Annual Report Page

Idasarsquos Boards 2

Executive Directorrsquos Report 3

All Media Group 5

Budget Information Service 9

Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme 15

Community Safety Programme 18

Governance and AIDSProgramme 19

Local Government Centre 23

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA 26

Right to Know Programme 32

Public Opinion Service 36

Southern African Migration Project 40

Peace-building and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria 43

Personnel 46

Finance 47

Publications and Resources 49

Idasa Staff 55

Balance Sheet 62

Detailed Income and Expense Schedule 63

Detailed Schedule of Projects 65

Contributions from Associate Members 69

Page

Helping young people make their mark 6

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work 12

Chance to catch up at graduatersquos reunion 16

Impact of AIDSon elections 20

Promoting decentralisation 24

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs 29

He who pays the piper may play the tune 33

Ordinary citizens have their say 37

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo 41

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence 44

Idasarsquos Boards

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chairperson Professor Njabulo Ndebele Vice-Chancellor University of Cape Town

Mr Paul Graham Executive Director IDASA (ex-officio)

Mr Jody Kollapen Chair South African Human Rights Commission

Dr James Leatt Executive Director Cape Higher Education Consortium

Ms Rose Mazibuko Coordinator Health Promotion Unit University of Witwatersrand

COUNCIL MEMBERS

Prof Andre du Toit Ms Ntombi Msimang

Mr Pravin Gordhan Prof John Oucho

Amb Nozipho January-Bardill Dr Medard Rwelimira

Prof Mahmood Mamdani Dr Mala Singh

Ms Nomaindia Mfeketo

ldquoFRIENDS OF IDASArdquo BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Mr Warren Krafchik

Ms Pauline Baker Mr Paul Graham (ex-officio)

Dr Alex Boraine Mr Ivor Jenkins (secretary)

Mr Eric Brenner Prof Mahmood Mamdani

Mr Alfredo A Carrasqillo Ms Michele Ruiters

Dr Ramon Daubon Mr Harold H Saunders

Prof Larry Diamond Mr Marcus White

Mr Joseph Freeman

2

Executive Directorrsquos Report

Democracies can fail Executives can overwhelm the wishes of their citizens and citizensrsquo represen-tatives through management of information and exercise of their superior power Economies can

become captive to elite interests and the vagaries of a global market place becoming intractable tojob creation poverty reduction and the meeting of basic needs Overweening ambitions for power canscuttle carefully built democratic institutions corrupt a state and confound the best efforts of democ-rats inside a country and amongst its friends

2003 was not a great year for democrats

But the democratic project is not an annual race South Africans at least understand that it is anongoing struggle in which there are invariably setbacks but in which the struggle itself is importantIndeed short cuts can merely promote elite interests and exclude and disempower people

Our annual report provides a witness to our attempt to be faithful tothe democratic struggle a window into both the content and the processof our work and life and some illustrations of successes and advances Wehope that it is an honest account sufficiently compelling to honour thosewho have done the work and supported it and sufficiently reflective togive sustenance to those who have become our partners and associates inthis work in South Africa and elsewhere

During 2003 as a result of the increasing obligations of the SouthAfrican tax law and not-for-profit regulations our Articles of Associationwere substantially amended It provided us with an opportunity to revertto a two-tier form of governance in which the members of IDASA wererequired to elect a smaller Board of Directors who would bear a greaterfiduciary and corporate burden along with the Executive Director To thissmaller board and our Chair Professor Njabulo Ndebele much thanksBut to those who are now members of our annual council no longer hav-ing to carry the directoral burden there is a special gratitude for havingbrought us thus far

We welcome also a new group of friends who have agreed to act as Directors of ldquoFriends of IDASArdquoa support board based in Virginia in the United States of America

We also had occasion during the year to establish much stronger partnerships with a range oforganisations Many of these are mentioned in the programme reports which follow But we were ableto assist the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy in their development of a party strength-ening programme in Kenya while they assisted us in supporting work to promote and restore democ-racy in Zimbabwe and between us and in partnership with the Centre for Policy Studies we conveneda significant regional conference reviewing Southern Africa ten years after the fall of apartheid Thissharing of interests ideas and resources was particularly valuable A similar partnership with PACT inWashington is also paying dividends in extending the mission of promoting sustainable democracy andbuilding capacity in government and civil society

This work requires IDASA to review its practice and its organisation regularly With the assistance ofProfessor Harry Boyte that review is increasingly taking a theoretical nature as well as merely expand-ing our operational effectiveness ndash and the publication of Constructive Politicshas provided our staff andsupporters with an organising narrative alongside that of this annual report

But there has also as usual been a great deal of work on the operational side Re-organisation ofour work and the employment of some additional key staff has allowed us to establish two new pro-grammes The Right to Know programme which oversees the Open Democracy Advice Centre and

3

The democratic project is not an

annual race hellip thestruggle itself is

important Indeed short cuts

can merely promoteelite interests and

exclude and disempower people

other work reported on below and the Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme whichenables us to meet a challenge identified in our Afrobarometer and Democracy Index studies ndash that cit-izen organisation and voice have not received the attention they deserve while the focus has been onestablishing and strengthening democratic states We have also re-focused the work of IDASArsquos PoliticalInformation ampMonitoring Service (PIMS) ndash on ensuring that we do not lose sight of our commitmentto deepening democracy in South Africa while at the same time setting out our aspiration to make adifference to democratic governance elsewhere through a Centre for Governance in Africa

All these programmes are housed in our two centres ndash administered by a small but committed staffndash and increasingly visited by individuals and organisations from around the continent and beyondAfrica We are happy to welcome anyone who is trying to deepen and broaden democracy in their owncountry or transnationally and to ensure that the South African experience continues to inspire evenif it cannot and should not immediately provide solutions

Indeed while South Africans remain proud of their achievements and while we remain proud thatwe are an organisat ion based in South Africa and drawing our expertise and experience from the well-spring of the South African t ransit ion it is becoming apparent that there is st ill much to do in SouthAfrica Continuing poverty and inequalit y the damaging HIVAIDS epidemic and a variety of unre-solved institutional weakenesses and delivery failures while generally acknowledged nevertheless takethe edge off our undoubted achievements And there are more general matters relating to democracyas well ndash proposed reforms in the electoral system were put on ice in favour of tinkering with the pres-ent system through a novel ldquofloor crossingrdquo system despite continuing public disfavour Funding ofpolitical parties remains unregulated despite the receipt of substantial public funding by representedpolitical parties In these two matters we have found ourselves at odds with the larger political partiesduring the year

It is a measure of the commitment to democracy by South Africans confirmed and now guardedby a tested constitution and constitutional institutions that these differences of opinion and the large-scale poverty and disease in South Africa have not acted as roadblocks to development or the contin-uing construction of an open and free society That IDASA is able to continue to work to make a dif-ference in South Africa and elsewhere is a mark of what can and should be done in all countries ndash build-ing democratic institutions empowering citizens and working to increase social justice

4

All Media Group

The All Media Group (AMG) has the task of ensuring that the research and activities undertaken atIDASA reach a wider audience not only experts and decision-makers in academia government and

civil society but also a wide cross-section of unorganised citizens AMG plays its role through co-operating with and advising other programmes and projects who are engaged in their own dissemi-nation and outreach activities and through its own activities which at present focus on three mainareas IDASA Publishing Democracy Radio and e-Communications

In October 2003 the e-Communications unit was created within AMG to provide a comprehensiveapproach to strategic electronic communications and educative material Increasingly IDASA alongwith other non-profit organisations is embracing the value of using new technologies to deepen andconsolidate democracy particularly through providing information edu-cation and training While much of the developing world is not ldquocon-nected to the information highwayrdquo there are creative ways in which weare beginning to utilise a broad mix of different kinds of media and com-munication to further our outreach For example radio and the internetmake a good partnership in stretching out into communities that haveno access to the internet but listen and call into the radio for moreinformation about topics related to democracy and governance

In Africa in general and South Africa in particular radio reaches awider audience than any other medium This reach is growing ratherthan diminishing in the face of continual developments in new kinds ofmedia such as the internet and cell phones Audience research by the SAAdvertising Research Foundation for example indicates that the audi-ence for radio is growing with community radio gaining an ever-greatershare of the radio market

Democracy Radiorsquos major project funded by the Embassy of Finlandis aimed at building community radio stations as important institutions in the local public sphere Since1998 this project has been providing pre-recorded programming as well as training to communityradio stations across South Africa

During 2003 the unit produced 47 packaged 15-minute programmes distributed to and broad-cast on some 55 community radio stations countrywide Each CD also included at least 20 minutes ofadditional audio material ndash interviews and short reports ndash in a range of South African languages (Seea list of the programmes produced during 2003 on page 53)

In addition to the programme production Democracy Radio held eight training workshops attend-ed by 91 journalistsproducers from 42 stations across all nine provinces The training focused on com-munity mapping research techniques that community radio journalists can apply to identify sourcesof local news It included a session focusing on the workings of local government ndash knowledge that iscrucial for community journalists ndash using information from IDASArsquos Local Government Centre (LGC)

The unit worked with a range of other organisations both in the course of producing programmesand in offering training These include the National Community Radio Forum Amarc Africa theInstitute for Justice and Reconciliation You and Your Money the SA HIV Vaccine Action Campaign andthe Human Rights Media Centre

Democracy Radio produced a series of six audio programmes for the Hologram project aimed atthe horizontal sharing of learning in the local government sector as well as radio programmes for otherIDASA projects such as the Afrobarometer and the Africa Budget Project

During 2003 IDASA Publishing concentrated on increasing the publication output from IDASA

5

The audience for radio is growing with community radio gaining an

ever-greater share ofthe radio market

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Idasarsquos Boards

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chairperson Professor Njabulo Ndebele Vice-Chancellor University of Cape Town

Mr Paul Graham Executive Director IDASA (ex-officio)

Mr Jody Kollapen Chair South African Human Rights Commission

Dr James Leatt Executive Director Cape Higher Education Consortium

Ms Rose Mazibuko Coordinator Health Promotion Unit University of Witwatersrand

COUNCIL MEMBERS

Prof Andre du Toit Ms Ntombi Msimang

Mr Pravin Gordhan Prof John Oucho

Amb Nozipho January-Bardill Dr Medard Rwelimira

Prof Mahmood Mamdani Dr Mala Singh

Ms Nomaindia Mfeketo

ldquoFRIENDS OF IDASArdquo BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Mr Warren Krafchik

Ms Pauline Baker Mr Paul Graham (ex-officio)

Dr Alex Boraine Mr Ivor Jenkins (secretary)

Mr Eric Brenner Prof Mahmood Mamdani

Mr Alfredo A Carrasqillo Ms Michele Ruiters

Dr Ramon Daubon Mr Harold H Saunders

Prof Larry Diamond Mr Marcus White

Mr Joseph Freeman

2

Executive Directorrsquos Report

Democracies can fail Executives can overwhelm the wishes of their citizens and citizensrsquo represen-tatives through management of information and exercise of their superior power Economies can

become captive to elite interests and the vagaries of a global market place becoming intractable tojob creation poverty reduction and the meeting of basic needs Overweening ambitions for power canscuttle carefully built democratic institutions corrupt a state and confound the best efforts of democ-rats inside a country and amongst its friends

2003 was not a great year for democrats

But the democratic project is not an annual race South Africans at least understand that it is anongoing struggle in which there are invariably setbacks but in which the struggle itself is importantIndeed short cuts can merely promote elite interests and exclude and disempower people

Our annual report provides a witness to our attempt to be faithful tothe democratic struggle a window into both the content and the processof our work and life and some illustrations of successes and advances Wehope that it is an honest account sufficiently compelling to honour thosewho have done the work and supported it and sufficiently reflective togive sustenance to those who have become our partners and associates inthis work in South Africa and elsewhere

During 2003 as a result of the increasing obligations of the SouthAfrican tax law and not-for-profit regulations our Articles of Associationwere substantially amended It provided us with an opportunity to revertto a two-tier form of governance in which the members of IDASA wererequired to elect a smaller Board of Directors who would bear a greaterfiduciary and corporate burden along with the Executive Director To thissmaller board and our Chair Professor Njabulo Ndebele much thanksBut to those who are now members of our annual council no longer hav-ing to carry the directoral burden there is a special gratitude for havingbrought us thus far

We welcome also a new group of friends who have agreed to act as Directors of ldquoFriends of IDASArdquoa support board based in Virginia in the United States of America

We also had occasion during the year to establish much stronger partnerships with a range oforganisations Many of these are mentioned in the programme reports which follow But we were ableto assist the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy in their development of a party strength-ening programme in Kenya while they assisted us in supporting work to promote and restore democ-racy in Zimbabwe and between us and in partnership with the Centre for Policy Studies we conveneda significant regional conference reviewing Southern Africa ten years after the fall of apartheid Thissharing of interests ideas and resources was particularly valuable A similar partnership with PACT inWashington is also paying dividends in extending the mission of promoting sustainable democracy andbuilding capacity in government and civil society

This work requires IDASA to review its practice and its organisation regularly With the assistance ofProfessor Harry Boyte that review is increasingly taking a theoretical nature as well as merely expand-ing our operational effectiveness ndash and the publication of Constructive Politicshas provided our staff andsupporters with an organising narrative alongside that of this annual report

But there has also as usual been a great deal of work on the operational side Re-organisation ofour work and the employment of some additional key staff has allowed us to establish two new pro-grammes The Right to Know programme which oversees the Open Democracy Advice Centre and

3

The democratic project is not an

annual race hellip thestruggle itself is

important Indeed short cuts

can merely promoteelite interests and

exclude and disempower people

other work reported on below and the Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme whichenables us to meet a challenge identified in our Afrobarometer and Democracy Index studies ndash that cit-izen organisation and voice have not received the attention they deserve while the focus has been onestablishing and strengthening democratic states We have also re-focused the work of IDASArsquos PoliticalInformation ampMonitoring Service (PIMS) ndash on ensuring that we do not lose sight of our commitmentto deepening democracy in South Africa while at the same time setting out our aspiration to make adifference to democratic governance elsewhere through a Centre for Governance in Africa

All these programmes are housed in our two centres ndash administered by a small but committed staffndash and increasingly visited by individuals and organisations from around the continent and beyondAfrica We are happy to welcome anyone who is trying to deepen and broaden democracy in their owncountry or transnationally and to ensure that the South African experience continues to inspire evenif it cannot and should not immediately provide solutions

Indeed while South Africans remain proud of their achievements and while we remain proud thatwe are an organisat ion based in South Africa and drawing our expertise and experience from the well-spring of the South African t ransit ion it is becoming apparent that there is st ill much to do in SouthAfrica Continuing poverty and inequalit y the damaging HIVAIDS epidemic and a variety of unre-solved institutional weakenesses and delivery failures while generally acknowledged nevertheless takethe edge off our undoubted achievements And there are more general matters relating to democracyas well ndash proposed reforms in the electoral system were put on ice in favour of tinkering with the pres-ent system through a novel ldquofloor crossingrdquo system despite continuing public disfavour Funding ofpolitical parties remains unregulated despite the receipt of substantial public funding by representedpolitical parties In these two matters we have found ourselves at odds with the larger political partiesduring the year

It is a measure of the commitment to democracy by South Africans confirmed and now guardedby a tested constitution and constitutional institutions that these differences of opinion and the large-scale poverty and disease in South Africa have not acted as roadblocks to development or the contin-uing construction of an open and free society That IDASA is able to continue to work to make a dif-ference in South Africa and elsewhere is a mark of what can and should be done in all countries ndash build-ing democratic institutions empowering citizens and working to increase social justice

4

All Media Group

The All Media Group (AMG) has the task of ensuring that the research and activities undertaken atIDASA reach a wider audience not only experts and decision-makers in academia government and

civil society but also a wide cross-section of unorganised citizens AMG plays its role through co-operating with and advising other programmes and projects who are engaged in their own dissemi-nation and outreach activities and through its own activities which at present focus on three mainareas IDASA Publishing Democracy Radio and e-Communications

In October 2003 the e-Communications unit was created within AMG to provide a comprehensiveapproach to strategic electronic communications and educative material Increasingly IDASA alongwith other non-profit organisations is embracing the value of using new technologies to deepen andconsolidate democracy particularly through providing information edu-cation and training While much of the developing world is not ldquocon-nected to the information highwayrdquo there are creative ways in which weare beginning to utilise a broad mix of different kinds of media and com-munication to further our outreach For example radio and the internetmake a good partnership in stretching out into communities that haveno access to the internet but listen and call into the radio for moreinformation about topics related to democracy and governance

In Africa in general and South Africa in particular radio reaches awider audience than any other medium This reach is growing ratherthan diminishing in the face of continual developments in new kinds ofmedia such as the internet and cell phones Audience research by the SAAdvertising Research Foundation for example indicates that the audi-ence for radio is growing with community radio gaining an ever-greatershare of the radio market

Democracy Radiorsquos major project funded by the Embassy of Finlandis aimed at building community radio stations as important institutions in the local public sphere Since1998 this project has been providing pre-recorded programming as well as training to communityradio stations across South Africa

During 2003 the unit produced 47 packaged 15-minute programmes distributed to and broad-cast on some 55 community radio stations countrywide Each CD also included at least 20 minutes ofadditional audio material ndash interviews and short reports ndash in a range of South African languages (Seea list of the programmes produced during 2003 on page 53)

