Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37946

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Evaluation of the civilian intelligence service oversight model: A South African perspective
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Radebe, Osiel Bongani; Van Nieuwkerk, Antoni
Intelligence serves as a cornerstone of state security, fulfilling a vital role in the protection of national interests and guarding against threats. Despite its secretive nature, intelligence operations and mandates are entrusted with significant statutory powers across nations to uphold state security. To ensure the rule of law and the protection of citizens' civil rights, robust governance frameworks are imperative. This research seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of South Africa's civilian intelligence oversight system post-1994. Central to this evaluation are the regulatory and institutional arrangements governing intelligence services and officials. Drawing upon governance principles encompassing oversight, transparency, accountability, and democratic control; the study also explores institutional norms and standards. Furthermore, it explores the potential impact of aligning societal and constitutional values with regulatory and oversight mechanisms. Research results indicate weaknesses in the existing civilian intelligence oversight model. This highlights inadequacies in holding intelligence services and officials accountable. Consequently, the research advocates for reforming the civilian intelligence oversight system. Emphasis must be placed on reviewing legal frameworks, oversight institutions and mechanisms, and procedural measures to enhance transparency and accountability. Rather than a complete overhaul, the research recommends targeted improvements to existing mechanisms. Moreover, the study underscores the need for better integration of societal and constitutional values into intelligence oversight arrangements. Aligning these values with regulatory frameworks is essential to ensuring coherence and efficacy in governance practices.
The post-1994 land reform prism to interrogate development planning in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Molokwane, Masibane John; T.K, Pooe
The Republic of South Africa’s post-1994 government has embarked on developing numerous policies, legislations, and in 2011, a National Development Plan to advance its economic development trajectory. Yet, despite the various policies, plans and legislations, unmanageable levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment continue to persist and, in certain areas, increased. The post-1994 government, in line with developed policies and legislations, has sought to utilise re-industrialisation, manufacturing, small business development, mining, and other such economic drivers. While land reform has featured in various policies post-1994, it has not been elevated and used as a central means in advancing development planning and development to address socio-economic challenges. This study, therefore, took a unique approach, unlike previous studies examining land reform in the context of development planning and development. The study’s unique approach was informed by the instrumentality of land reform in advancing development planning and catalysing industrialisation in selected Asian States. This study aimed to address the dearth of literature that prioritises and focuses on the instrumentality of land in development and the inability of the post-1994 South African land reform approach to view land as a development tool. An interpretive sequential mixed qualitative methods study was employed to theorise how development planning can be modelled to feature a re-shaped and re-planned land reform in a development plan. The result of this approach was to present a nuanced contribution to knowledge in the field of development planning, namely a framework that elevates land reform as a central means of development for South Africa’s problematic re-industrialisation.
Decoding the District Development Model to understand decentralised governance in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Kgosinyane, Pogisho Godfrey; Abrahams, Caryn
This thesis contributes to the literature on decentralisation and the intergovernmental relations framework. This contribution is relevant based on current scholarly debates on the contested idealised notions of decentralisation reforms, especially in developing countries such as those on the African continent. The thesis was concerned with exploring the institutional, political, and contextual factors of decentralised governance in South Africa. While much scholarly work on decentralisation in South Africa and on the African continent has been undertaken, new perspectives are needed. Firstly, decentralisation is often associated with normative views, for instance, the good governance perspective espoused by the Bretton Woods Institutions based on structural adjustments policies. Secondly, scholarly work tends to focus on an instrumentalist approach to decentralisation, which concerns itself with administration, delivery of services, and governance challenges at the local level. Thirdly, the political science approach focuses on the structural and social dimensions of decentralisation. This structural dimension considers the actions of political actors and society, which contends that decentralisation limits central states from subsuming all state power. However, this study outlines fundamental deficiencies in this argument by positing that constitutional imperatives on decentralisation do not necessarily constitute compliance. The study argues that political actors can exercise power outside formal, coded