4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions

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    A relational history of space, administration and economic extractivism in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo, South Africa (1948-2000)
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Pearson, Joel David
    This dissertation seeks to contribute to existing local government scholarship by presenting a situated and relational historical study of the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in present-day Limpopo Province of South Africa. By adapting and extending Gill Hart’s spatial-relational methodology, this study draws out key mechanics of change over time in the Mogalakwena area since the early 20 th century. This historical analysis reveals that the shifting array of power relations which together structured the field of rural local governance came to be enacted and concretised through specific and identifiable processes of spatial transformation, administrative government, and economic extractivism. While existing scholarship has elaborated on aspects of these processes, the present study insists on analysing all three together, in relation to each other, attentive to forms of both mutual constitution and contradiction, and cognisant of how these processes feed into political dynamics of varying scales – local, regional, and national. As such, the thesis argues that these three sets of processes should be understood as axes of rural local governance. This analysis draws off an empirical foundation compiled from archival and oral history sources, and which points to three broad historical conjunctures of local governance in Mogalakwena over the apartheid and early democratic eras. The first, spanning the period between the early 1950s and early 1970s, is identified as an era of state-building and remaking the countryside under the ascendant National Party (NP), one in which the white central state initiated massive and sweeping transformations of rural areas to bring to life its “Bantustan strategy”. The second conjuncture, defined as the terminal phase of apartheid from the late 1970s through to the end of the 1980s, was one in which rural local governance came to be dominated by forms of resistance, reform and repression when bottom-up political forces challenged the reach and authority of the apartheid central state in rural localities. And during the third conjuncture, the transitional period of national negotiations and democratisation between 1990 and 2000, rural local governance came to be defined by uneven and contested initiatives towards institutional amalgamation, deracialisation and redress. In considering the field of rural local governance within which the Mogalakwena Local Municipality operates today, this study concludes that the three axes together remain key determinants in structuring local and regional power relations. While dramatic new power relations have unfolded within and around the municipality since its creation in the year 2000, this study concludes that these have continued to be materialised through intertwined spatial, administrative and extractivist processes which extend back into history. As such, it suggests a new systematic approach for the study of local government institutions, histories of the state in rural areas, and studies of the state more broadly.
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    Understanding innovation drivers and barriers in local government: a City of Tshwane Innovation Unit perspective
    (2020) Mafunzwaini, Aluoneswi Elvis
    Although the concept of innovation drivers and barriers has recently garnered much interest from both practitioners and researchers, very little is known about the nature and dynamics of the factors that influence the success of innovation in local government in the Global South. To manage their impact, a better understanding is required however, a comprehensive systematic review of innovation drivers and barriers is still lacking. The purpose of this study was to conduct research to gain deeper understanding of the factors that drive or hinder innovation in City of Tshwane (CoT). A qualitative research methodology was used to collect and analyse data. Purposive sampling technique was used to select participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted supplemented by secondary data review. The study found that four issues are critical for successful innovation in CoT, namely: innovation strategic intent, culture of innovation, innovation drivers and barriers and collaboration. Innovation strategic intent is closely linked to leadership and culture of innovation. Drivers and barriers are complex, interdependent and context-specific factors that are imbedded in their environment. It is difficult to provide a list of innovation drivers or barriers because they are bi-directional and the role a particular factor plays can change as a function of context. What in some instances could be a driver of innovation might in others act as a barrier. Drivers and barriers may be categorised into macro, organisational and micro factors. Organisational factors are the most important and direct factors that CoT should focus their interventions to make innovation successful. Leadership commitment and management support is one of the important innovation drivers or barriers, as leadership influences all other factors. A holistic approach is required to address innovation challenges because innovation drivers and barriers are intertwined and context-specific.