In addition to the programme production Democracy Radio held eight training workshops attend-ed by 91 journalistsproducers from 42 stations across all nine provinces The training focused on com-munity mapping research techniques that community radio journalists can apply to identify sourcesof local news It included a session focusing on the workings of local government ndash knowledge that iscrucial for community journalists ndash using information from IDASArsquos Local Government Centre (LGC)

The unit worked with a range of other organisations both in the course of producing programmesand in offering training These include the National Community Radio Forum Amarc Africa theInstitute for Justice and Reconciliation You and Your Money the SA HIV Vaccine Action Campaign andthe Human Rights Media Centre

Democracy Radio produced a series of six audio programmes for the Hologram project aimed atthe horizontal sharing of learning in the local government sector as well as radio programmes for otherIDASA projects such as the Afrobarometer and the Africa Budget Project

During 2003 IDASA Publishing concentrated on increasing the publication output from IDASA

5

The audience for radio is growing with community radio gaining an

ever-greater share ofthe radio market

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Executive Directorrsquos Report

Democracies can fail Executives can overwhelm the wishes of their citizens and citizensrsquo represen-tatives through management of information and exercise of their superior power Economies can

become captive to elite interests and the vagaries of a global market place becoming intractable tojob creation poverty reduction and the meeting of basic needs Overweening ambitions for power canscuttle carefully built democratic institutions corrupt a state and confound the best efforts of democ-rats inside a country and amongst its friends

2003 was not a great year for democrats

But the democratic project is not an annual race South Africans at least understand that it is anongoing struggle in which there are invariably setbacks but in which the struggle itself is importantIndeed short cuts can merely promote elite interests and exclude and disempower people

Our annual report provides a witness to our attempt to be faithful tothe democratic struggle a window into both the content and the processof our work and life and some illustrations of successes and advances Wehope that it is an honest account sufficiently compelling to honour thosewho have done the work and supported it and sufficiently reflective togive sustenance to those who have become our partners and associates inthis work in South Africa and elsewhere

During 2003 as a result of the increasing obligations of the SouthAfrican tax law and not-for-profit regulations our Articles of Associationwere substantially amended It provided us with an opportunity to revertto a two-tier form of governance in which the members of IDASA wererequired to elect a smaller Board of Directors who would bear a greaterfiduciary and corporate burden along with the Executive Director To thissmaller board and our Chair Professor Njabulo Ndebele much thanksBut to those who are now members of our annual council no longer hav-ing to carry the directoral burden there is a special gratitude for havingbrought us thus far

We welcome also a new group of friends who have agreed to act as Directors of ldquoFriends of IDASArdquoa support board based in Virginia in the United States of America

We also had occasion during the year to establish much stronger partnerships with a range oforganisations Many of these are mentioned in the programme reports which follow But we were ableto assist the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy in their development of a party strength-ening programme in Kenya while they assisted us in supporting work to promote and restore democ-racy in Zimbabwe and between us and in partnership with the Centre for Policy Studies we conveneda significant regional conference reviewing Southern Africa ten years after the fall of apartheid Thissharing of interests ideas and resources was particularly valuable A similar partnership with PACT inWashington is also paying dividends in extending the mission of promoting sustainable democracy andbuilding capacity in government and civil society

This work requires IDASA to review its practice and its organisation regularly With the assistance ofProfessor Harry Boyte that review is increasingly taking a theoretical nature as well as merely expand-ing our operational effectiveness ndash and the publication of Constructive Politicshas provided our staff andsupporters with an organising narrative alongside that of this annual report

But there has also as usual been a great deal of work on the operational side Re-organisation ofour work and the employment of some additional key staff has allowed us to establish two new pro-grammes The Right to Know programme which oversees the Open Democracy Advice Centre and

3

The democratic project is not an

annual race hellip thestruggle itself is

important Indeed short cuts

can merely promoteelite interests and

exclude and disempower people

other work reported on below and the Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme whichenables us to meet a challenge identified in our Afrobarometer and Democracy Index studies ndash that cit-izen organisation and voice have not received the attention they deserve while the focus has been onestablishing and strengthening democratic states We have also re-focused the work of IDASArsquos PoliticalInformation ampMonitoring Service (PIMS) ndash on ensuring that we do not lose sight of our commitmentto deepening democracy in South Africa while at the same time setting out our aspiration to make adifference to democratic governance elsewhere through a Centre for Governance in Africa

All these programmes are housed in our two centres ndash administered by a small but committed staffndash and increasingly visited by individuals and organisations from around the continent and beyondAfrica We are happy to welcome anyone who is trying to deepen and broaden democracy in their owncountry or transnationally and to ensure that the South African experience continues to inspire evenif it cannot and should not immediately provide solutions

Indeed while South Africans remain proud of their achievements and while we remain proud thatwe are an organisat ion based in South Africa and drawing our expertise and experience from the well-spring of the South African t ransit ion it is becoming apparent that there is st ill much to do in SouthAfrica Continuing poverty and inequalit y the damaging HIVAIDS epidemic and a variety of unre-solved institutional weakenesses and delivery failures while generally acknowledged nevertheless takethe edge off our undoubted achievements And there are more general matters relating to democracyas well ndash proposed reforms in the electoral system were put on ice in favour of tinkering with the pres-ent system through a novel ldquofloor crossingrdquo system despite continuing public disfavour Funding ofpolitical parties remains unregulated despite the receipt of substantial public funding by representedpolitical parties In these two matters we have found ourselves at odds with the larger political partiesduring the year

It is a measure of the commitment to democracy by South Africans confirmed and now guardedby a tested constitution and constitutional institutions that these differences of opinion and the large-scale poverty and disease in South Africa have not acted as roadblocks to development or the contin-uing construction of an open and free society That IDASA is able to continue to work to make a dif-ference in South Africa and elsewhere is a mark of what can and should be done in all countries ndash build-ing democratic institutions empowering citizens and working to increase social justice

4

All Media Group

The All Media Group (AMG) has the task of ensuring that the research and activities undertaken atIDASA reach a wider audience not only experts and decision-makers in academia government and

civil society but also a wide cross-section of unorganised citizens AMG plays its role through co-operating with and advising other programmes and projects who are engaged in their own dissemi-nation and outreach activities and through its own activities which at present focus on three mainareas IDASA Publishing Democracy Radio and e-Communications

In October 2003 the e-Communications unit was created within AMG to provide a comprehensiveapproach to strategic electronic communications and educative material Increasingly IDASA alongwith other non-profit organisations is embracing the value of using new technologies to deepen andconsolidate democracy particularly through providing information edu-cation and training While much of the developing world is not ldquocon-nected to the information highwayrdquo there are creative ways in which weare beginning to utilise a broad mix of different kinds of media and com-munication to further our outreach For example radio and the internetmake a good partnership in stretching out into communities that haveno access to the internet but listen and call into the radio for moreinformation about topics related to democracy and governance

In Africa in general and South Africa in particular radio reaches awider audience than any other medium This reach is growing ratherthan diminishing in the face of continual developments in new kinds ofmedia such as the internet and cell phones Audience research by the SAAdvertising Research Foundation for example indicates that the audi-ence for radio is growing with community radio gaining an ever-greatershare of the radio market

Democracy Radiorsquos major project funded by the Embassy of Finlandis aimed at building community radio stations as important institutions in the local public sphere Since1998 this project has been providing pre-recorded programming as well as training to communityradio stations across South Africa

During 2003 the unit produced 47 packaged 15-minute programmes distributed to and broad-cast on some 55 community radio stations countrywide Each CD also included at least 20 minutes ofadditional audio material ndash interviews and short reports ndash in a range of South African languages (Seea list of the programmes produced during 2003 on page 53)

In addition to the programme production Democracy Radio held eight training workshops attend-ed by 91 journalistsproducers from 42 stations across all nine provinces The training focused on com-munity mapping research techniques that community radio journalists can apply to identify sourcesof local news It included a session focusing on the workings of local government ndash knowledge that iscrucial for community journalists ndash using information from IDASArsquos Local Government Centre (LGC)

The unit worked with a range of other organisations both in the course of producing programmesand in offering training These include the National Community Radio Forum Amarc Africa theInstitute for Justice and Reconciliation You and Your Money the SA HIV Vaccine Action Campaign andthe Human Rights Media Centre

Democracy Radio produced a series of six audio programmes for the Hologram project aimed atthe horizontal sharing of learning in the local government sector as well as radio programmes for otherIDASA projects such as the Afrobarometer and the Africa Budget Project

During 2003 IDASA Publishing concentrated on increasing the publication output from IDASA

5

The audience for radio is growing with community radio gaining an

ever-greater share ofthe radio market

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

other work reported on below and the Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme whichenables us to meet a challenge identified in our Afrobarometer and Democracy Index studies ndash that cit-izen organisation and voice have not received the attention they deserve while the focus has been onestablishing and strengthening democratic states We have also re-focused the work of IDASArsquos PoliticalInformation ampMonitoring Service (PIMS) ndash on ensuring that we do not lose sight of our commitmentto deepening democracy in South Africa while at the same time setting out our aspiration to make adifference to democratic governance elsewhere through a Centre for Governance in Africa

All these programmes are housed in our two centres ndash administered by a small but committed staffndash and increasingly visited by individuals and organisations from around the continent and beyondAfrica We are happy to welcome anyone who is trying to deepen and broaden democracy in their owncountry or transnationally and to ensure that the South African experience continues to inspire evenif it cannot and should not immediately provide solutions

Indeed while South Africans remain proud of their achievements and while we remain proud thatwe are an organisat ion based in South Africa and drawing our expertise and experience from the well-spring of the South African t ransit ion it is becoming apparent that there is st ill much to do in SouthAfrica Continuing poverty and inequalit y the damaging HIVAIDS epidemic and a variety of unre-solved institutional weakenesses and delivery failures while generally acknowledged nevertheless takethe edge off our undoubted achievements And there are more general matters relating to democracyas well ndash proposed reforms in the electoral system were put on ice in favour of tinkering with the pres-ent system through a novel ldquofloor crossingrdquo system despite continuing public disfavour Funding ofpolitical parties remains unregulated despite the receipt of substantial public funding by representedpolitical parties In these two matters we have found ourselves at odds with the larger political partiesduring the year

It is a measure of the commitment to democracy by South Africans confirmed and now guardedby a tested constitution and constitutional institutions that these differences of opinion and the large-scale poverty and disease in South Africa have not acted as roadblocks to development or the contin-uing construction of an open and free society That IDASA is able to continue to work to make a dif-ference in South Africa and elsewhere is a mark of what can and should be done in all countries ndash build-ing democratic institutions empowering citizens and working to increase social justice

4

All Media Group

The All Media Group (AMG) has the task of ensuring that the research and activities undertaken atIDASA reach a wider audience not only experts and decision-makers in academia government and

civil society but also a wide cross-section of unorganised citizens AMG plays its role through co-operating with and advising other programmes and projects who are engaged in their own dissemi-nation and outreach activities and through its own activities which at present focus on three mainareas IDASA Publishing Democracy Radio and e-Communications

In October 2003 the e-Communications unit was created within AMG to provide a comprehensiveapproach to strategic electronic communications and educative material Increasingly IDASA alongwith other non-profit organisations is embracing the value of using new technologies to deepen andconsolidate democracy particularly through providing information edu-cation and training While much of the developing world is not ldquocon-nected to the information highwayrdquo there are creative ways in which weare beginning to utilise a broad mix of different kinds of media and com-munication to further our outreach For example radio and the internetmake a good partnership in stretching out into communities that haveno access to the internet but listen and call into the radio for moreinformation about topics related to democracy and governance

In Africa in general and South Africa in particular radio reaches awider audience than any other medium This reach is growing ratherthan diminishing in the face of continual developments in new kinds ofmedia such as the internet and cell phones Audience research by the SAAdvertising Research Foundation for example indicates that the audi-ence for radio is growing with community radio gaining an ever-greatershare of the radio market

Democracy Radiorsquos major project funded by the Embassy of Finlandis aimed at building community radio stations as important institutions in the local public sphere Since1998 this project has been providing pre-recorded programming as well as training to communityradio stations across South Africa

During 2003 the unit produced 47 packaged 15-minute programmes distributed to and broad-cast on some 55 community radio stations countrywide Each CD also included at least 20 minutes ofadditional audio material ndash interviews and short reports ndash in a range of South African languages (Seea list of the programmes produced during 2003 on page 53)

In addition to the programme production Democracy Radio held eight training workshops attend-ed by 91 journalistsproducers from 42 stations across all nine provinces The training focused on com-munity mapping research techniques that community radio journalists can apply to identify sourcesof local news It included a session focusing on the workings of local government ndash knowledge that iscrucial for community journalists ndash using information from IDASArsquos Local Government Centre (LGC)

The unit worked with a range of other organisations both in the course of producing programmesand in offering training These include the National Community Radio Forum Amarc Africa theInstitute for Justice and Reconciliation You and Your Money the SA HIV Vaccine Action Campaign andthe Human Rights Media Centre

Democracy Radio produced a series of six audio programmes for the Hologram project aimed atthe horizontal sharing of learning in the local government sector as well as radio programmes for otherIDASA projects such as the Afrobarometer and the Africa Budget Project

During 2003 IDASA Publishing concentrated on increasing the publication output from IDASA

5

The audience for radio is growing with community radio gaining an

ever-greater share ofthe radio market

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

All Media Group

The All Media Group (AMG) has the task of ensuring that the research and activities undertaken atIDASA reach a wider audience not only experts and decision-makers in academia government and

civil society but also a wide cross-section of unorganised citizens AMG plays its role through co-operating with and advising other programmes and projects who are engaged in their own dissemi-nation and outreach activities and through its own activities which at present focus on three mainareas IDASA Publishing Democracy Radio and e-Communications

In October 2003 the e-Communications unit was created within AMG to provide a comprehensiveapproach to strategic electronic communications and educative material Increasingly IDASA alongwith other non-profit organisations is embracing the value of using new technologies to deepen andconsolidate democracy particularly through providing information edu-cation and training While much of the developing world is not ldquocon-nected to the information highwayrdquo there are creative ways in which weare beginning to utilise a broad mix of different kinds of media and com-munication to further our outreach For example radio and the internetmake a good partnership in stretching out into communities that haveno access to the internet but listen and call into the radio for moreinformation about topics related to democracy and governance

In Africa in general and South Africa in particular radio reaches awider audience than any other medium This reach is growing ratherthan diminishing in the face of continual developments in new kinds ofmedia such as the internet and cell phones Audience research by the SAAdvertising Research Foundation for example indicates that the audi-ence for radio is growing with community radio gaining an ever-greatershare of the radio market

Democracy Radiorsquos major project funded by the Embassy of Finlandis aimed at building community radio stations as important institutions in the local public sphere Since1998 this project has been providing pre-recorded programming as well as training to communityradio stations across South Africa

During 2003 the unit produced 47 packaged 15-minute programmes distributed to and broad-cast on some 55 community radio stations countrywide Each CD also included at least 20 minutes ofadditional audio material ndash interviews and short reports ndash in a range of South African languages (Seea list of the programmes produced during 2003 on page 53)

In addition to the programme production Democracy Radio held eight training workshops attend-ed by 91 journalistsproducers from 42 stations across all nine provinces The training focused on com-munity mapping research techniques that community radio journalists can apply to identify sourcesof local news It included a session focusing on the workings of local government ndash knowledge that iscrucial for community journalists ndash using information from IDASArsquos Local Government Centre (LGC)

The unit worked with a range of other organisations both in the course of producing programmesand in offering training These include the National Community Radio Forum Amarc Africa theInstitute for Justice and Reconciliation You and Your Money the SA HIV Vaccine Action Campaign andthe Human Rights Media Centre

Democracy Radio produced a series of six audio programmes for the Hologram project aimed atthe horizontal sharing of learning in the local government sector as well as radio programmes for otherIDASA projects such as the Afrobarometer and the Africa Budget Project

During 2003 IDASA Publishing concentrated on increasing the publication output from IDASA

5

The audience for radio is growing with community radio gaining an

ever-greater share ofthe radio market

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

programmes instead of that of outside clients in keeping with AMGrsquos focus on intensifying the dis-semination of the work of IDASA

Books papers and newsletters released during the year under review include Const ruct ing Solutionsfor the Zimbabwean Challenge ndash the proceedings of a joint Idasa and Netherlands Institute for MultipartyDemocracy Conference A I D Sand Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives ndash abook produced by IDASArsquo s Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP) Fostering Integration among AfricarsquosDiverse Parliaments the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the Pan-African Parliament M u n i c i p a lTa l k the latest newsletter of the LGC Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa a report com-piled by PIMS-SA Regulation of Private Funding to Polit ical Parties an I D A S A paper by PIMS-SA and theRight to Know programme Aids amp Governance Vol 1 No 1 a journal produced by GAP C r i m ePrevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo a joint I D A S A-South African Police Serv i c e sreport on a crime prevention strategy for the region a booklet on the Nigerian election that came outo f I D A S Arsquos Nigerian Project and Aids and Local Finance from BISrsquos A I D S and Local Finance Project

The year ended with production underway on Whistleblowing Around the World Law Culture andPractice Edited by Richard Calland and Guy Dehn this book is a joint publication between the OpenDemocracy Advice Centre of which Idasa is a partner the British Council and a London NGO PublicConcern at Work

Also in production is a book on Idasarsquos Social Activism Conference held by PIMS-SA in August 2003as well as the ongoing Southern Africa Migration Policy Series

IDASA Publishing did a series of editing jobs for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation includ-ing the editing of a book on Amnesty and Retribution to be published by New Africa Books and anoth-er on truth commissions in other countries

The unit also contributed chapters to childrenrsquos history textbooks for Grades 4 5 and 6 publishedby New Africa Books