institutional structures such as the Constitution. Indeed, power often rests outside of formal intentions and plans if the diffuse realities of power are accepted. The approach of this thesis, however, is theory-driven. Through empirical evidence, this thesis provides insights into the complex power dynamics, the shifting governance, and volatile and contrasting outcomes inherent in decentralisation systems. The study found that while decentralisation in South Africa created new institutions and disperses power to the sub-national levels, it also, paradoxically, solidified power at the local level. These autonomous centres of power have led to an uncooperative, incoherent, multi-layered governance system that constrains rather than Pogisho Godfrey Kgosinyane Page ii 1535858 facilitates service delivery. Thus, decentralisation creates a window of opportunity for different actors to exercise their political power. The study adopted the District Development Model (DDM) as a case study to illuminate the governance interplay among the three spheres of government. The DDM is a multi-sphere development programme designed to improve service delivery and eliminate the pattern of operating in silos by the different levels of government. The study concludes that through the DDM, a new pattern of governance is emerging, altering central-local relations. The strong presence of the central government apparatus within the DDM suggests a process of recentralisation and reconfigured power relations. This thesis theorises that major changes in political and governance systems are not always violent or dramatic. Rather, these changes can be slow and subtle, masked as decentralisation while concealing centralisation tendencies, as revealed by this study. Further, this thesis argues that decentralisation is often fashioned on the premise that the political cultures of developing countries, such as South Africa, are mature enough to deal with the conflicting interests of political actors and institutional variations. The central argument of this thesis is that the conflict- avoiding negotiations during the Convention for a Democratic South Africa have accommodated starkly incongruous and incompatible political cultures, resulting in multiple power centres, thus effacing the claimed benefits of decentralisation. These insights were informed through a detailed case study approach employing face-to-face semi-structured interviews with participants from the three spheres of government.
Alternative resident-led governance in the housing sector: The case of Ruo Emoh, Cape Town
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Jacobs, Jevon; Abraha, Carynms
Democratic South Africa’s inheritance of apartheid-imposed socio-spatial injustices created a deficiency in accessible housing for the poorer citizen. Despite attempts by the post-apartheid state’s enabling approach to address this issue, and its neoliberal ideology to transfer power to the citizen, housing shortages continue to grow. Housing delivery is ideally where individual aspirations and broader policy frameworks meet, and the integration of resident-centred initiatives and empowerment into the housing framework offers possible assistance. This possibility, therefore, questions whether a neoliberal government can truly enable resident- led housing action. Taking this further leads to questioning how citizens’ radical insurgent practices in the pursuit of socially just, adequate housing fare against state-led delivery. This thesis analyses housing policies, literature on neoliberalism, and resident-led self-help theory to evaluate the local case study of Ruo Emoh (‘our home’ backwards) in Mitchells Plain. Ruo Emoh is a medium density housing development spanning less than one hectare, accommodating 49 households. Behind it is a resident-led savings scheme initiated in 1995, with a 22-year trialling journey to ‘achieve’ (dis)satisfactory and (un)affordable freehold ownership. An important principle in this research approach is a focus on ‘ground-up’ processes, centred on the collective capabilities of residents. By arguing and discussing the neoliberal hegemonies over alternative citizenship practices, this research shifts the top- down delivery paradigm in the way housing is strategised in South Africa and identifies challenges that prohibit residents from assuming active – and recognised – roles in housing delivery. This thesis makes four central arguments, that: (i) the unfounded language-policy nexus systemically limits opportunity for the democratic mobilisation of citizens against the power-central state’s delivery; (ii) a detachist, silent corruptor state does not fulfil democratic participatory aspirations and debases citizen insurgency; (iii) citizen collectives attaining temporally goaled housing does not guarantee continued community nor sustained social capital wealth, and (iv) retrogressive state-provided housing does not meet the evolving infrastructural and place-making needs of residents. While self-help approaches are a start-to- an-end, resident-led processes can contribute positively to – but cannot lead – housing delivery, with an opportunity for residents to play an increased role in constructing houses, and subsequently meeting their contextualised needs. From these arguments, realising the concept of ‘mobilised residentship’ becomes important in formulating and upholding alternative resident-led governance. The investment of skills into residentship can perpetuate a process of self-help-driven, yet state-assisted delivery. In other words, addressing these pressures can form foundations for an alternative resident-led housing governance model and ensure a higher rate of success for mobilised residentship.
