MBA & MM Theses

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    PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE DECISION OF NATIONAL ENERGY REGULATOR OF SOUTH AFRICA ON ELECTRICITY TARIFFS
    (2012-10-08) Debeila, Mokiritle Billy
    The extent of public influence in the decisions that government and government agencies take is an issue of contentious discussion. There are varying views on the importance of public participation in decision-making in state institutions and public policy. There are those who support a soft approach to public participation while others believe that the public must be fully engaged and should contribute meaningfully to the decision-making process. It is not yet clear whether public participation processes in South Africa are influencing decision-making and policy direction. There appears to be more emphasis on conducting public participation with a purpose to comply to legislative requirements instead of the public participation enhancing the quality of the decisions that are taken by the public officials. NERSA conducts public participation prior to taking decisions on the price of electricity. People participating in these public participations hold a view that NERSA does not consider their submissions when taking decisions on electricity tariffs. This view is created by the public‟s perception that NERSA seems to take decisions contrary to what the public has advised them on. The main objective of this research was to determine whether public inputs have any influence in the decisions that NERSA takes regarding electricity tariff increases. The overall finding in the study showed that NERSA does handle all public comments and inputs fairly and with great thought. The process of gaining public input was found to be fair but not effective. It was discovered that the general public does not influence NERSA decisions to a great extent .It was also established that the government departments and other key industry stakeholders influenced NERSA but not as much as initially thought. NERSA employees were the main people who influence decisions that the Regulator takes.
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    THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
    (2012-09-10) Chirwa, Kingwell Sikhosiphi
    The 21st century in the South African local government is characterized by widespread service delivery protests. Various intellectuals have associated the issue of service delivery protests with corrupt municipal administrators, lack of human capital in municipal administration and lack of awareness about the local governance principles. Currently the South African academic community lacks the research literature examining the link between the knowledge of local governance and public participation. Despite various legal legislations regarding the public participation in local sphere of government the large percentage of public members is increasingly becoming distant in terms of participating on municipal affairs. This study examines the link between the knowledge of local governance and level of public participation of the ward 62 of EThekwini municipality. The aim of the study is to determine whether the knowledge of local governance has influence on public participation. Investigating the link between these two variables assisted in terms of identifying the possibly causes of slow rate of public participation on municipal affairs.
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    Constraints on Public
    (2011-04-19) Van Rooyen, David Douglas
    This study was conducted to establish constraints of public participation on matters of Integrated Development Plan in Ditsobotla Local Municipality. The Ditsobotla Local Municipality was formed after the Provincial and National Elections held in December 2000. The amalgamation of the towns Lichtenburg, Coligny, Biesiesvlei and Itsoseng led to the newly demarcated area of Ditsobotla. Lichtenburg as the head office is centrally situated within the North West Province. The municipal area covers about 6465.19 square kilometres with an estimated population of 148 832. Like any other municipalities the municipality is obliged by the constitution to develop mechanisms that will encourage and promote public participation on matters of government. The IDP approach is supposed to be based on the principle of inclusive and representative consultation and/ or participation of all residents, communities and stakeholders within a municipality, as well as representatives from other spheres of government, sector specialist, and other resource persons. Due to the size, diversity and spread of Ditsobotla municipality the participation process was supposed to have been guided by the following basic principles: • Structured and institutionalised participation • Creation of more opportunities for participation • Provision of adequate time for broader consultation and • Participation and consultation during all phases of IDP process. Pertinent literature was reviewed. In this study the data was obtained from answers to questionnaires and probing interviews that followed questionnaires. Analysis clearly showed that by confining public participation to only one form of participation mechanism, by consulting and allowing participation to happen on the eve of IDP and budget approval, as well as the non-functionality of IDP representative forum the Ditsobotla municipality failed to adhere to the cited participation principles. There are constraints inhibiting public participation in Ditsobotla IDP process. The report concludes by providing suggestions for correcting identified challenges and thus, Constraints of Public Participation in Ditsobotla Integrated Development Planning vii enabling the public to participate on matters of integrated development planning processes