Helping young people make their mark

Voter education project Youth Vote SA helped to harness the energy of young people for democracy ndash one ofIDASA rsquos prioritiesMARIE STROumlM repor ts

ldquoEven though I am still in high school I see myself fighting for equal rights freedomand justice for everyone in my country As a teenager I have learnt so many thingsand realised that I should never take life for grantedrdquo (Simphiwe Shabalala Grade 10Inanda Seminary School KwaZulu-Natal)

Y outh Vote SA was a high-visibility voter education project spearheaded by IDASAin preparation for the 2004 elections in collaboration with the Independent

Newspapers group with endorsements from the Independent Electoral Commissionand the Department of Education

6

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

The idea for the Youth Vote SA project was originally born at a meeting betweenIDASA staff member Mpho Putu then a fellow at the Kettering Foundation inDayton Ohio and a leader of a US-based organisation called Kids Voting A senioreditor from the Independent Newspaper group had also encountered the organisa-tion on a trip to the United States and had expressed keen interest in promoting ayouth-oriented voter education project in South Africa The project that emergedfrom these early contacts bore little resemblance to Kids Voting USA although a coreactivity of the American programme ndash namely a real-life voting experience for learn-ers ndash was retained in an altered form

An important lesson for IDASA in embarking on the Youth Vote SA project was thepower of working in partnership with a major media organisation Over the yearsIDASA has conducted a wide variety of public education programmes but none hashad the reach of this one nor the ability to attract sponsorship from big business inSouth Africa The editors of the newspapers in the Independent Newspapers group

were unanimous in their support of the project

Joh ann esbu rg d ail y The Star took responsi bil i ty forfundraising and sealed an exclusive sponsorship deal withCell C Cell C whose marketing strategies chiefly target ayoung audience espoused the aims of the project whole-heartedly creating some effective election-centred advertise-ments that featured prominently in the Youth Vote SA mate-rials

The project also received enthusiastic endorsements fromthe Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the IndependentElecto ral Commi ssi on ch ai rperson Brigali a BamRepresentatives of both institutions formed part of a projectreference group

The two main components of the Youth Vote SA projectwere a series of weekly newspaper supplements and a set of

programmes for community radio The supplements were carried by all newspapersin the Independent Newspapers stable In addition to normal public distributionIndependent Newspapers also distributed multiple copies of each supplement toalmost all high schools across the country Twenty supplements were published inthree phases Towards the end of 2003 the first set of materials focused on broadthemes of democracy and citizenship with a particular emphasis on the contributionthat young people can make as citizens even if they have not yet reached voting ageIn the first school term of 2004 ahead of voting day the supplements dealt morespecifically with elections from electoral systems and management to the role of par-ties and the media and of course voting itself A final set of six supplements was pub-lished after the elections returning again to the theme of active citizenship and look-ing ahead to the local government elections in 2005

The front-page layout artist for The Starwas assigned responsibility for designingthe Youth Vote SA supplements They were given full-colour treatment and occupiedtwo full pages of the lifestyle section of the newspapers The design appealed to ayoung audience and the visual presentation of each theme was bold and innovativeadding verve to the text This was another striking example of how well the projectwas served by the supportive partnership with the newspapers and their editors

In addition to providing information about democracy and elections to youngpeople another aim of Youth Vote SA was to provide support material for teacherseach week Every supplement contained ideas for classroom activities ranging from

7

Youth Vote SA featured voices ofyoung people from

around the countryYouthful pride in

South Africarsquosdemocracy shone

through everycontribution

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

debates and writing exercises to detailed instructions for mounting an election inschools On the advice of the project reference group it was decided not to treat theschool elections as ldquoshadowrdquo elections for the national and provincial legislatures ashad originally been envisaged Instead a number of other options were presented toschools Some encouraged learners to establish their own parties and conduct cam-paigns for the purposes of mock elections Others used the opportunity to elect bonafide representative governance structures while yet others held referendums onissues of importance to their schools

Boston Business College provided generous bursaries to be used as competitionprizes These together with Cell C hampers were awarded to learners for essays andother competition activities conducted under the Youth Vote SA banner In the finalfew issues Youth Vote SA featured voices of young people who had participated inthe project from around the country Youthful pride in South Africarsquos democracyshone through every contribution ldquoWhat Madiba did was a sign of how he wantsyoung stars this generation to succeed so that other generations will take an exam-ple from usrdquo wrote Nompumelelo Madondo a Grade 10 learner at Inanda SeminarySchool She continued ldquoI strive every day for success because I am a child with aburning desire to make my dreams come true I dream of making Madiba proud ofwhat he did by motivating or encouraging other blacks to do well in life and believetomorrow is ours and the future is in our handsrdquo

To supplement the Youth Vote SA press campaign Idasarsquos Democracy Radio unitproduced eight 10-minute long radio programmes These programmes were producedregularly throughout the Youth Vote project and sent on CD to more than 50 com-munity radio stations around the country The radio programmes featured the voic-es of IDASA staff members and experts from organisations such as the IndependentElectoral Commission the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the IndependentCommunications Authority of South Africa Informal feedback from a number of sta-tions indicated that they had found the Youth Vote SA programmes very useful inmeeting their listenersrsquo need for election-related information

Youth Vote SA radio programmes captured the voices and comments of ordinarypeople in the street revealing many different feelings about democracy and votingHelping to harness the energy of young people for our democracy needs to remainan IDASA priority as these statements from Youth Vote SA radio would suggest

ldquoT o us young people democracy is where the public gives their input Freedomfree-dom of choice freedom from oppression freedom from the past injusticesrdquo

ldquoI donrsquo t want to tell you that Irsquom going to vote It depends how I feel at the timeFrom my side I can say Irsquom not keen to vote because itrsquos of no use to merdquo

ldquoAll I can do is vote I must vote for my country I donrsquot even know what to vote forbut I must voterdquo

8

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Budget Information Service

The Provincial Fiscal Analysis Project and the Local Government Finance Project merged to becomethe Sector Budget Analysis (SBA) unit towards the end of 2003 The SBA unit aims to build the

capacity of NGOs and CSOs legislatures and government departments to participate meaningfully inbudget-related decision-making We aim to contribute to poverty alleviation through monitoring andassessing the policy framework resourcing practices and performance of service sectors that are espe-cially important for improving the lives of poor people

The local government work is newly established within IDASArsquos Budget Information Service (BIS)and follows in the wake of initiatives by government to improve local government budgets As theseinitiatives gain momentum we expect an increase in the demand for municipal budget analysis work

The SBA unit contributed to two BIS submissions the submission to the Portfolio Committee onSocial Development on the Report of the Taylor Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive SocialSecurity System for South Africa and the submission to the joint Budget Committee in Parliament onthe Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2003

The SBA unit conducted a number of budget training workshops for provincial CSOs in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape as well as for committee members of the Limpopo legislature and thenational Health Portfolio Committee In particular the SBA hosted a provincial budget training work-shop in Cape Town in August for 34 participants from CSOs from the nine provinces The SBA unit alsoco-hosted the BIS National Budget Training Workshop in October 2003 which aimed to increasecapacity amongst provincial and national CSOs legislatures and government officials to conductbudget analysis on social spending and engage in the budget process to foster pro-poor budgeting inSouth Africa

In 2003 the Africa Budget Unit (ABU) extended its focus on Anglophone Africa to include severalFrench-speaking African countries (such as Burkina Faso Ivory Coast Niger and Rwanda)

The ABU training programme once again proved to be more in demand than any of its other activ-ities During 2003 the unit carried out a number of applied budget capacity-building training work-shops in Rwanda Swaziland Zambia and Sierra Leone to enhance the participation of CSOs in budg-etary discussions

The ABU is taking part in a three-and-a-half year international multi-stakeholder civil society budg-et initiative designed to strengthen citizen engagement in public budgeting in low-income countriesin three regions Africa Asia and Latin America A diverse group of CSOs and development institutionshas been involved in developing the proposal and two steering committee meetings were held inWashington DC

At the fourth international budget conference organised by the International Budget Project basedin Washington DC the ABU delivered a presentation on the ldquoGrowth of Civil Society Budget Work inAfricardquo highlighting major trends in applied budget work in Africa The ABU also took part in a train-ing workshop conducted by the Adam Smith Institute in London on ldquoImproving the Public ExpenditureCycle ndash from Budget Preparation to Monitoring and Evaluationrdquo presented a paper to the MacArthurFoundation Grantees Meeting in Nigeria participated in a regional training workshop of the EconomicJustice Network Meeting In Lilongwe Malawi and took part in a Poverty Reduction Strategy confer-ence held by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development in Zimbabwe

The ABUrsquos exchange programme launched in September 2002 to offer staff from partner organis-tions in Africa the opportunity to work with BIS hosted Daniel Mbong director of Research forEnterprise Industries Technology and Development in Cameroon

The Womenrsquos Budget Project (WBP) released ldquoWhatrsquos Available ndash A Guide to Government Grantsand Other Support Available to Individuals and Community Groups 200304rdquo and with the Black Sash

9

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

and the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) conducted research on government grants andother support available nationally and provincially for individuals and community groups The researchreport has been published and distributed to provinces government departments parliament and thegender machinery within government

Implications of 10 Years of Democracy for Women was another project of the WBP to explore usinggender budget analysis the extent to which gender inequality has been addressed by governmentdepartments The departments were Labour Social Development Just ice and ConstitutionalDevelopment Safety and Security and Housing The papers will be published on the IDASA websiteand seminars are being arranged to encourage the use of gender budget analysis to strength advoca-cy efforts

Together with Rape Crisis Cape Town a submission was submitted to the Portfolio Committee onJustice on the proposed Sexual Offences Bill In addition introductory meetings have been facilitatedwith organisations in Khayelitsha who are interested in conducting research into how much money isbeing spent by government to address violence against women

Between May and October 2003 the Tax Research Initiativersquos (TRIrsquos) activities included a visit toNational Treasury officials in Pretoria to gain insight into the revenue estimation process It alsoinvolved the development of the TRI pages for the BIS website Work is continuing on a guide to tax-ation in South Africa and the development of new research projects for 2004

As part of her secondment to the Western Cape Provincial TreasuryCarlene van der Westhuizen of the TRI helped compile and edit theWestern Cape Socio-Economic Review

Created in 2002 the AIDS Budget Unit provides research and analy-sis on government expenditure on HIVAIDS The unitrsquos goals for 2003were to track HIVAIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from anHIVAIDS perspective formulate recommendations on effective fundingmechanisms for transferring money to the provinces for HIVAIDS inter-ventions and improve the capacity of NGOs and government officialsto analyse government budgets on HIVAIDS

The AIDS Budget Unit carried out research on the best means totransfer funds to the provinces to finance HIVAIDS interventions Themain report ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Report onIntergovernmental Funding Flows for an Integrated Response in theSocial Sectorrdquo examines provincial capacity and spending procedures

for HIVAIDS programmes The report is accompanied by a survey ldquoWhere is HIVAIDS in the BudgetSurvey of 2003 Provincial Social Sector Budgetsrdquo which identifies HIVAIDS-specific allocations inprovincial education social development and health department budgets The final report waslaunched in November 2003 at a major workshop organised by the Joint Centre for Political andEconomic Studies to a wide audience of NGOs donor agencies government officials and journalists

The unit is also engaged in the Africa Multi-Country Phase I study Latin American countries havealso carried out a multi-country study and the study compares how governments are funding the fightagainst HIVAIDS The African study covers Mozambique Namibia Kenya and South AfricaResearchers initially met in South Africa (with the Latin American counterparts meeting in Mexico) andintermediate workshops were held in Maputo and Latin America The preliminary findings have alreadybeen presented at a number of regional workshops and conferences and the final results will be show-cased in an oral presentation at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference in July 2004

The ABU also made presentations at workshops and seminars including presentations to funders aswell as to local workshops and international seminars on HIVAIDS and resource allocation More for-mal presentations of research findings were made at the South African AIDS Conference held in Durbanand the International AIDS Economics Network Meeting in Washington DC The unit also providedtraining on HIVAIDS budgeting in South Africa to smaller grassroots NGOS and to the parliamentaryPortfolio Committee on Health

10

The AIDS Budget Unitworked to develop

partnerships with keyadvocacy groups in

the area of HIVAIDSmost notably theTreatment Action

Campaign

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Throughout 2003 the AIDS Budget Unit worked to develop partnerships with key advocacy groupsin the area of HIVAIDS most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) Through such collabo-rative efforts the unit empowers these groups to add a budgeting and finance component to theiradvocacy campaigns and research outputs

From the Childrenrsquos Budget Unit (CBU) Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights in South AfricaAchievements and Challenges to be released in 2004 focuses on four socio-economic rights ie theright to health the right to basic nutrition the right to basic education and the right to social services

The report on the childrenrsquos participation component of Monitoring Child Socio-Economic Rights inSouth Africa Achievements and Challenges supplements the above-mentioned monitoring publicationThe objectives of the report are to directly involve children in assessing their own socio-economic sit-uations identifying their priorities for improving their quality of life and making recommendations onhow the government can best meet its obligations to children The study sought childrenrsquos views ofbudget priorities and what needed to be done to reduce child poverty and improve the quality of theirlives four focus groups were conducted ndash two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape

The study entitled ldquoBudgeting for Children with Disabilitiesrdquo is a joint commission with the SouthAfrican Federal Council for Disability (SAFCD) This research study provides an overview of policybudgets and expenditure aimed at programmes for children with disabilities The specific focus is onthe right to health education justice and social services This study is complemented by a participa-tion study with disabled children and their care-givers Our partner Clacherty and Associates con-ducted four focus groups one each in KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo North West and Western Capeprovinces

ldquo Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights A Guide for NGOsrdquo provides informa-tion about ways to monitor government budgets to advance the rights of the child and is intended asan resource for child rights advocates to apply budget information to reinforce their advocacy

The unit has been working closely with the research team for Zambiarsquos first child budget study ndashthe CBU was one of three institutions requested to review the study Our partners are Save the ChildrenSweden the Children in Need Network (CHIN) and the Zambian Civic Education Foundation

At the International Budget Project seminar in Mexico City the CBU presented a paper on ldquoPro-PoorBudgeting How Far Have We Come For Childrenrsquos Budgetsrdquo and conducted a workshop on ldquoTracingthe Impact of Budgets aimed at Childrenrsquos Rightsrdquo

The CBU in collaboration with the national Department of Social Development the ChildrenrsquosInstitute and the Children and Youth Research and Training Programme hosted a workshop ldquoChildWellbeing and Poverty Indicators in South Africa Creating the Real Picturerdquo The workshop was organ-ised as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate data and advance a co-ordinated approach for furthercollection of child wellbeing indicators A follow-up workshop in July aimed to discus the launch of achild poverty network for South Africa

The CBU also conducted two workshops at the inaugural conference of the Economic Social andCultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in Chiang Mai Thailand in June and has participated in the proj-ect ldquoNew Tactics in Human Rightsrdquo a global project that disseminates innovative ways of advancinghuman rights globally The CBU participated in the African seminar during May and has contributedto a Tactics Handbook compiled by the project

The CBU was requested by UNICEF (South Africa) to present a half-day workshop to their staff onthe situation of children in South Africa and related government budgeting The unit also attended theconference ldquoCivil Society and Poverty Reductionrdquo hosted by Diakonia Save the Children Sweden andthe Church of Sweden and Ibis in Copenhagen Denmark and participated in a regional meeting host-ed by Save the Children Sweden in November to share information and discuss how to collaborateregionally on child-focused budget work

11

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Doing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy work

The Budget Information Servicersquos activity is driven by its commit-ment to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patternsndash as mirrored in the national provincial and local budget alloca-tions year by year and over a three-year medium term budgetframework BIS manager SHUN GOVENDER reports

IDASArsquoS Budget Information Service (BIS) engages in budget work to promote civilsocietyrsquos campaign to alleviate poverty realise socioeconomic rights and promote

good economic governance The intention is to strengthen the participation by dis-advantaged sectors of society to hold government transparent and accountable in thesharing and equitable spending of public money and the provision of services to poorcitizens

The programmersquos work is based on the following commitments

bull to enhance and develop the ability of civil society organisations and NGOs inadvocacy and policy work in the area of public finance and good governance

bull to share all of the programmersquos products and services and

bull to work in partnership collaboratively or jointly with NGOs and civil societyorganisations wherever possible

The overarching strategic focus of BIS and what drives programme activity is basedon the decision to monitor governmentrsquos pro-poor social spending patterns ndash as mir-rored in the national and provincial (and now also local) budget allocations year byyear and over a three-year medium term budget framework The slogan under whichthe programme tries to understand the concept of ldquosocial spendingrdquo and capture thiscommitment in its research and advocacy is expressed in the programmersquos genericmission statement ldquoDoing pro-poor budget analysis and advocacy workrdquo

This generic mission is further refined and focused on the different strategic areasof specialist budget analysis such as expenditure analysis of the education healthand social welfare sectors budget analysis in relation to the rights of the child gen-der budget analysis tracking of the flow of funds in HIV and AIDS budget analysisand most recently learning how to examine the revenuetax side of the budget

These areas of engagement help us to position our research and advocacy toobtain the outcomes of (i) adding specific value to pro-poor advocacy work in thecountry (ii) maximizing strategic usage of the programmersquos outputs and (iii) being anexample of as well as enhancing other civil society organisationsrsquo ability to impacton the pro-poor policies of government