Understanding Indigenous Philanthropy in Ghana from an Akan Perspective
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Afadzinu, Nana Asantewa; Everatt , David; Moyo, Bhekinkosi
This thesis aims to gain in-depth understanding of indigenous philanthropy in Ghana, with a particular focus on the Akan and contributes to filling the existing knowledge gap of a dearth of information on indigenous philanthropy in Ghana. It examines the conceptualisation of Akan philanthropy, explores the meaning, nature and practice of Akan philanthropy and identifies potential changes that may have occurred over time as well as the underlying reasons behind such shifts. Indigenous methodologies and methods such as ethnophilosophy and sagacity, as well as a decolonial approach informs the research design. The findings suggest that Akan philanthropy is ‘adɔyɛ’ - the reciprocal and morally obligatory demonstration of love by every member of a community (individually and collectively) to other members of the community. Community here includes the members' relations (physical and spiritual) . This demonstration of love is through that members' way of life, be-ing and consequent actions and is for the ultimate benefit of the community. Akan philanthropy is anchored in Akan humanism values. It is a life- long cyclical practice that includes all irrespective of wealth and is midwifed by traditional institutions like family, the community and traditional leadership. Although, affected by colonialism, Akan philanthropy has adapted to the existing era and is still a key source of community sustenance and wellbeing. The hegemony of Western philanthropy has relegated it to the background hence the need to decolonise philanthropy. This is done through conceptualising philanthropy through indigenous knowledge systems like that of the Akan and foregrounding indigenous philanthropy in Africa.
Policy-making and institutional crisis: Formalizing artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2017
(Policy-making and institutional crisis: Formalizing artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2017, 2024) Mukonoweshuro, Tonderai Fadzai; https://orcid.org/ 0009-0000-6395-4758
Artisanal gold mining is a crucial economic activity in Zimbabwe that gained prominence in the post-2000 period when there was a defined shifting interest from agricultural activity by many people to artisanal gold mining, with over a million people engaged in the sector. Artisanal gold mining became a part of a large and complex informal economy, with the potential to address some of the economic challenges by providing the much-needed foreign currency for the ailing economy. However, like most countries, Zimbabwe struggled to regulate the sector to make it more efficient, economical, safe and environmentally friendly. Much existing research seems to suggest that policy on artisanal mining, while being a function of the state, is an instrument or arena of contestation among powerful groups within the state and society. Thus, the study answers the question, “In what ways did politics, power and institutional dynamics influence policy trajectories on artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe between 2005 and 2017?” It further investigated the complex reality of politics and policymaking for informal (artisanal) gold mining in Zimbabwe, seeking to dissect underlying politics, power and institutional dynamics and how these influenced policy trajectories in this growing informal gold mining sector between 2005 and 2017. Through a case study approach, I collected qualitative data through in-depth individual interviews with key informants both nationally and at two mining sites in the District of Chegutu, in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. By situating the study's findings within theories of informal economies, institutionalism, street-level bureaucracy and human securities, this thesis contributes to the consequences of informality as they relate to production and the miners 6 wellbeing and policy development for ASM. The other is the complex and non-linear reality of politics and policy-making concerning ASM and law enforcement agencies. The local case study demonstrates the struggles between networked actors in amplifying how informal gold mining policy has evolved and the particular effects on policy outcomes for informal gold mining in Zimbabwe. The study concluded that although politics had a bearing on the continued informalisation of ASM during the crisis period, the state actors occupying critical positions in shadow networks drove policy to maximize self-interest. At a local level, policy implementation met the agency of transitional actors, including small-scale artisanal miners, gold dealers, and traders. These networked actors also operated within their own unwritten rules and shaped their policies as they extracted or traded the gold. Therefore, a policy framework for formalizing ASM must be based on enforceable legal systems that provide accountability, transparency, and human rights.
