local government | 85 | ||
6. ‘Vertical’ support | 91 | ||
7. Benchmarking mediated by national government | 97 | ||
8. Horizontal learning and peer benchmarking | 98 | ||
9. Citizens and civil society | 99 | ||
10. When support fails | 102 | ||
11. The role of national departments | 105 | ||
12. Conclusions | 107 | ||
5. Municipal organisational capability | 109 | ||
1. Introduction | 109 | ||
2. Twenty years of organisational transition | 110 | ||
3. Governance and the political-administrative interface | 116 | ||
4. Organisational leadership and the capability of the municipal manager | 117 | ||
5. Financial management | 120 | ||
6. Technical capacity: variations across the settlement spectrum | 121 | ||
7. Incentives and the performance management system | 124 | ||
8. Citizen engagement | 126 | ||
9. Conclusions | 127 | ||
6. Financing municipal services | 129 | ||
1. Introduction | 129 | ||
2. The twenty-year transition in financing municipal services | 129 | ||
3. Functions of local government and associated expenditure | 131 | ||
4. Structure of the local government fiscal framework | 136 | ||
5. Profiling municipalities and their partners | 136 | ||
6. The adequacy of municipal finances | 141 | ||
7. Transfers from the national fiscus | 145 | ||
8. Financing infrastructure | 147 | ||
9. Property rates | 148 | ||
10. Tariffs for ‘trading services’ | 150 | ||
11. Subsidising services to the poor | 152 | ||
12. Conclusions | 155 | ||
7. Water and sanitation | 158 | ||
1. Introduction | 158 | ||
2. Institutional transition | 158 | ||
3. Access to services | 161 | ||
4. Institutions | 166 | ||
5. Financing water and sanitation provision | 178 | ||
6. Conclusions | 184 | ||
8. Electricity | 187 | ||
1. Introduction | 187 | ||
2. The electricity policy transition | 187 | ||
3. Access to services | 189 | ||
4. Power generation and the electricity crisis in South Africa | 192 | ||
5. Institutions | 194 | ||
6. Financing electricity provision | 202 | ||
7. Conclusions | 206 | ||
9. Roads and public transport | 208 | ||
1. Introduction | 208 | ||
2. Transition over the past twenty years | 208 | ||
3. Access to transport services | 210 | ||
4. Infrastructure | 214 | ||
5. Institutions | 217 | ||
6. Finance | 223 | ||
7. Conclusions | 228 | ||
10. Housing | 230 | ||
1. Introduction | 230 | ||
2. The housing transition over twenty years | 230 | ||
3. Housing delivery | 233 | ||
4. Housing finance | 244 | ||
5. Housing in the broader context of human settlements | 247 | ||
6. Conclusions | 248 | ||
11. Is South Africa a capable state? | 252 | ||
1. The capable SA state: ‘Yes, but ...’ | 252 | ||
2. The ‘time and sector’ differences | 256 | ||
3. What does a capable state look like? | 264 | ||
4. Conclusions | 273 | ||
Appendix A | 274 | ||
Appendix B | 276 | ||
Notes | 278 | ||
References | 283 | ||
Index | 295 |