Poverty is the number one problem facing South Africa and the region In SouthAfrica almost 60 of non-interest national expenditure is directed to social servicesintended to alleviate poverty over the medium to long term Most of this expendi-ture is channelled via provincial and local government allocations to health welfareeducation infrastructure investment and job-creation projects Budget analysis bycivil society becomes important because of the enormity of this fiscal exercise and its

12

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

potential to change the lives of poor people It is important therefore to track theflow of these funds and monitor the quality and impact of the services that thesefunds purchase for vulnerable communities

Not only does BIS try to demystify technical economic and budget language andtell the story behind the budgetrsquos apparently cryptic figures but the value of suchresearch for doing advocacy work is that it raises the credibility and profile of civilsociety agents when they engage government Armed with high quality informationcalls by advocacy agents for changes in policy fiscal spending patterns and expendi-ture allocations to prioritise the needs of poor citizens households and communitieshave a better chance of being taken seriously by government

The intention of BIS is to produce useful and useable information and researchoutputs that are available for advocacy purposes as well as to develop techniques ofanalysis and research methodologies with which to build tech-nical capacity among NGOs working with disadvantaged sec-tors of society

The upholding protection and promotion of a culture ofhuman rights is an area of robust civil society engagementwith government In recent years special attention is beingfocused on advancing the economic social and cultural rightsof poor and vulnerable citizens BIS adds value to this broad-based social movement through lead research into specificareas of the local rights discourse

BIS examines the relations that exist between governmentpolicy that impacts on resource allocations in the budget andthe legal and constitutional obligations of the state relating torights realisation To cite one example in this regard BIS stud-ies budget allocations and the flow of funds to the ChildSupport Grant in the overall social welfare budget and evalu-ates these resource allocations in the light of ConstitutionalCourt interpretations (eg the Grootboomcase) of specific sections in the Bill ofRights BIS has in the past also acted as an expert witness on budget allocations intest-case litigation brought by the Legal Resources Centre to challenge the adequacyand legality of specific expenditures Another controversial area of attention foradvocates of human rights and budget analysts is the roll out of anti-retroviral drugsto those infected with AIDS and the actual flow of funds for this purpose in healthbudgets Here too the work of BIS is useful to organisations such as the TreatmentAction Campaign

Different research methodologies and techniques for analysis have been devel-oped by BIS staff to study budgets in relation to specific areas and challenges Anexample of a methodology is one developed to undertake budget analysis in relationto children This has been made available as a manual to budget groups that are inter-ested in adapting and using the methodology in their specific contexts Another casein point is the request to assist Malawian partners to develop their own civil societybudget handbook

The kind of budget work undertaken is largely defined by the focus area In thisregard budget work is done in relation to

bull Specific population groups that are extremely vulnerable children women thedisabled

bull Highly relevant and critical issues such as the allocation and flow of funds for HIVand AIDS treatment

13

BIS examines the relations that exist

between governmentpolicy that impacts

on resource allocations in the budget and

the legal and constitutional

obligations of the state relating to

rights realisation

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

bull Social spending in the major spending sectors of health social development edu-cation housing and infrastructure because these impact most directly on the livesof poor people

bull How public finance reform and good economic governance is being expandeddecentralised and deepened Local government finance intergovernmental fiscalrelations the oversight and monitoring role of national and provincial parlia-mentary committees

BIS researchers undertake comparative and monitoring budget studies coveringallocative inputs and service delivery outputs to poor people at the national provin-cial and local spheres of government They publish their findings and recommenda-tions to reach a wide targeted audience of NGOs and government officials Thesepublications attempt to point out fiscal trends that are likely to impact on poor peo-ple adversely monitor whether funds intended for poor citizens actually do reachthem highlight system deficiencies in current funding mechanisms and advocatefor more effective and efficient spending of limited resources

BIS staff also offer generic and specialised training on budget analysis to a widerange of interest groups NGOs working in specialised areas that will benefit fromintegrating budget work journalists reporting on socio-economic issues parliamen-tary researchers parliamentarians who need independent analysis to carry out theirmonitoring and oversight responsibilities groups supported and identified by fund-ing agencies for technical training line department and treasury officials

An important aspect of intervention strategy is aligning our work to the budgetprocess in the fiscal year Timely interventions that have been identified are obvi-ously around Budget Day when there is heightened public awareness

A pre-budget statement the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) isreleased three months before Budget Day This important date on the budget calen-dar offers some opportunity for careful analysis of and advocacy for what will comein the budget BIS uses this opportunity to develop media articles analyses of expen-diture trends that journalists can use and submissions to parliamentary committees

BIS has an impact at different levels The analytical information that BIS releasesinto the public domain is seen as based on independent reliable accurate researchIt is accepted as a serious effort at doing budget analysis by a public interest organi-sation (namely IDASA) to engage at a critical and non-partisan level on a very seriousproblem facing the country and the region The intention here is to release findingsobservations and recommendations that are trustworthy and that try to raise thelevel of discourse above popular stereotyping political posturing and emotional rhet-oric This we believe is hard-won ldquocredibility spacerdquo for an African NGO and one thatshould be guarded jealously and promoted effectively given the perceived and actu-al weaknesses and deficiencies of many civil society organisations to undertakeresearch that will be taken seriously by government

Pro-poor budget work is here to stay The need to consistently maintain the criti-cal links between poverty policy priorities and budget allocations in research andadvocacy is paramount The challenge is to continue doing the kind of budget workBIS is good at in a context where government is committed to actively pursuing pro-poor policies but claims that the real problem is not in the policy arena but in theimplementation and delivery sphere Another challenge is to continually align budget research and advocacy work done by civil society in order to monitor that thestate does not adopt the language of rights and poverty alleviation while succumb-ing to international economic pressures and internal resource constraints to cutspending that benefits poor people

14

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Citizen and CommunityEmpowerment Programme

The Citizen and Community Empowerment Programme (CCEP) was established on July 1 2003bringing together Idasarsquos different citizen education activities and projects The mission of the pro-

gramme is ldquoTo empower communities and citizens to shape the course and condition of their livesthrough effective engagement in social and political processesrdquo

Its goals are

bull to create citizens who will organise themselves effectively to solve problems advocate their inter-ests and needs participate in governance and contribute towards building democracy

bull to establish productive and accountable interactions and partnerships between citizens and gov-ernment at all levels

bull to build a constructive dialogue across divided communities in order to create space for democraticwork

bull to interpret consolidate and disseminate knowledge about citizen and community empowerment

The programme has four areas of impact

Firstly it will build capacity for community organisations by facilitating the personal developmentof citizen leaders by building knowledge at grassroots level about government and participation byproviding advocacy training and expertise and by building the capacity of civil society organisations

Secondly CCEP will be promoting relationships and networking through facilitating interactionbetween citizens and all levels of government It aims to strengthen civil societyrsquos capacity to hold gov-ernment accountable

The third area involves the societal context for community engagement and co-operation CCEPwill build strategic relationships among community leaders and promote cohesion within divided com-munities

The fourth area involves working to increase knowledge of citizen engagement CCEP aims to builda better understanding of empowerment and its relationship with democracy increasing knowledgeabout the challenges facing civil society organisations

To accomplish its diverse goals CCEP is organised into three units in terms of its competenciesThese are an Institutional Capacity Building Unit a Citizen Leadership for Democratic GovernanceUnit and a Dialogue Unit

The Institutional Capacity Building Unit is focused on building the capacity of NGOs and commu-nity-based organisations (CBOs)

As well as working to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Limpopo and Eastern Capeprovinces its work has included the Zimbabwe NGO Capacity Building Project the AngolaStrengthening Civil Society Organisations which comprised leadership training for leaders of AngolanNGOs and support and training for the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland

Over the next two years it will jointly run a project to build the capacity of 45 CBOs in LimpopoGauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to interact meaningfully with local government

The Citizen Leadership Unit draws on the energy and talent of citizens to begin to solve some ofthe problems that confront their communities in partnership with government

The unit has completed four intensive leadership development programmes for CBOs in Ekurhuleni

15

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

and Tshwane and is presently running comprehensive leadership programmes for the Eastern Cape andNorthern Cape provinces

During these leadership training courses more than 150 community leaders were trained and sentback into their communities and CBOs with new skills and lots of new vision and strategies

Some of the Dialogue Unitrsquos activities were to establish numerous Sustained Dialogue processeswithin South African and Zimbabwean communities as well as training a significant pool of SustainedDialogue moderators Another significant accomplishment of this unit was the setting up a ldquodialoguepromotionrdquo office in KwaZulu-Natal as part of its Afro-Indian dialogue project Training began inSeptember

A third project focusing on community development and advocacy work continued in Highlandsmunicipality Mpumalanga where its four ldquoReflect community groupsrdquo met weekly throughout theyear to deliberate and work towards the betterment of their communities

In a short time the CCEP has established itself as a well-functioning and clearly defined programmewith achievable goals useful to the political contexts in which it operates It looks set to increase itsnumber of staff working on pertinent projects throughout the continent to empower citizens and com-munities to take a more active role in their democratic development

Chance to catch up at graduatesrsquo reunion

The launch of the Citizen Leadership Alumni Forum was greetedwith much enthusiasm by those keen to keep up the momentumof their training and experience with the Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance (CLDG) Unit says BENNITTOMOTITSOE facilitator in the unit

The first get-together of citizen leadership graduates which brought together morethan 70 of the 20023 graduates from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metropolitan

municipalities was welcomed by participants as a unique opportunity to reflect ontheir challenges and breakthroughs in their various fields of community work

The Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance (CLDG) launched the CitizenLeadership Alumni Forum on November 26 2003 at the Kutlwanong DemocracyCentre in Pretoria

The forum provided the chance for those who had put so much of their energyand enthusiasm into their participation in the citizenship leadership courses to con-tinue their networking and sharing of experiences in community organising anddevelopment work

Other key objectives include instilling reassurance for developmental public workand forging links of solidarity and partnership on common community-based cam-paigns and projects

16

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

The seven members who were elected to the forum were men and women drawnfrom all groups in the two metros

The atmosphere at the launch was vibrant and graduates expressed their appreci-ation for this vehicle to continue their working relationships among themselves andwith IDASA and community-based organisations

They were unanimous in agreement about the need to build citizen leadershipcapacity through an assortment of community-based structures to achieve meaning-ful change and development Participants acknowledged the honour of assumingpublic roles to build public power

Plenary discussions during the launch covered the follow-ing issues

bull encouraging community organisers to work within avail-able resources

bull acknowledging that organising is difficult those who arediscouraged in the hardest times should draw from the sup-port of others and learn from their successes

bull all must endeavour to strengthen the relationships withmunicipalities IDASA and other broad interest-groups intheir respective areas

Participants reflected on the lessons they have learnt and dis-cussed them These included

bull learning how to raise public awareness through a publiccampaign

bull that there are different ways of solving community problems

bull the need to change attitudes and bring about immense growth in knowledge andskills

bull working towards revitalising the deteriorating political culture

bull tapping grassroots partnerships as sources of strength

bull the need to create a sufficient platform for citizen leadership to practice andplough back acquired skills

One participant said that ldquofinding this exposure is like a dream coming true for usas community leadershiprdquo and this sentiment was echoed by many at the launch

The forum has an exciting activity plan for 2004 and will remain a viable linkbetween all member organisations and IDASA It will also help to roll-out partnershipprojects on Study Circles and Public Achievement

The CLDG Unit continues to provide technical support and guidance to the forumin many ways including follow-up training The second annual meeting of all alum-ni members will be in November and will bring together additional trainees whowent through the training course this season

The challenge for CLDG is finding ways and means of sustaining the alumnimovement as it grows into other provinces

17

One participant saidthat ldquofinding this exposure is like a

dream coming true for us as communityleadershiprdquo and this

sentiment was echoedby many at the

launch

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Community Safety Programme

The programme spent most of the past year assisting local government in seven provinces to designand develop crime prevention strategies ndash strategies to be integrated into broader management

and development plans

The purpose was to help provincial local government and community structures start to identifydesign and develop intervention strategies that will address the concerns and needs of local commu-nities in relation to safety and security issues

The Community Safety Programme which was conceptualised afterseveral municipalities requested the designing of crime preventionstrategies also provides training on the Crime Prevention Policy frame-work and other legislation and their implications for municipalities

We also focused on assisting the South African Police Service inThohoyandou policing area (Limpopo province) in a project dealingwith community crime prevention activities The assistance we provid-ed was done through researching educating facilitating and promot-ing social crime prevention strategies

The programme was invited to facilitate several conferences andworkshops in Limpopo province and a number of district municipalitiesas lead facilitators Most of the conferences and workshops focused onlocal crime prevention and rural safety and security

Researcher Percy Mathabathe was invited to participate in and facilitate a rural safety session at asustainable safety conference in Durban that was jointly hosted by the South African government(Safety and Security department) eThekwini Municipality and the United Nations Habit ProgrammeHe also represented IDASA in the Alliance for Crime Prevention a group acting as a collective lobbygroup for crime prevention The agenda is to influence crime prevention-related legislation and thepolicy framework in South Africa

18

The Community Safetyprogramme was

conceptualised afterseveral municipalities

requested the designing of crime

prevention strategies

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Governance and AIDSProgramme

Within its mandate to investigate the impact of AIDS on democratisation in Southern Africa theGovernance and AIDS Programme (GAP) initiated three exciting projects These have a direct

input into key initiatives designed to inform and build capacity for concerted actions against the pan-demic across the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The AIDS and Elections project funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is investigating the impactof AIDS on electoral processes This project is a direct result of concerns about the pandemicrsquos effecton political stability expressed by the electoral commissions of SADC countries at GAPrsquos regional AIDSand Governance Forum held in April 2003

The project includes the pandemicrsquos effect on electoral management and administration electoralsystems political party support bases and citizen participation The research is focused on South Africaat present but is likely to be extended to other states

A snap-shot survey was recently completed in Zambia from which comparisons with the SouthAfrica study will be drawn The survey will establish the extent to which the pandemic has affectedpolitical institutions and participation by citizens and contribute to policy reform and holistic strategiesto redress or mitigate impacts

Through its Media AIDS and Governance Project (MAG) GAP aims to extend the discourse of AIDSand governance to the public domain

MAG a regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation communicates new research findings tothe public through a targeted sensitisation programme that deals with the agencies involved in theconstruction of media messages It seeks to expose political party and government speech writers andjournalists to emerging theories and information on the impact of HIV and AIDS on governance andto generate awareness of rights of the public and responsibilities of duty bearers in their approaches tothe pandemic Political agencies are defined as the primary definers and the media as secondary defin-ers of the news agenda The quality of what is read by the public is determined by the knowledge lev-els of the key definers and if that can be improved the appreciation of AIDS as a governance issue maybe deepened

MAGrsquos work includes

bull Running national and regional workshops in the participating countries (Mozambique NamibiaSouth Africa and Zimbabwe)

bull Researching the current state of HIV and AIDS coverage in these countries that can serve as a base-line for evaluating the impact of the project

bull Disseminating news and features within the conceptual framework of HIV and AIDS and good gov-ernance through a partnership with the project partner Inter-Press Service a global association ofjournalists that generates development news for outlets around the world

bull Developing a handbook for political communicators and journalists to raise awareness of the theo-retical framework of HIV and AIDS and good governance The handbook will also provide tools forthe practical implementation of the framework in communication and reporting

The third aspect of the GAP programme is strengthening NGO capacities to engage with and sup-port AIDS councils on local district and provincial level in the Eastern Cape (SCAPE)

SCAPE enables meaningful interact ion and co-operation between governmentrsquos inst itut ional

19

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

mechanisms and civil society organisations so both have equal participatory power For civil societyorganisations this includes the capacity to translate their experience into programme design and poli-cy processes on all levels of government

One of the first steps of a workplan agreed to by IDASA the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition and SCAPEin October 2003 was a needs analysis to inform the content and activities of a capacity-building pro-gramme

This analysis which was done in November focused on

bull The st ructure of the Eastern Cape AIDS Council and how this enables participation by civil society

bull The role and capacity of the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition to enhance the voice of civil society onthe local district and provincial AIDS councils

bull The current knowledge and perceptions of NGOs and CBOs with regard to the AIDS councils andtheir capacity to engage effectively with the councils on local district and provincial level

Activities have been planned to build capacity as identified in the needs analysis They will focus onstrategic and management planning communication knowledge sharing partnership building andadvocacy and lobbying GAP hopes to take the experience of the Eastern Cape project to otherprovinces and the rest of Southern Africa

Impact of AIDS on elections

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with themotivation to participate in political and economic lifeKONDW ANI CHIRAMBO Governance and AIDS Programme man-ager reviews its study into the impact of HIVAIDS on elections

The Governance and AIDS Programmersquos study into the impact of HIVAIDS onelections in South Africa sheds new light on the implications of AIDS for electoral

processes and therefore democratic consolidation

An in-depth understanding of the extent to which the pandemic affects politicalstability will not only add to the quality of the response to AIDS but also introducegreater urgency in measures to sustain society in all respects

The study supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund describes a number ofquestions relating to HIVAIDS and electoral processes including

bull Is AIDS affecting citizen participation in elections

bull Does the pandemic contribute to political apathy

bull Which electoral system will be the most resistant to the impact of HIVAIDS

bull Is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dealing with the impact of HIV onits staff and services

20

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

bull To what extent has the support base of political parties been affected

bull What is the integrity of the voterrsquos roll if the system cannot capture dead voterstimeously

bull What measures should be taken to avert conflict arising from these issues

Preliminary data shows that HIV is having an impact on voter apathy votingchoices and election issues Political institutions will be forced to begin to respond toHIVAIDS issues in a more holistic fashion The IEC like other workplaces within thepublic service will not escape the impact of HIV and this has implications for its abil-ity to manage and regulate elections