Using Complexity to Unlock Emergent-Decolonial Development
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Chikane, Rekgotsofetse
This thesis argues the need for a theoretical and philosophical understanding of emergent-decolonial development within development studies and decolonial thinking to formulate the notion of decolonisation within both fields as an ongoing developmental practice. As both a theoretical and philosophical framework, emergent-decolonial development functions as an economic, policy and philosophical analytic exercise to unravel the complex nature of the entanglement of political and economic notions of decolonisation that create an epistemological quagmire within developmental discourse, currently understood as coloniality. This quagmire is the result of the continued use of the dialectical relationship between the ideal and the non-ideal in the framing of development and decolonial thinking that has resulted in development viewing the idea of decolonisation as only the process of self-determination and limiting decolonial thinking to focusing on the epistemological and ontological expression of peripheral voices. This limitation allows for an understanding of coloniality and colonialism but denies researchers the ability to tackle both through continuous public policy interventions. The thesis argues the importance of untangling this relationship in a manner that would allow for the emergence of a new humanism in a manner that is replicable through policy interventions which would challenge the emergent nature of modernity/coloniality. In order to achieve the above, the thesis utilised a combination of two methodologies: an integrative literature review and a documentary analysis. The integrative literature review critically appraises the core theories of development, decolonial thinking and complexity to form the theoretical and philosophical framing of emergent-decolonial development. Thereafter, through the use of both thematic and content analysis of four liberatory texts from India, Tanzania, South Africa and Ecuador, respectively, the results were utilised to augment the framework where necessary. The results of the thesis indicate that the limitations of both development and decolonial studies inhibit decolonisation from being explored as an ongoing process meant to counteract coloniality and instead view coloniality as an emergent property of modernist approaches to development and decolonial thinking. Furthermore, the thesis found that development and decoloniality can be retooled through complexity science as emergent properties within complex adaptive systems that directly contend with the influence of coloniality. The colonial situation experienced by ‘the wretch’ has created an exceedingly complex and nuanced understanding of the coloniser and the colonised in the 21st century. As a result, the need to devise an approach to understanding decolonisation in this new world has become increasingly important. This framework provides the means to begin the resurgence of decolonisation and decolonial thought as an active public policy tool that others can adopt
Improvement of Nigeria’s Security Sector Governance to effectively control terrorism
(2022) Ossai, Vincent
This research explored the means of enhancing Nigeria’s security sector governance to effectively counter the threats of terrorism and its facilitation by terrorism financing. For this purpose, the subsisting status of the necessary requirements that can strengthen the sector was assessed. These requirements are those advocated in the traditional Security Sector Reform paradigm and in the African Union Policy Framework on Security Sector Reform. There are several of these but the ones concentrated on are: civil democratic oversight, human rights and good governance as well as its derivates including the country’s anti-corruption profile especially with relevance to the required transparency and accountability of the sector. Access to gainful employment as a means of poverty alleviation and to help reduce involvement in terrorism was equally assessed. The data for this purpose were sourced from relevant documents and the submissions of purposefully sampled experts. The result of the assessment showed that the subsisting quality of the above requirements, are deficient in terms of their efficacy to boost Nigeria’s security sector governance to effectively counter terrorism. This therefore, necessitated the following improvements; namely: development and application of better strategies to mitigate this crime and its illicit financial supports; strengthening the capacity of the sector through improved human resources, budgetary and equipment supports; better intelligence management; improvement of policy and legal supports; improvement in the collaboration of constituent institutions in the sector as well as complementary international cooperation supports. Others are: strengthening of the various oversight institutions and the proficiency of their functionaries as well as improvement of human rights standard of the sector through enforcement of civilized and ethical conducts of security operatives and complemented with sanctions for breaches. Further improvements revolved around provision of good governance including enhancement of Nigeria’s anti-corruption profile including the required transparency and accountability standard, entrenchment of professional responsibility etiquette and effective administration of sanction schemes. Further improvements include: provision of gainful employment opportunities through requisite skills and entrepreneurship development programmes as well as provision of supports to the private sector and investment in public infrastructure. Consequent upon the foregoing, it is expected that when the above improvement measures are undertaken and proficiently applied, that they can help to strengthen the capacity of Nigeria’s security sector governance to more effectively control terrorism in the country.