The study concludes that HIVAIDS will have a significant impact on all aspects ofan election and makes recommendations for the way future elections could be runfor monitoring the impact of HIV and for how institutions can mitigate the impactof HIV on their staff and core functions

The pattern of voter registration for South Africarsquos 2004 election reveals interest-ing dynamics in respect of age gender geographic and racial mix A total of 20 674926 voters registered to vote and of these 11 334 038 were female which suggeststhat women constitute a majority in terms of the voting population as they do inregard to the overall population a situation in all SADC countries

The correlation of this registration data with levels of actual voting patterns andthe incidence or prevalence of the HIVAIDS epidemic is also instructive The keypoint of inquiry is whether or not those provinces with high incidence of HIVAIDSepidemic registered lower numbers of voters andor experienced lower levels of actu-al voting by the electorate during the April election

The data suggests that the five provinces hardest hit by HIVAIDS prevalence ratesare Mpumalanga Gauteng Free State KwaZulu-Natal and North West In terms ofvoter registration it is worth noting that Mpumalanga ranks fairly low at about 7 ofthe total registered voters and has an HIV prevalence rate of 22 The registrationrecord in the Free State is even lower than that of Mpumalanga at around 6 TheKwaZulu-Natal record of registration is modest at around 18 while North Westrsquosrecord stands at around 8 Thus in terms of the linkage between HIVAIDS andelections in South Africa the data available suggests that in areas where the HIVAIDSepidemic is intense a number of eligible voters may not be able to register to votedue to either being ill or taking care of the ill

The statisitics on AIDS vary depending on the source but the study does indicatethat in 1999 250 000 people died due to HIVAIDS in South Africa and this figurerose to 360 000 in 2001 In 2004 the death toll from AIDS is projected to hit1 367 000 while the number of people sick with AIDS is estimated at 743 000

When we factor in election data we find a correlation between high prevalenceareas actual mortality figures and decline in voter population

Perhaps a more worrying scenario is the burden th at an in creasing number ofh ouseholds are facing sickness funerals and orphan s In 1999 there were 420 000orphan s in the coun try as a result of HIV AIDS deaths an d this f igure rose to 660 000in 2001 Th us it is evident that households are overburdened as a result of the devas-tating impact of HIVAIDS on their socio-economic situat ion Polit ics generally andelection s specifically may be con sidered a lesser priority as families struggle for surv i v a l

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey a considerable number of ordinarySouth Africans spend many hours caring for orphaned children caring for the sickhousehold members and taking care of their own illness Although the data does not

21

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

necessarily depict HIVAIDS as the main illness we are able to infer given the highincidence of the disease that one of the illnesses referred to in the data could beHIVAIDS This means that a fairly large number of people will be unlikely to findtime to spend on time-consuming issues such as elections

Zambiarsquos situation is also instructive A detailed analysis of data from Zambiarsquos1991 1996 and 2001 elections and from HIV prevalence rates since 1985 providesperhaps the first real evidence of the influence of AIDS on an electoral system Itexamines mortality rates among members of parliament in the periods before andafter the advent of HIVAIDS and analyses voter portfolios in Zambia over the threenational elections to infer the influence of AIDS in declining participation rates

The Zambian study was a snapshot survey meant to create a clearer understand-ing of the nature and extent of the influence of AIDS on the Westminster electoralmodel or First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system that is used by at least nine countries inthe 14-member SADC The study shows an increase in the number of by-elections inthe ldquoAIDS erardquo (from 1985 to date) compared to the ldquopre-AIDS erardquo (1964-1984)There is a marked rise of mortality among MPs in the ldquoAIDS erardquo when the AIDS pan-

demic peaked in Zambia Also there is a decline in voter pop-ulations over a decade in provinces with the highest HIVprevalence rates

Of the h ardest h it provin ces L usaka Copperbel t andWestern one f inds th at the number of voters that registeredfor presidential elections has been gradually dropping since1991 This drop can also be att ributed to disil lusi onment withpolitics distan ces to poll ing stations lack of informat ion onth e electoral process lack of capacity in th e voter registrationsystem and retren chments in the coun try rsquos econ omic hu b ndashthe copperbelt Migration to other provin ces cou ld also h aveoccurred However th e HIVAIDS variable is even more com-pelling At least 650 000 people are recorded to h ave di ed ofHIVA IDS since 1985 according to Ministry of Health dataThe h ol e in voter populat ions is an inevitable real ity

The study recommends that remedial measures include structural changes to theprocess that embrace those affected by HIV and AIDS These could include mobilevoting and postal voting shorter distances to polling stations and shorter processingtimes for voters to facilitate participation by those who are sick and their caregivers

A shift from electoral models imperil led by AIDS such as the FPTP to Proport ionalRepresentat ion or the Mixed Member Proportional system may be a favoured opt ionChan ges in the electoral systems could reduce costs of runn ing th ese systemsU l t i m a t e l y h owever governments must invest i n comprehen sive treatment pro-grammes to exten d the lives of th eir citizens and sustain leadersh ip and skil ls bases fora reason abl y lon g time in order to ach ieve their developmental objectives

For a democracy to endure it needs healthy citizens with the motivation to par-ticipate in political and economic life It certainly requires political institutions thatcan tap the best skills and operate efficiently utilising experienced personnel andleaders The legitimacy of governments also rides on the back of how many citizensare involved in formal political processes States cannot expect people who are ill toparticipate in electoral processes unless special measures are taken to facilitate suchparticipation treatment and care to ensure they can physically be involved areimportant in this regard The rise of social movements mobilising around treatmentright across Africa is a key indicator that governments that fail to meet thesedemands from an increasing constituency may compromise their electoral chances

22

States cannot expectpeople who are ill to

participate in electoral processes

unless special measures are taken to facilitate such

participation

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Local Government Centre

I n 2003 the Local Government Centre (LGC) changed its focus to reflect the new challenges of localgovernment Key to this was to integrate the Municipal Support and Community Participation Units

into one Institutional Support Unit The unit is responsible for building capacity among councillors offi-cials and community leaders on local governance

The unit together with the Policy Research unit forms the backbone of the LGC as capacity-build-ing interventions are informed by policy directions of local government in the country

One of the challenges the centre faced was the departure of centre manager Tim Maake who leftto rejoin the municipality as a senior manager His position was filled by Siyabonga Memela JoeMavuso replaced Lindiwe Ndlela as manager of the Policy Research Unit

As a result of its strategic shift the main LGC project funded by the Royal Danish Embassy changedfocus and concentrated on assisting the seven participating municipalities in developing systems andpolicies for effective developmental government and establishing municipal structures capable ofimplementing these policies and systems The project has disseminated information not only within theselected municipalities but also across municipalities and provinces

A number of municipality-focused seminars have been conducted to ensure that communities areaware of and take part in municipal developmental activities Capacity-building activities includingworkshops and seminars have been conducted for councillors officials and ward committee membersSeven crime prevention strategies have been developed and adopted for the seven participatingmunicipalities Naledi (North West) Highlands (Mpumalanga) Thembelihle (Northern Cape) LepelleNkumpi (Limpopo) Ezinqoleni (KwaZulu-Natal) Umzimvubu (Eastern Cape) and Ngwathe (FreeState)

As well as this major project the LGC has been involved in a number of other capacity-building ini-tiatives requested by either provincial governments or municipalities

Early in 2003 the LGC conducted a series of workshops and seminars for a capacity-building pro-gramme for ward committees in Gauteng for that provincersquos Department of Planning and LocalGovernment The aim of these workshops was to strengthen the functionality of the ward committeesystem in municipalities in Gauteng

Further training was conducted for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan municipalities to build thecapacity of community leaders councillors and officials

The training had the following key objectives

bull To build the capacity of community leaders participating in the Civil Leadership and DemocraticGovernance Programme to understand the workings of local government

bull To engage councillors and officials in evaluating the process of community participation in theirrespective metropolitan areas

bull To build relations between community leaders councillors and officials in the two municipalities

The centre also hosted focus seminars to provide a platform for policy-makers on democracy andlocal governance

Also the centre is in the process of extending its programmatic work beyond the borders of SouthAfrica in an effort to fulfill the organisationrsquos mission

The Swiss Development Corporation funded a decentralisation project headed by the Policy Researc hand Documentation Unit This multinat ional project involves several countries in the Southern AfricaDevelopment Community region

23

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

To conclude the LGCrsquos main activities have involved capacity building for municipalities in theimplementation of Integrated Development Plans (IDP) putting together systems and policies foreffective service delivery both at political and administrative levels and policy research It is likely thatthis focus of work will continue As the IDP is the strategic and management tool for municipalities allefforts are made to ensure that the processes and contents are ideally suited

The centre assists municipalities either on request where municipalities pay for the service orthrough the project funded by international donors

Promoting decentralisation

A strong decentralised local government is an essential elementfor development in any country which in turn can lead to astrong region Local Government Centre course designer MXOLISISIBANYONI reviews a regional research study on decentralisationin seven southern African countries

IDASArsquo s Local Government Centre (LGC) has received funding from the SwissDevelopment Corporation (SDC) in South Africa to co-ordinate a regional research

stu dy on decen tralisation in seven cou ntries L esotho Namibi a ZimbabweMozambique Malawi Tanzania and South Africa

The primary purpose of the project is to promote decentralisation through theestablishment of a network of civil society organisations that will be activelyinvolved in advocacy initiatives to advance decentralisation in the region

Decentralisation refers to the transfer of political fiscal and administrative powerto sub-national governments The reasons why governments decentralise power andauthority from national to sub-national levels of governments range from lack of effi-ciency and effectiveness often seen in big governments to a solution to managingescalating demand for public services and infrastructure experienced in most devel-oping economies Decentralisation is therefore a response to problems experiencedby governments How it takes place varies from country to country The degree ofpower and autonomy that gets transferred can thus differ in various countriesengaged in the process Democratic consolidation presupposes a strong sense of con-stitutionalism and an exercise of power in equitable ways This can happen when theconstitution is supported by strong institutions that have the capacity and legitima-cy to share power with national government With the proliferation of these institu-tions and their need to co-exist power sharing and the fulfilment of all responsibili-ties implied will demand a strict adherence to democratic principles

The projectrsquos objectives include

bull To provide country partners with an opportunity to present a research report onthe current state of decentralisation enabling us to expand our knowledge andunderstanding of decentralisation in the region

bull Enable participants to share experiences disseminate findings of the researchstudies and discuss emerging trends and critical issues

24

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

bull Establish a formal network of civil society organisations dedicated to advancingdecentralisation

bull Determine activities with regard to the implementation of a pilot project ondecentralisation in each country

The South African study focused on the 21 municipalities LGC had already beenworking in for the past two years The findings of the study are helping to informcapacity-building interventions of this project further enhancing earlier work ofLGC in these municipalities

Because of its history of racial segregation and being the last country in the regionto attain full independence South Africa offers an interesting case study on decen-tralisation Even as a new democracy South Africa has a Constitution that establish-es three spheres of government as distinct yet interdependent The local sphere con-sists of municipalities vested with original legislative and executive authority Thisauthority is now protected by the Constitution and municipalities can govern ontheir own initiative though subject to national and provincial legislation

The Constitution also provides that national and provincial government mustsupport local government development and not encroach on its right to govern onits own initiative Although provinces and national government maintain oversightover municipalities the distinct nature of local government can be seen in a numberof areas including separate conditions of service for local government employeesfrom the national and provincial public service separate procurement service and adifferent financial year

Policy and legislation that has been enacted to give effect to the provisions of theConstitution have enabled decentralisation in South Africa These include the WhitePaper on Local Government the Municipal Demarcation Act the Municipal Structures Actthe Municipal Systems Act the Property Rates Billand the Finance ManagementBill

Decentralisation is not always an easy process free of problems and challengesparticularly in developing economies that are plagued with insufficient human andfinancial resources huge service and infrastructure backlogs as well as an increasingdemand for services Some of the challenges facing decentralised local government inSouth Africa include

bull Unclear powers and functions between levels of local government

bull Lack of institutional capacity

bull Co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations

Representatives from all partner countries conducted research on the status ofdecentralisation in their respective countries and these research papers were present-ed at a regional seminar in May 2003

A strong decentralised local government is an essential element for developmentin any country which in turn can lead to a strong region Countries in the southernAfrican region display different forms of decentralisation It is important to under-stand that the project seeks to examine decentralisation in select southern Africancountries with the aim of developing strategies to assist municipalities in these coun-tries to become more developmental and sustainable through sharing of experiencesand expertise

South Africa Mozambique Tanzania Namibia Lesotho and Malawi have differ-ent histories and will thus offer the project a rich base for comparison It is alsohoped that the project will be able to offer a useful contribution to recent initiativesof civil society and NEPAD activities in the SADC region

25

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Political Information ampMonitoring Service ndash SA

There is widespread agreement that South Africarsquos democracy has all the building blocks in place tofacilitate democratic development and the realisation of socio-economic rights In addition the

Constitution provides a strong institutional framework within which socio-economic rights may berealised However despite the sound framework and constitutional imperatives of open transparentresponsive and participatory government South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies inthe world with an unemployment level of approximately 40 and between 20-28 million people liv-ing in dire poverty

Socio-economic inequality threatens South Africarsquos democracy ndash if citizens decide that democracyis failing to deliver a substantially better quality of life they could become sceptical of its value andthe sustainability of democratic development risks becoming seriously threatened The formal liberalframework of democracy is in place a rights-based Constitution a representative parliament inde-pendent constitutional oversight institutions a free and fair electoral system Since 1994 there hasbeen a wholesale reform of law and policy creating a wide panoply of new statutory and other rightsbut it is in the realm of enforcement and implementation of policy that the performance of the SouthAfrican governance system is flawed In addition there is a democratic deficit in the realm of oversightand accountability This applies to both the institutions of democratic governance and to civil societyParliament is often weak in its ability to oversee the implementation of the new laws and to hold theexecutive to account for its policy implementation (the Constitution provides both national and provin-cial parliaments with a dual role to exercise oversight and to hold the executive to account sections55 and 114) Citizensrsquo capacity for overseeing government and holding it to account is thereby under-mined Also oversight mechanisms within Parliament and other national institutions of democraticgovernance are often not as strong as they should be

Against this socio-political backdrop the Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash South Africa(PIMS-SA) promotes the active utilisation of the democratic governance structures that are in placethrough strengthening public participation in the processes that have been set up within these insti-tutions so that voices of the poor and marginalised can be amplified This we believe promotes theconstitutional imperative of open transparent accountable and responsive government At the same

26

Shaamela CassiemChildrenrsquo s Budget manager

Brett Davidson DemocracyRadio manager

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

time these institutions need to be strengthened

PIMS-SA continues to challenge socio-economic and political inequality by

bull Strengthening and supporting democratic institutions in order to promote transparent responsiveand accountable governance and

bull strengthening and enhancing public participation in the main institutions of democratic gover-nance

We have done this through a variety of activities in the past year Because of certain political eventsand the need to be responsive we have spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Parliamentparticularly on questions of government ethics as they arose from the arms deal In 2003 PIMS-SAreleased its third report on the arms deal In a confusing political environment where it is often diffi-cult to distil facts from newspaper sensation the aim of the report wasto provide clarity on those facts and also to provide some insight intothe oversight role that Parliament still has to play over the arms dealThe arms deal presents particular challenges for the ParliamentaryPublic Accounts Committee Our report was submitted to the Speakerthe Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and other rele-vant Parliamentary committees It was well-received and referred toseveral times during the hearings on the arms deal in August at whichthe Auditor-General was present We continue to have a productiverelationship with members of SCOPA particularly the chairperson

PIMS-SA also completed its eight-month research on the imple-mentation of ethics laws in South Africa The report found unsurpris-ingly that while we have a very good anti-corruptiondisclosure appa-ratus implementation is weak The report which covered the imple-mentation of ethics laws at national and provincial levels againreceived good coverage in the media and constructive commentsfrom the Parliamentary Ethics Committee chair and the Registrar ofMembersrsquo interests As a follow-up we held a seminar where we invited Members of Parliament integri-ty officers from the legislatures and NGOs and academics to discuss the findings of the report We con-tinue to focus on the implementation of the codes of conduct particularly in the provinces

A successful conference entitled ldquoSocial activism and the deepening of democracy in South Africardquoand opened by Dr Mamphela Rampele and Dr Bill Robinson of the University of California at Berkeleywas hosted in Gordonrsquos Bay It brought together a wide range of members of civil society activists aca-demics and others to look at new forms of social activism in South Africa

27

Ivor Jenkins IDASA director Kondwani Chirambo Governanceand AIDS Programme manager

The aim of the armsdeal report was to

provide clarity on thefacts and also to

provide some insightinto the oversight rolethat Parliament stillhas to play over the

arms deal

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

PIMS-SA has been one of the key drivers behind the Civil Society Network against Corruption(CSNAC) It consists of about 12 civil society organisations involved in anti-corruption activities aroundSouth Africa It is hoped that by forming the network we will be more effective in combating corrup-tion and advocating for transparency accountability and responsiveness in government

One of our major anti-corruption campaigns has been to regulate private funding to political par-ties (see page 33) Part of this campaign has been to create awareness of the issue in the media andamong business civil society organisations and political parties We have conducted several interviewswith business leaders civil society organisations and also political parties on the matter We have alsocompleted a report on party funding the way in which the lack of regulation is linked to corruptionand under-development and conducted a comparative study on the way in which the issue is regulat-ed in other countries Further to this PIMS-SA was is involved in a six-country study on the ldquocost ofgetting electedrdquo To do this research we travelled to Botswana Mozambique Zambia Malawi andTanzania