Gender-based inequalities in access to water and sanitation in South Africa: Case study of two informal settlements
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Ntwana, Bukiwe; Wafer, A
This study is concerned with understanding the specific configurations of the institutional and infrastructural arrangements in two informal settlements that exacerbate or mitigate women's access to water and sanitation services. The study draws on a comparative case study design with some elements of ethnographic design in two informal settlements based in Cape Town and Johannesburg as case studies. The QQ Section informal settlement is situated in Cape Town, Khayelitsha. The settlement is dense, it is located on state-owned land with servitudes and it falls under the City of Cape Town municipality (CoCT) which is governed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and it falls within Ward 89, which is an African National Congress (ANC) led Ward. The second settlement is the Marlboro South informal settlement, which is situated in Johannesburg, Marlboro. The settlement is located in an industrial area with shacks situated inside and outside around abandoned private-owned warehouses. Marlboro South falls under the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), which was governed by the DA from 2016 to 2019 when the fieldwork of this study was conducted. Furthermore, Marlboro South is divided into two wards, Ward 108 is ANC-led and Ward 109 is DA-led. Both settlements further adhere to other formal and informal institutions of power such as Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and community leadership institutions. All these factors have shaped water and sanitation services, which further affect women’s access to these services in both settlements. The study reveals that the effects of the institutional and infrastructural arrangements on water and sanitation result in women experiencing unsafe access, health and hygiene challenges, maintenance challenges of water and sanitation facilities, gender-based discrimination at the household and community levels and the marginalisation of women resulting from not having private connections to water and sanitation infrastructure in the two case studies. This study uses the qualitative research approach, the data was collected using in-depth household interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews in both settlements. The sampling method used in this study was purposive sampling with women as the study respondents in the two informal settlements
Overpromising and underdelivering: Zimbabwe’s extractive industry indigenisation and uneven development
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Manduna, Kennedy; McCandless, E.
Uneven development has characterised Zimbabwe’s political economy landscape since the initial days of conquest to the present. Foreign-owned corporations and non-indigenous citizens have commanded the economy from the colonial era to the present, leaving the indigenous majority outside the mainstream economy. Zimbabwe’s indigenisation programme is a strategic policy choice responding directly to this widespread unevenness. The purpose of this explanatory study was to examine the structural and contextual factors accounting for extractive industry indigenisation underdelivering upon implementation. Findings show that extractive industry indigenisation’s implementation processes, mainly through Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs), are producing largely disempowering outcomes for communities involved. These include the failure to address the uneven development problem in the mining sector, which is fuelling the persistence of uneven development. Findings further show that although the extractive industry indigenisation, may, in some instances, result in the restructuring of non- indigenous private mining capital, this is not correspondingly ‘empowering’ the disadvantaged indigenous citizens and their communities. Findings of this show that the following factors explain why extractive industry indigenisation perpetuated and maintained uneven development (i.e. in terms of scale, geography, income and wealth): (a) widespread cases of fronting; (b) except the Gwanda CSOT, all CSOTs did not get shares in the foreign mining companies, only seed capital/pledges/donations that are to this day yet to be paid in full; (c) widespread incapacitation (i.e. in terms of financial, human and managerial skills) and corruption in the CSOTs; (d) the security sector companies that got 50% equity in diamond companies operating Chiadzwa are not spreading the wealth around; and (e) the Finance Act of 2018 (No. 13 of 2018) made it optional for the qualifying companies to continue funding (as well as honouring the pledged amounts in full) the CSOTs. The combination of these factors results in further impoverishment of the disadvantaged indigenous people and their communities

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