Currently we are conducting research on the levels of public participation in the National AssemblyThis is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Public Participation in KwaZulu-Natal

Our legislation monitoring unit has made submissions to Parliament on inter alia the Anti-TerrorismBill and continues to provide specialised legislative monitoring services to the National YouthCommission and UNICEF and wwwpolityorgza

At various times we have conducted media interviews on radio and television The demand for inde-pendent political analysis has increased especially during the opening of Parliament period and in therun-up to celebrating 10 years of democracy We have also attempted to contribute to the nationaldebate by publishing articles in newspapers across the country

We have been producing elections briefs for the 2004 elections and training for journalists

In addition our risk analysis work on South Africa for The Deutsche BankEurasia Stability Index inNew York continues

We have been joined by Shameela Seedat (legislation monitor) and Jonathan Faull (politicalresearcher) who along with political researcher Lorato Banda and our two interns Pumzo Mbana andSomayya Soltan are making important contributions to the work of PIMS-SA

28

Shun Govender BudgetInformation Service manager

Judith February Political Informationamp Monitoring Ser vice ndash SA manager

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Stopping unethical conduct before it occurs

The absence of post-employment restrictions for high-rankingofficials and office bearers is a problematic gap in the SouthAfrican ethics regime The purpose of such restrictions lies not somuch in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials butrather in preventing unethical conduct before it occurs sayJUDITH FEBRUAR Y manager of PIMS-SA and governanceresearcher LORATO BANDA

One of the successes claimed by the government in its recently released ldquoTowardsten years of freedomrdquo report is fighting corruption the establishment of a Code

of Conduct for the Public Service and the host of anti-corruption legislation whichhas been enacted since 1994

While there is no doubt that this government has successfully passed a panoplyof legislation to deal with corruption there are still major stumbling blocks withregard to the implementation of such legislation at all levels

In November 2003 I D A S Arsquos Political Information and M onitoring Serv i c e - S o u t hAfrica (PIMS-SA) released its report ldquo Government ethics in post-apartheid SouthAfricardquo The report was th e result of eight months of research into the level of imple-mentation of eth ics laws at the level of the executive th e legislature and th e provinces

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed a number of initiatives intended to con-solidate democracy and to instill and preserve integrity in public office Laws requir-ing disclosure exist in the form of Codes of Ethics at the level of the executive legis-lature provincial and local government The report has found perhaps unsurpris-ingly that implementation and awareness of these laws is uneven

The vexed question of the introduction of post-employment restrictions for elect-ed representatives in South Africa is also canvassed in the report Given the ongoing

29

Alexandra Vennekens-PoaneProvincial Fiscal Analysis manager

Paul Graham IDASA executivedirector

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

allegations of corruption arising out of the Strategic Defence Procurement Package(commonly known as ldquothe arms dealrdquo) it is perhaps an opportune moment to focuson one of the important but often-overlooked recommendations made by the JointInvestigative Team in its November 2001 report It recommended that ldquoParliamentshould take urgent steps to ensure that high-ranking officials and office bearers suchas Ministers and Deputy Ministers are not allowed to be involved whether person-ally or as part of private enterprise for a reasonable period of time after they leavepublic office in contracts that are concluded with the staterdquo Parliamentrsquos EthicsCommittee is yet to consider this recommendation

Post-employment restrictions have been defined as restrictions imposed on thosewho leave retire or resign from public office They are designed to ensure that suchformer public office holders derive no unfair advantage for themselves or for othersfrom the confidential information to which they had access while holding publicoffice their former association with government and using their current positions tosecure future personal advantage

The South African Parliamentary Code the Executive Ethics Act of 1998 and otherrelated ethics codes were created to protect the integrity of public office The aim isto ensure that people trust and have confidence in those in public office It has beenargued that where regulations do not exist to guide the behaviour of public officialsit is easier for them to be corrupted or to act unethically It is imperative that meas-ures are in place to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided when public officialsleave office thereby ensuring that the gains accrued through the current codes are notundermined by the conduct of former public officials

The case for post-employment restrictions should therefore be seen as an effort toconsolidate the broader codes of conduct and ethics laws currently in operation Post-employment restrictions should not be viewed as working from the assumption thatelected representatives are inherently corrupt Rather it must be emphasised that thenature of their work requires them to constantly decide among competing interestsnational constituency-based political and personal So the purpose of such restric-tion lies not so much in stopping and punishing corrupt public officials but rather inpromoting integrity in government by preventing unethical conduct before it occursSo the absence of post-employment restrictions for high-ranking officials and officebearers represents a lacuna in the South African ethics regime

There are several options one could follow when adopting post-employment

30

Derrick Mar co Peace-building ampConflict Resolution manager

Siyabonga Memela LocalGovernment Centre manager

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

restrictions The type of restrictions adopted in South Africa would very muchdepend on the socio-political environment and what is practically possible There isno doubt that South Africa while drawing from comparative examples should drawon its own experiences when considering legislating in this area

Many are of the view that post-employment restrictions should apply to Membersof the Executive only with an option of extending them to certain key figures inParliament (for example chairpersons of certain committees) The proposal toexclude ordinary Members of Parliament from post-employment restrictions ispremised on the fact that the nature of their work does not give them powers andcontrol similar to that of Ministers For instance although Ministers may be involvedin deciding who receives tenders in their departments MPs do not necessarily engagein these kind of exercises It is argued then that it would be inappropriate to restrictordinary MPs from employment after they cease to be MPs In Nigeria for examplepost-employment restrictions are not applicable to members of the legislature

One of the key challenges when drafting post-employment restrictions is findinga way of drafting a reasonable and implementable set of regulations The tricky partof this is deciding on the period of restriction The United States provides a valuablelesson by setting different restrictions depending on the nature of work and the rankof public official A common period for restriction is two years The two-year restric-tion is based on the assumption that it is a period long enough to render confiden-tial information acquired during tenure irrelevant and out-dated

Post-employment restriction s are appl ied in other democracies in dif feren t waysAlthough i n Canada some form of restriction exi sts proh ibiting former public off i-cial s f rom taking up employment in the private sector in the United States th ere isno such restri ction as only specif ied activities are restricted In France members ofth e nation al assembly may accept outside employment af ter leaving off ice providedth ey do not hold an y position in any corporati on that is either government-subsidised or primarily undertakes local or foreign government contracts Furthermorein Mexico th e law prohibits members for one year f rom accepting or applying foremployment in the private sector that is related to their service in government

There is no doubt that the type of post-employment restrictions South Africa willhave will be informed by robust debate both within Parliament and within the exec-utive Two years ago the Joint Investigative Team report initiated this debate It nowrests with Parliament to pick up the cudgels and legislate on the issue

31

Richard Calland Right to Knowmanager

Vincent Williams Southern AfricanMigration Project manager

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Right to Know Programme

The Right to Know (RTK) Programmersquos principal project is the campaign for the publicrsquos right toknow who funds political parties The campaign jointly led with PIMS-SA aims to build knowledge

and capacity around the subject and a key strategy is the litigation launched in November 2003 againstthe four biggest political parties The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquos constitutionalright to information arises from the refusal of the political parties to respond to requests for informa-tion about their private donors made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act(See page 33)

The RTKrsquos other activities are two research initiatives RTK programme manager Richard Calland isa member of the International Transparency Task Team established by Professor Joseph Stiglitz underthe auspices of the Institute for Public Dialogue at the University of Columbia New York The task teamis working on a compilation of state-of-the-art research papers Callandrsquos research is directed at the sub-ject of non-state transparency ndash especially corporatefor-profit transparency ndash and examines the philo-sophical and conceptual arguments for extending the right to know into the non-state sector and alsosome of the methodological and strategic considerations

The RTK also represents IDASA on a new international advocacy campaign called the GlobalTransparency Initiative (GTI) which is concerned with deepening democracy by promoting trans-parency and accountability in the international financial institutions A substantial start-up grant fromthe Ford Foundation is imminent Idasa will act as secretariat to the GTIrsquos steering committee and willco-ordinate Freedom of Information Act requests for relevant information from member states aroundthe world

32

Mpho Putu Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance acting manager

Florince Norris financemanager

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

He who pays the piper may play the tune

PIMS-SA managerJUDITH FEBRUAR Y and Right to Know manag-er RICHARD CALLAND look at the funding of political partiesdemocracy and the right to know

I t is estimated that political parties spent between R300-500 million during the 2004election period Only a small fraction of this money was public money Public

funding for 2003-2004 amounts to approximately R66 million ndash not nearly sufficientto fund what the parties are spending on communicating with voters in addition totheir daily upkeep In a situation in which public funding is insufficient privatedonations are clearly needed

There is curren tly no regulation of private fundi ng to political parties What th ismeans is that donors can give as much as they want in secret to the polit ical partyof their choice But why does regulati on of private fun ding to polit ical parties matteran d what is the link to corrupt ion Democracies require strong independent politi-cal parties operatin g in an open an d truly compet iti ve polit ical system to funct ionp r o p e r l y For polit ical parties to adequately fulfi l their rol e they requi re suf ficientr e s o u rces Similarly a well-in formed electorate that can exercise equal infl uence overth e decision-making processes is a precondit ion for genuine participatory democracy

For some time however there has been concern about the manner in which polit-ical parties are funded and more particularly about the absence of effective rules gov-erning the receipt of private sources of support to political parties and individuals inpolitical parties Allegations linking prominent political figures to party fundingscandals have been witnessed around the world ndash French President Jacques ChiracFormer German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and here at home the MalatsiMarais andJacob Zuma allegations are cases in point Whether for example the Chirac Malatsior Zuma allegations are true or not they have exposed the link between inappropri-ate secret funding of political parties and corruption Corruption or even the whiff ofit by members of political parties introduces an unwelcome level of cynicism about

33

Marie Stroumlm Citizen Leadership forDemocratic Governance manager

Joseph Mavuso Policy Research andDocumentation Unit manager

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

the political process among citizens Moreover public trust in otherwise legitimateand credible institutions and processes of governance stands to be eroded Politicalcorruption it has been argued increases income inequality and poverty throughlower economic growth poor targeting of social programmes and the use of moneyby the wealthy to lobby government for favourable policies which could in effecthave the potential to perpetuate inequality In a country with as much inequality asSouth Africa allowing the wealthy to buy influence by donating as much as theywish to in secret may well result in the ldquodrowning outrdquo of the voices of the poor andmarginalised who are unable to buy such influence Thus the regulation of partyfunding is at its heart a question of political equality The one time citizens experi-ence true equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box Where there is nocontrol over the private funding given to political parties a situation of unfairnessand distortion of electoral competition may arise ultimately undermining the equalvalue of each personrsquos vote When wealth is allowed to buy influence and accessthrough unregulated secret donations the average citizenrsquos voice could be eclipsedhe who pays the piper may play the tune

This is the background and rationale to IDASArsquos campaign for reform The cam-paign which is jointly led by the RTK programme and PIMS-SA aims to build knowl-edge and capacity around the subject and public awareness and also a civil societynetwork To this end IDASA has spearheaded the launching of the Civil SocietyNetwork against Corruption (CSNAC) a loose network of 12 organisations workingon anti-corruption issues CSNAC has been crucial in garnering broad-based civilsociety support for the campaign to regulate private funding to political parties A keystrategy is the litigation that was launched by IDASA against the four biggest politi-cal parties in November 2003 The litigation which asserts IDASA and the publicrsquosconstitutional right to information arises from the refusal of the political parties torespond to requests for information about their private donors made under thePromotion of Access to Information Act The court action raises a number of ground-breaking legal and policy issues and has attracted much interest both in South Africaand around the world Apart from the main issue concerning the publicrsquos right toknow and our application for a declaratory statement of principle the case also rais-es the question of whether political parties perform a public function under the Actat least when it comes to activities such as spending the public funds they receive

The response of the corporate sector to the case has been interesting We workedwith several leading companies to encourage them to adopt codes to govern their

34

Nico Bezuidenhout InstitutionalCapacity Building manager

Benjamin Mautjane InstitutionalSupport Unit manager

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

own donations and several have now done so Between launching the case and theelection in April 2004 at least 10 major corporates decided to publish their dona-tions including AngloGold Standard Bank and MTN many of them saying that nowthat the principle of openness was established they would be making donations forthe first time Around R30 million in new money has thereby flowed into the politi-cal party system helping to allay fears expressed by the parties themselves that dis-closure would result in a drop in donations Although the parties are defending thelegal action (although the African Christian Democratic Party settled the action bychoosing to disclose their major private donors) they have done so in a serious andconstructive manner their legal papers add significantly to the discourse This andthe very fact that we felt comfortable in taking the significant last resort step oflaunching the case reflects well on the maturity of South Africarsquos democracy

South Africa is by no means unique in seeking solutions to this thorny problemIn the United States campaign finance has long been the source of much controver-sy and legislation there is currently the subject of a Supreme Court challenge In theUnited Kingdom the law has only recently been overhauled Global standards ongovernance issues mean that the United Nations the Commonwealth and variouscivil society organisations are monitoring the progress of South Africa in relation toensuring sufficient measures to combat corruption South Africa in addition is a sig-natory to the African Union Protocol to prevent corruption This Protocol calls onmember states to adopt legislation to regulate private funding to political parties Itis therefore only a matter of time before South Africa faces the inevitable challengeof regulation Many political parties see any proposal to regulate party funding as asure means to cut the flow of money they receive Regulation should not be seen asa threat to the right to donate Admittedly the nuts and bolts of such a law are notsimple ndash but neither do they represent an insurmountable hurdle International expe-rience has shown that regulation of party funding can be implemented successfullyif laws are well designed backed by effective sanctions and accompanied by a paral-lel diffusion of appropriate ethics and norms The broad basis of a regulatory frame-work could however surely include limitations on the type and sources of fundingthat private funding be defined broadly to include ldquoin-kind contributionsrdquo and thatcertain prescriptions are made concerning foreign funding A crucial aspect of regu-lation is of course implementation and enforcement South Africarsquos challenge is notonly to find a regulatory framework that is appropriate to its contextual particulari-ties but also one that promotes the constitutional imperatives of transparency open-ness and accountability

35

Marritt Claassens Africa BudgetUnit manager

Chuck Scott All Media Groupmanager

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Public Opinion Service

The Public Opinion Service (POS) continued to build on its success of previous years when it com-pleted surveys in eight Southern Africa countries Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique

Namibia South Africa Tanzania and Zambia These surveys are part of a continent-wide project con-ducted under the auspices of the Afrobarometer project

The Afrobarometer is an independent non-partisan survey research project conducted by IDASA the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Michigan State University (MSU)Implemented through a network of national research partners Afrobarometer surveys measure thesocial economic and political atmosphere in societies in transition in West East and Southern Africa

From 1999 to 2002 the number of Afrobarometer survey countries increased from eight to 15 coun-tries in Africa What is remarkable about this achievement is that we can now compare results fromRound 1 conducted in 1999 to 2001 with the recently completed Round 2 in 2003 In doing so wehave contributed to IDASArsquos work in the region and the continent to build sustainable democracies

In Round 2 more than 23 000 interviews were conducted in the local languages of the respondentsacross these 15 countries Results from these surveys are disseminated to a wide array of users througha series of working and briefing papers

During 2003 Cherrel Africa Afrobarometer data manager and Thabani Masuko Afrobarometeroutreach co-ordinator resigned from IDASA leaving POS with a huge gap in staff capacity Hiringappropriate replacements took longer than anticipated and in the interim existing staff took over theresponsibilities of data management and outreach activities Much time was therefore dedicated to theAfrobarometer project in 2003

The Afrobarometer results are used to inform ordinary South Africans government policy-makersfunding and civil society organisations and the business sector It is our aim to present our survey resultsto various audiences so as to give the Afrobarometer appropriate exposure

In Mozambique we released the survey results in May to media representatives civil society andgovernment officials A private briefing was also held with the donor community in Maputo TheLesotho results were released in late November with briefings for the press civil society and govern-ment officials Copies of the Lesotho country report were supplied to the Speaker of Parliament andthe national university These papers are available on the website wwwafrobarometerorg

36

Moira Levy Idasa Publishingmanager

Yul Derek Davids PublicOpinion Service manager

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Afrobarometer partners from Malawi Botswana and Tanzania visited Cape Town in October andNovember for joint analysis and to finalise the country reports These country reports will be dissemi-nated in 2004

POS is involved with the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on its Department of HomeAffairs Service Quality Surveys This study will assess views of citizens non-citizens and officials of theDepartment of Home Affairs about the quality of the service of the Department of Home Affairs Theproject is ongoing and to date POS has completed all three survey instruments which will assess thequality of service offered by the Department of Home Affairs The study will be implemented in 2004

POS also started a Research Training Project in 2003 The main aim of the project was to train rep-resentatives from civil society on how to conduct research Our first research training workshop tookplace in May in Zimbabwe The training course covered all stages of the research process problemstatement purpose of the study research designs data collection methods analysis and report writ-ing A total of 10 people from seven organisations participated in the training and were very satisfiedwith the presentation of the workshop as well as the content

Ordinar y citizens have their say

As the first users of the system ordinary citizens are in the bestposition to assess South Africarsquos democracy YUL DEREK DA VIDSPublic Opinion Service manager examines what they think

To assess what citizens think about our democracy we looked at survey data col-lected by IDASA since 1994 Results from these surveys indicate that political vio-

lence and instability have decreased dramatically in our first decade of democracy

One of th e survey questions that we have regularly asked people is ldquo What are the

37

Samantha Fleming e-Communications manager

Alison Hickey Research Unit onAIDS and Public Finance manager

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

most importan t probl ems facing this country th at government ought to addressrdquoThe 2002 survey found that less than 1 of the respondents cited political violenceas a ldquomost important problemrdquo This is a decrease of more than six percentage pointssince 1994 when 7 of respondents indicated it as ldquoa most important problemrdquoPolitical instability was reported by less than 1 of the respondents in 2002

At the same time large majoriti es of South Africans feel th at th ei r f reedoms andrights h ave in creased substan ti ally since 1994 When we asked people whether th ereis more freedom of speech 77 (percentage saying ldquobetterrdquo or ldquo much betterrdquo ) indicat -ed ldquo that an yone can freely say what he or she thinks un der ou r multi-party system asopposed to life under apartheidrdquo in the 2000 survey an d 75 was reported for 2002

The Afrobarometer 2002 survey also asked respondents to place on a scale from 0(worst form of governing a country) to 10 (best form of governing a country) ldquotheway the country was governedrdquo under apartheid ldquoour current system of governmentwith regular elections where everyone can vote and there are at least two politicalpartiesrdquo and finally the ldquopolitical system of this country as you expect it to be in 10years timerdquo 30 of South Africans gave a positive evaluation (that is a score ofbetween 6 and 10) to the apartheid system of government 12 neutral (a score of 5)and 57 gave it a negative score (from 0 to 4) In contrast 54 gave a positive assess-ment of the present system of government with 20 neutral and 26 negative

South Africa has also made remarkable progress within the last 10 years in estab-lishing all the formal institutions characterised by a constitutional democracyincluding the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) the PublicProtector the Auditor-General and a host of other regulatory agencies Chapter 2 ofthe Constitution guarantees both the civil and political rights of every citizen whichare regarded as non-derogable rights It guarantees the democratic values of humandignity equality and freedom South Africarsquos Constitution is unique in that it has abill of rights that has justiciable socio-economic rights The inclusion of socio-eco-nomic rights as justiciable rights was an attempt to introduce a substantive elementto rights and not merely a procedural one The government is constitutionallyobliged to ensure the progressive realisation of these rights Government depart-ments are obliged by law to submit regular reports to the SAHRC showing how theyhave implemented programmes that advance socio-economic rights

Despite this progress citizensrsquo v iews about the overall democrat ic system charac-terise it as fragi le When asked ldquo overall how sat isf ied are you with the way democra-cy works in South Africardquo 44 in 2002 said that they are ldquo very satisfiedrdquo or ldquo fairlysatisf iedrdquo This is d own by eigh t percentage poi nts f rom 2000 when 52 said they areldquo v e ry satisf iedrdquo or ldquo fairly satisfiedrdquo

The proporti on of respon dents that indicated that they are ldquo not very sat isfiedrdquo orldquo n ot at all satisfiedrdquo about th e way democracy works has in creased f rom 43 in 2000to 47 in 2002 We also asked resp ondents to comment on how democratic th ey per-ceive government to be Only 13 feel that South Africa is completel y democrati cwh ile 34 in dicated that it is democrat ic but with some minor exceptions 37 in di-cated it is democratic but with major exceptions and 7 that it is not a democracyBlacks h ave consi stently reported h igh er levels of satisfaction with the way democra-cy works in South A frica and whites and Indians the lowest

Public opinion is not only an important aspect of democracy it can also provide avaluable feedback mechan ism to government Th e key issue of the performance of an ydemocratic government is th e degree to which it respon ds to th e needs of the people

To determine h ow well government is performing the Afrobarometer asked peopleldquo How well would you say government is handlingrdquo a range of policy areas The 2002

38

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

s u rvey found that government received fairly positive evaluations in some areas forexample the distribution of welfare payments (73) addressing educational n eeds ofall South A fricans (61) and delivering basic services like water and electricity (60)

H o w e v e r when it comes to th e problem most of ten iden tif ied by the voters gov-ernment received fairly poor marks 84 i dentified unemployment as the most impor-tan t problem facing the count ry just 9 said the government is han dling the issueldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo 17 said th at government is doi ng ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo incont roll ing pri ces and 38 indicated that government is doing ldquo fairlyrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquoin managi ng th e economy People are unh appy about government rsquos ef forts in n ar-rowing th e income gap between th e rich and poor (19 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo verywellrdquo ) There is dissat isfaction with the way government is dealin g with aff irmativeaction (54 said ldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo ) 21 indicated that government is doingldquo fairly wellrdquo or ldquo very wellrdquo in ensuring that everyone has enough to eat

Government also received low approval ratings in terms of crime and corruptionWhile 35 mention crime and security just 23 give gov-ernment positive marks in this category 38 said govern-ment is doing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in resolving con-flicts between communities and 29 said government isdoing ldquofairly wellrdquo or ldquovery wellrdquo in fighting corruption

While th e overall assessments of ou r democracy are ques-t ioned very few South Af ricans are prepared to consi der non -democratic alternat ives A question was asked about alterna-tive ways of govern ing the count ry an d 67 of the 2002 sur-vey respon dents said they would ldquo disapproverdquo or ldquo strongl ydisap proverdquo if the country returned to the old system we hadunder apartheid 67 ldquo di sapproverdquo or ldquo strongly disapproverdquoof on ly one politi cal party bei ng allowed to stan d for electionan d holdin g of fice wh ile 19 ldquo approverdquo or ldquo st rongl y approverdquo of one-party ruleWhen asked wh ether election s and parliament should be abolish ed so th at th e presi-dent can decide everythin g 73 rejected it (percen tage sayi ng ldquo disapproverdquo orldquo strongly disapproverdquo ) while 10 ldquo ap provedrdquo or ldquo strongly approvedrdquo of it

Political advancements mean little to most people if they are not accompanied byimproved socio-economic conditions One of the dangers of a prolonged lack of serv-ice delivery and no tangible improvements in the lives of citizens is a withdrawal ofparticipation in the political system which can negatively affect its legitimacy

The crucial challenge facing the government is to make it more accessible to ordi-nary South Africans A lack of access does not detract from the sophistication of thenew political system and Constitution At the same time if the policy changes arenot adequately implemented and made accessible to citizens citizens will stop par-ticipating meaningfully in our emerging democracy Just as the transformation to ademocratic society required a commitment from all stakeholders so does the imple-mentation of our new system

The growing concern however is that besides participation in elections otherforms of engagement with the democratic system are limited with relatively few peo-ple interacting with their elected representatives According to the last Afrobarometersurvey far fewer people have any involvement with civil society organisations suchas political parties trade unions sports and cultural associations

Now that the policies and procedures for South Africarsquos new political system havebeen formulated it is necessary for all sectors and individuals to participate mean-ingfully in the political system

39

Public opinion is notonly an important

aspect of democracyit can also provide avaluable feedback

mechanism to government

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Southern African Migration Project

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) is a network of organisations within the SouthernAfrican region partnered with Queenrsquos University in Canada and funded by both the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Department for International Development(DFID) Its principal work consists of applied research on migration policy monitoring and advisingtraining and public education The broad remit of the project reflects the need to understand andappropriately manage migration in the 21st century and has the long-term objective of facilitating theharmonisation of policies and collaborative management systems in the region

During 2003 SAMP concluded two of its research projects that were undertaken at the request ofgovernments through the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process These were theMigration Data Harmonisation Project aimed at evaluating immigration data collection methodolo-gies and the Migration Policies Harmonisation Project that was aimed at reviewing and evaluating

existing policies for the purpose of understanding similarities and dif-ferences between countries in the region The results of both researchprojects were presented at an inter-governmental meeting held inMaseru Lesotho in December 2003

In 2002 SAMP received a grant from DFID for doing research relat-ed to migration poverty and development On the basis of this twosubstant ial comparat ive research projects were conceptualised and arecurrent ly being implemented The f irst is the M igrat ion andRemittances Surveys (MARS) that will be conducted in six count ries ataround the same t ime This project takes as it s starting point the factthat most i f not all migrants are engaged in some form of voluntaryremit tance to their home count ry It aims to gain a deeper under-standing of this phenomenon to look at the impact of remittances onreducing household poverty and to make recommendations in terms

of how the migrant remittances strategy can be used more effectively as a means of poverty alleviation

The second is a household survey known as the Migration and Poverty Surveys (MAPS) that exploresthe comparative levels of poverty between migrant and non-migrant households and examines theirsurvival strategies As with the first project the aim is to make recommendations in terms of howmigration can be more efficiently utilised as part of a set of development strategies

SAMP continues to be involved in the MIDSA process and during 2003 together with the InternationalOrganisation for Migrat ion facilitated two inter-governmental workshops on ldquoPeople Smugglingrdquo andldquo Migrat ion Harmonisationrdquo This process is part of SAMPrsquos efforts to achieve closer collaboration betweenSADC member states in the development of a regional migration management system

In terms of migration more generally SAMPrsquos Migration Policy Series and Briefs continue to consti-tute an important source of migration-related information to other researchers journalists and policy-makers throughout the region and while we do not have any substantial data to this effect we believethat the information generated by SAMP has an influence and impact on knowledge and perceptionsof migration far beyond the immediate SAMP network This is in part demonstrated by the number ofrequests for SAMP to participate in meetings conferences and workshops related to migration

The certificated training course on International Migration Policy and Management was run twicein 2003 and each course had about 20 students from Southern Africa Development Community coun-tries This course is primarily offered to middle and senior managers and officials in departments ofimmigration but is also open to other departmentsrsquo officials and NGOs The course is hosted andaccredited by the University of the Witwatersrand and run in partnership with the School of Public andDevelopment Management

40

The survey explores the comparative levels

of poverty betweenmigrant and non-

migrant householdsand examines theirsurvival strategies

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Making the transition to lsquobrain gainrsquo

South Africa has become a destination country for skilled Africanworkers who with supportive immigration policy and a moreaccepting host society could fill the human resource gap left byldquobrain drainersrdquo KATE LEFKO-EVERETT a visiting researcherwith the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) takes a lookat some of the projectrsquos findings

With the election of a majority government in 1994 South Africarsquos appeal as adestination-state in the region increased immensely although even apartheid

policy had not been an absolute deterrent to the large numbers of mine workers agri-cultural and contract labourers victims of conflict and civil war and other migrantsarriving in the country to live and work Although Jonathan Crush (SAMP QueenrsquosUniversity) observed in 1997 that the ldquopolitical transformation in South Africa hasmade very little difference to the lives of migrants entering South Africa for tempo-rary workrdquo he documents rises in SADC visitors to South Africa from less than 500000 per year between 1980 and 1990 to over 25 million in 1993 and more than 3million in 1995 Political instability in other parts of the Southern and CentralAfrican regions have also contributed to increased in-migration

However while South Africarsquos appeal as a migration destination has increased inthe first decade of democracy so too has the number of citizens setting their sightson the ldquogreener pasturesrdquo of Northern countries This movement of skilled workersabroad has been widely termed the ldquobrain drainrdquo Although estimates of skilled SouthAfricans moving abroad on a temporary or semi-permanent basis vary more than 200000 citizens are estimated to have permanently emigrated to the UK North AmericaAustralia and New Zealand between 1989 and 1997 In contrast the number of per-manent immigrants to South Africa numbered 9 800 in 1993 and had fallen to lessthan half of this number by 1997 (SAMP 2000) SAMPrsquos study on ldquoGender and theBrain Drain from South Africardquo (2002) revealed that altogether of the skilled 1 125workers surveyed 73 of men and 61 of women had given ldquosomerdquo or ldquoa great dealof thoughtrdquo to emigrating with major ldquopush factorsrdquo identified as anticipated declinein social and economic conditions crime and lack of security

Despite escalating fear over the social and economic impacts of the ldquobrain drainrdquoRobert Mattes Jonathan Crush and Wayne Richmond (SAMP 2000) suggest thatSouth Africa has so far been unable to harness the potential benefits of immigrationand to make a transition from ldquobrain drainrdquo to ldquobrain gainrdquo However this has notbeen due to lack of interest from potential migrants or lack of human resource capac-ity to fill the gap left by ldquobrain drainersrdquo Mattes et alrsquos study of 400 skilled foreignnationals living in South Africa found that while most European immigrants arrivedbefore 1991 87 of non-SADC Africans arrived after 1991 as the nation began itstransition to democracy Further within the survey sample post-1991 arrivals werefound to be more educated overall with almost 70 holding university degrees and60 with postgraduate qualifications

While these results suggest a clear opportunity for South Africa to transform ldquo braindrain rdquo to ldquo brain gainrdquo potential immigrants face a number of sign ificant obstacles to

41

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

relocat ing First Mattes et al argue that immigrat ion policy remain s host ile to foreignskilled workers reflect ing the ldquo pervasive but highly misleading assumption that everyj ob occupi ed by a non-citizen is on e less job for a South Af ricanrdquo This policyapp roach they say has resulted in consisten t decreases in both legal immigration andt e m p o r a ry work permi ts issued since 1994 d esp ite the need to attract and retainhuman resource capacity

In addition skilled and unskilled foreigners alike face a rising tide of fear andxenophobia among South Africans Public opinion surveys conducted by SAMPbetween 1997 and 2000 showed that nearly 80 of respondents favoured a ldquototalbanrdquo or ldquovery strict limitsrdquo on non-nationals allowed into the country One in fiverespondents felt that ldquoeveryone from neighbouring countries living in South Africa(legally or not) should be sent homerdquo and 85 felt that unauthorised migrantsshould have ldquono right to freedom of speech or movementrdquo (SAMP 2001) Thusalthough skilled workers from the SADC region are available to fill the gap created bythe ldquobrain drainrdquo South Africarsquos ldquorestrictionistrdquo immigration policies and the gov-ernmentrsquos failure to curb public intolerance towards non-nationals have preventedregeneration in the skilled labour force

In a workshop on ldquoMigration and Developmentrdquo co-hosted by SAMP as part of theMigration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) process delegates from 13 countriesdebated solutions to combat ldquobrain drainrdquo including the need to offer competitivesalaries improve working conditions and reduce ldquomeritocracyrdquo generate incentivesfor Africans in the diaspora to return home and develop short-term work and studyexchanges designed to allow for freer movement of workers while still retaining theirskills within the region

Also delegates resolved to identify priority growth areas within their own coun-tries and conduct ldquoskills auditsrdquo to determine the human resource capacity neededto drive these priority areas the numbers of skilled workers available within individ-ual countries and the region and the extent of qualified Africans working in the dias-pora Delegates discussed solutions to maximise the remittances generated byAfricans abroad for example there was a recommendation that African banks andfinancial institutions establish branches in the North to maximise financial returnsto the continent generated by nationals abroad

SAMPrsquos research suggests that in 10 years little has changed in terms of shapingnational immigration policy to attract and retain skilled workers developing andsupporting regional policy to curb the ldquobrain drainrdquo or facilitating the integrationand acceptance of non-nationals into local culture all of which will impact indeliblyon the future economic and social development of the country However the 10thyear of democracy nonetheless holds promise for better managed and growth-pro-ducing migration in the future Our majority government the strength of the econ-omy in the region and the rate of domestic development have made South Africa adestination country for skilled African workers who with supportive immigrationpolicy and a more accepting host society could fill the human resource gap leftbehind by ldquobrain drainersrdquo

South Africarsquos challenge is not only to initiate these changes locally but also toengage wi th transn ational bodies such as the Southern Af rica DevelopmentCommunity the African Union and the New Partnership for Africarsquos Development inan effort to develop regionally appropriate policy

42

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Peace-building and ConflictResolution in Nigeria

IDASA formally opened offices in Nigeria in September 2002 to facilitate the building of local organi-sational capacity in conflict reduction In the first year the programme focused on conflict reduction

over a sustained and heightened electoral cycle that Nigeria was undergoing The second year provid-ed I D A S A with the opportunity to concentrate on mainstreaming conflict management by equippingpractitioners and preparing training and support materials

In 2003 Nigeria completed its national and state elections Local government elections officiallyscheduled for 2002 had not been held by the third quarter of 2003 It was agreed that investing inobservation of the elections would be inappropriate and instead IDASA decided to engage the largerdebate on constitutional reform with specific reference to conflict indicators around local governmentmanagement and administration

In collaboration with the African Strategic and Peace ResearchGroup (Afstrag) an Eminent Persons gathering was arranged inDecember 2003 Participants were drawn from the Local GovernmentCommission of the national legislature the National Union of LocalGovernment Employees (Nulge) academia and past local governmentelected officials A total of 30 people were brought together to reflecton the problems within this third tier of government IDASA also pro-vided a resource person Siyabonga M emela from the LocalGovernment Centre based in Pretoria

The meeting identified a number of fundamental flaws within thelocal government system and suggested a number of corrective meas-ures that could be taken It was agreed that these corrective measureswould be dealt with at a follow-up meeting and that a network ndash theLocal Government Reform Network ndash would be constituted to drive theprocess further Under the auspices of this network and in collaboration with IDASA Afstrag andNulge a four-day meeting was held in February 2004 Three sub-committees (finance governmentand securityconflict) were established at this meeting These committees continue to meet and fleshout concrete proposals that could feed into the development of a white paper on local governmentreform

This initiative bridged the gap between government and civil society stakeholders It broke downthe assumed policy-making barriers that exist between these important sectors and moves Nigeriacloser to co-operative democracy

Mainstreaming conflict management or peace practice in Nigeria has become a serious challengein the country Peace practice in a vacuum has resulted in many loose configurations of groups whodid not necessarily have the skills to build peace At an initial meeting held in November 2003 it wasagreed to arrange a substantial training programme for different categories of peace practitioners Twocritical outcomes of this meeting were the laying of a solid foundation for capacity-building trainingand the transformation of the Conflict Resolution Stakeholders Network (Cresnet) into a much moreorganisationally-friendly network

The national executive of Cresnet met in February 2004 with support from IDASA to review its con-stitution in line with contemporary realities in conflict management in Nigeria The meeting agreed tocommission the six zonal structures of Cresnet to constitute and hold elections with a view to holdingnational elections in September 2004 It is sincerely hoped that Cresnet succeeds in its endeavours

43

Mainstreaming conflict managementor peace practice inNigeria has become a serious challenge

in the country

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

because the vision of the organisation firmly captures the idea of mainstreaming conflict practice in thecountry

A comprehensive course in the fundamentals of peace practice was organised by IDASA in collabo-ration with Cresnet and the Peace and Conflict Study Programme of the University of Ibadan Thirtyfive participants from different fields and backgrounds participated in this groundbreaking PeacePractice in Nigeria Programme

Three convenient toolkits were prepared for participants to be used when facilitating peace activi-ties in communities or wherever they may be called on to do such work IDASA is grateful to theUniversity of Ibadan for their willingness to co-operate in this groundbreaking endeavour and toCresnet and the university for providing the resource people

The second year saw a distinct shift in the emphasis of IDASA work in the country from election-related conflict to capacity building The organisation did however retain some support for work inTaraba state where it funded a two-day peace practice sensitisation training and in the Niger Deltawhere it funded some rapid response activities during the local government elections

Niger Delta polls plagued by violence

A pattern of political violence and intimidation is one of severalproblems that plagued elections in the Niger Delta This editedreport from MOSOP which has worked with IDASA since 2002and is one of its implementing partners under a USAID granthighlights the crisis in the region

M OSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people) is a grassroots-basedorganisation primarily representing the Ogoni people in the south-east part of

the Niger Delta It is primarily known for its resistance to reckless oil exploitation inits area which led to confrontations with oil company Shell and the Nigerian gov-ernment who executed MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995 inthe midst of a four-year wave of government repression in the Ogoni area under themilitary rule of general Sani Abacha

MOSOP has been a consistent advocate of genuine democratic development inNigeria as a critical aspect of promoting justice and stability in the Niger Delta as awhole Since 1999 MOSOP has taken an increasingly active role in Ogoni and with-in Rivers State promoting grassroots democratic participation with a particular inter-est in office holders and political aspirants engaging with the population on mani-festo commitments and basic democratic accountability

MOSOP set out to conduct a limited observation of the 2004 local governmentelections within the four local government areas in Ogoni with some comparisonsmade with observations within the Port Harcourt area

Rivers State is divided into 23 local government areas which are further divided

44

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

into wards from which councillors are elected Voters are asked to vote for a localcouncillor and directly elect a council chairman etc

The first substantial briefing made by the State Electoral Commission to observerswas held on March 20 one week ahead of the elections At this meeting the chair-man outlined conditions for accreditation which included the following

bull All observers would join transport provided by the State Electoral Commissionand be sent to randomly selected areas within the state

bull All observers would be required to attend a training meeting to be held the fol-lowing Thursday (two days before the election)

bull All observers would be required to complete forms (yet to be supplied) and pro-vide photographs to receive accreditation

In its April 7 preliminary report of observations MOSOP said that in the areas ito b s e rved the key problems wh ich had been identif ied by local and in ternationalo b s e rvers in the federal and state elections of 2003 persisted in th e local governmentelections and in several cases seemed to worsen signif ican tly

These problems which drive at the heart of confidence of the population in elec-tions and democratic processes include

bull A pattern of political violence and intimidation that is often conducted withimpunity

bull Concerns at grassroots level about the neutrality of election officials the securityservices and the Electoral Commission itself

bull Absence of proper election procedures and no secrecy of the ballot

bull An alarming level of blatant electoral fraud involving election officials

bull Late appointment of ad-hoc election staff often with direct connections withpolitical parties

bull A growing tendency for disputes between political party supporters to break downinto violence due to a lack of confidence in other means of redress

bull Limited capacity and understanding by political parties on the need for them toformulate credible manifestos and networks in order to develop sustained grass-roots support

bull Growing cynicism at grassroots level about ldquodemocraticrdquo structures and elections

The most serious problems MOSOP observers encountered on election day (bothinside and outside Ogoni) included

bull Po lit ical v iol en ce between p arty sup porters often affecting of fi cial s andbystanders

bull Declaration of results for areas where officials were aware no election was takingplace or had been disrupted

bull Diversion and non-delivery of results sheets for elections

bull Observed examples of fraud by election officials

bull Extraordinary and gross differences between observed and declared turnout

bull Apparent cases of over-voting being declared as results

In some instances MOSOP observed declared results of 100 turnouts or evenover-voting from areas where voting had been disrupted or had never begun

45

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Personnel

A t the end of 2003 the final year of IDASA rsquos three-year equity plan 77 of the overall staff wereblack and 55 female These figures reflect the overall success of the employment equity policy

In some cases however the targets have not been met for individual employment categories Thisis largely because the anticipated increase in numbers in the different categories did not materialise(IDASA staff numbers have decreased since the targets were set) and the lack of turnover of staff insome categories has offered limited opportunities to change the profile of those categories At themanagement level IDASA is on track towards the targets set for black males and white females butprogress needs to be made towards an increase in black females and reduction in white males This ishowever a fairly small and stable group so change to the profile has been difficult On the co-ordina-tortrainer level good progress has been made in all categories except the category for white femaleswhich is higher than the target set

Bearing these trends in mind and in consultation with the staff and the Equity Committee in par-ticular new targets have been set to be reached by 2005

However IDASA recognises that employment equity is not just about percentages and efforts havebeen made to offer opportunities and advancements to existing staff members from the designatedgroups

During the year two people from designated groups have been promoted into more senior posi-tions within the management group In addition black staff members from our administrative andhousekeeping groups have been given promotions One of our receptionists has been promoted to aposition of conference co-ordinator and two of our housekeepers have been promoted to reception-ist In these cases the staff members have been armed with new skills by being sent on communica-tions and administration training courses as part of our skills development policy We have also sentone of our black unit managers on a fellowship programme at the Kettering Foundation in the UnitedStates

Overall under our skills development policy more than R70 000 was spent on staff developmentduring the year As per the table below most of the funds were allocated to people from designatedgroups

Training and staff development are seen as an integral part of our employment equity policy Theamount of training offered to staff members has increased steadily over the past few years and the ben-efits of this should assist us in achieving the aims of our equity policy

46

Allocation of Staff T raining

Black Males White Males Black Females White Females

24 12 56 8

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Finance

IDASArsquos total revenue increased by 5454 when compared to 2002 and a good cash flow has takensome pressure off the staff

The organisationrsquos IT service has been renegotiated in order to tighten up internal controls and toimprove internal communications on financial matters

During the year attention was focused on financial systems and controls in our international officesand with our partners in order to ensure that financial and narrative reports are submitted timeouslyto donors thereby ensuring that further drawdown on grants is available when required

The finance department has maintained a relatively small staff complement over the past two yearsbut with the increased workload the Board approved the employment of an additional person in 2004

Managing IDASArsquos core expenses is a major focus of the finance department as the organisationrsquosability to secure funding for these expenses continues to decline

Over the past three years IDASA has managed to consistently reduce its core costs The organisa-tionrsquos core costs amount to 2329 of our total expenditure budget which is well below the accept-ed average for NGOs We have managed to fund our core activities through contributions from ourprogrammes

We sincerely thank all our donors for their support during the year

The following charts depict the various areas of programme expenditure and compare core expens-es to programme expenses The annual financial statements were approved by the Board at our AGMin June 2003

47

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

48

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Publications and Resources

BOOKS

Governance and AIDSProgramme (GAP)AIDS and Governance in Southern Africa Emerging Theories and Perspectives A Report on the IDASAUNDP regional Governance and AIDS Forum April 2-4 2003compiled by Kondwani Chirambo and Mary Caesar

Budget Information Service (BIS)Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights a guide for NGOsJudith Streak Childrenrsquos Budget Unit

BOOKLETS

BISBudlender D (ed) 2003 Whatrsquos Available A guide to government grants and other support available toindividuals and community groupswwwidasaorgzabisDefault20DocumentsKZN20accessing20govt20fundsdocThis booklet provides information on government grants that are available to individuals and community groups in KwaZulu-Natal province

Community Safety ProgrammeCrime Prevention Development Programme Thohoyandou Limpopo ndash a joint IDASA-South African PoliceServices report on a crime prevention strategy for the region

Peace-Building amp Conflict Resolution ndash NigeriaReducing Electoral Conflict in Nigeriaa Toolkit

Institutional Capacity-Building UnitDirectory of ContactAngolan Organisations Working in the Areas of Democracy GovernanceHuman Rights and Peace-Building

49

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

OCCASIONAL PUBLICA TIONS

Fostering Integration among Africarsquos Diverse Parliamentsthe proceedings of a roundtable discussion onthe Pan-African Parliament

Constructing Solutions for the Zimbabwean Challengendash the proceedings of a joint IDASA andNetherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy Conference

Political Information amp Monitoring Service ndash SA (PIMS-SA)Regulation of Private Funding to Political Parties compiled by PIMS-SA and the Right to KnowProgramme

Government Ethics in Post-Apartheid South Africa compiled by PIMS-SA

Afrobarometer Working PapersNo 23 Mattes Robert et al ldquoPoverty Survival and Democracy in Southern Africardquo 2003

No 24 Mattes Robert et alrdquoDemocratic Governance in South Africa The Peoplersquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 25 Ames Barry et al ldquoDemocracy Market Reform and Social Peace in Cape Verderdquo 2003

No 26 Norris Pippa and Robert Mattes ldquoDoes Ethnicity Determine Support for the Governing Partyrdquo 2003

No 27 Logan Carolyn J et al ldquoInsiders and Outsiders Varying Perceptions of Democracy and Governance in Ugandardquo 2003

No 28 Gyimah-Boadi E and Kwabena Amoah Awuah Mensah ldquoThe Growth of Democracy in Ghana Despite Economic Dissatisfaction A Power Alternation Bonusrdquo 2003

No 29 Gay John ldquoDevelopment as Freedom A Virtuous Circlerdquo 2003

No 30 Pereira Joao et al ldquoEight Years of Multiparty Democracy in Mozambique The Publicrsquos Viewrdquo 2003

No 31 Mattes Robert and Michael Bratton ldquoLearning About Democracy in Africa Awareness Performance and Experiencerdquo 2003

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

Afrobarometer Briefing PapersNo 5 ldquoThe Changing Public Agenda South Africansrsquo Assessments of the Countryrsquos Most

Pressing Problemsrdquo

No 6 ldquoPolitical Party Support in South Africa Trends Since 1994rdquo

No 7 ldquoFreedom of Speech Media Exposure and the Defence of a Free Press in Africardquo

These papers are available on wwwafrobarometerorg

BIS Budget BriefsNo 118 Dikweni Lulama ldquoResearch findings of the assessment study of two sexual offences

courtsrdquo

50

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

No 120 Van der Westhuizen Carlene and Albert Van Zyl ldquoAre National Treasuryrsquo s revenue projections crediblerdquo

No 121 Wildeman Russell and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoTransformation in provincial education budgets The case of the Free State Education Departmentrsquos Budget 200203rdquo

No 122 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoFree State Social Development Briefrdquo

No 123 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoThe Free State provincial health budget 2002-2003rdquo

No 124 Wehner Joachim ldquoWhorsquos who in the zoo A rough guide to the new committee structure for the parliamentary budget processrdquo

No 125 Streak Judith ldquoChild poverty child socio-economic rights and Budget 2003 ndash The ldquoright thingrdquo or a small step in the lsquoright directionrsquordquo

No 126 Wildeman Russell ldquoThe National Education Budget 2003rdquo

No 127 Hickey Alison and Nhlanhla Ndlovu ldquoWhat does Budget 20034 allocate for HIVAIDSrdquo

No 128 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoAnalysis of provincial expenditure for the third quarter of 200203rdquo

No 129 Parenzee Penny ldquoA gendered look at poverty relief fundsrdquo

No 130 Wildeman Russell ldquoReviewing Provincial Education Budgets 2003rdquo

No 131 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoComparative Provincial Health Brief 2003rdquo

No 132 Vennekens-Poane Alexandra ldquoProvincial expenditure brief for the financial year 200203rdquo

No 133 Ndlovu Nhlanhla Alison Hickey and Teresa Guthrie ldquoUnderstanding expenditure and procedures of the National NGO Coordination Unit for HIVAIDS and Tuberculosisrdquo

No 134 Hickey Alison and Teresa Guthrie ldquoIncreased allocations for HIVAIDS in the 2003 MediumTerm Budget Policy Statement Now what will provinces dordquo

No 135 Hickey Alison ldquoWhat are provincial health departments allocating for HIVAIDS from their own budgetsrdquo

No 136 Hickey Alison ldquoProvinces improve spending on conditional grants for HIVAIDS health programmesrdquo

No 137 Mbanjwa Lindiwe and Sasha Poggenpoel ldquoReview of Provincial Social Development Budgets 2003rdquo

BIS Expense MonitorClaassens Marritt ldquoBudget Expenditure Monitor April ndash December 2002rdquo

BIS Research PapersWhelan Paul ldquoEvaluating the local government grant systemrdquo

Whelan Paul ldquoA researchersrsquo guide to local government grantsrdquo

Barberton Conrad ldquoComments on Chapter 14 of the Draft Consolidated Report of the Committeeof Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africardquo

Von Broembsen Marles ldquoPoverty alleviation Beyond the National Small Business Strategyrdquo

Wildeman Russell ldquoThe proposed new funding in provincial education A brave new worldrdquo

Ndlovu Nhlanhla ldquo2003 survey of provincial social sector budgets Where is HIVAIDS in theBudgetrdquo

51

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Hickey Alison Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Teresa Guthrie ldquoBudgeting for HIVAIDS in South Africa Reporton intergovernmental funding flows for an integrated response in the social sectorrdquo

Southern African Migration Project (SAMP)SAMP Policy Series No 28ldquoChanging Attitudes to Immigration and Refugee Policy in Botswanardquo

ISBN 1-919798-47-1

SAMP Policy Series No29ldquoThe New Brain Drain from Zimbabwerdquo ISBN 1-919798-48-X

ELECTRONIC PUBLICA TIONS

PIMS-SAThe online journal ePoliticssa

JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

Democracy in Action

BISBudget Watch 30

Budget Watch 31

Africa Budget Watch 3

GAPDiscourse April 2003

AIDSamp GovernanceVol 1 No 1

Local Government Centre (LGC)Municipal Talk April 2003

Municipal Talk December 2003

52

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

SUBMISSIONS

BISSubmission to the Joint Budget Committee in Parliament on the Medium Term Budget PolicyStatement 2003 Budget once again facilitates service delivery to the poor but there is a long road aheadin realising socio-economic rightsJudith Streak

The Basic Income Grant Coalition Responds to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on the Report of the TaylorCommittee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa Lindiwe Mbanjwa Teresa Guthrie

PIMS-SAThird report on the arms deal Submitted to the Speaker the Standing Committee on PublicAccounts (SCOPA) and other relevant Parliamentary committees

DEMOCRACY RADIO PROGRAMMES

No 189 Building Homes Building Relationships

No 190 Party Funding

No 191 Rights of Farm Workers

No 192 Democracy and the Free Market

No 193 Maps and Visions of Africa

No 194 Challenges of International Trade for Africa

No 195 Cricket and Transformation

No 196 Mediation for Zimbabwe

No 197 Computers in your Language

No 198 Volunteering

No 199 Solar Cookers

No 200 You and Your Money

No 201 Anti-Eviction Campaign

No 202 Naledi Pandor on the Role of the NCOP

No 203 HIVAIDS The Search for a Vaccine

No 204 Southern Africa Confronts the Challenges of HIVAIDS

No 205 Growth and Development Summit

No 206 The TRC and Reparations

No 207 Deafening Echoes

53

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

No 208 Women and Local Government

No 209 Corporate Social Responsibility

No 210 Venezuela under Chavez

No 211 Parliament the Hip Hop Group

No 212 Youth and Prison

No 213 Recognising Traditional Healers

No 214 Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

No 215 Public-Public Partnerships

No 216 Ethics of Vaccine Research

No 217 The Participant Bill of Rights

No 218 Gender Discrimination (isiZulu) ndash by partner station Maputoland CR

No 219 Education and Disability (Afrikaans) by partner station Radio Riverside

No 220 HIVAIDS Community Strategies

No 221 ICTs in Africa

No 222 Road Conditions

No 223 Lessons of the UDF (plus isiXhosa soundbites)

No 224 Prisoners with Disabilities

No 225 HIV and Local Government

No 226 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 1

No 227 The WTOrsquos General Agreement on Trade in Services Part 2

No 228 HIVAIDS New Techniques New Industries and New Laws

No 229 Local Government and Renewable Energy

No 230 Mediation A Way to Resolve Community Conflicts

No 231 The Violation of Childrenrsquos Rights

No 232 Young People and the Vote

No 233 The Childrenrsquos Bill Securing the Future for Children in South Africa

No 234 A Day in the Life of a Public Transport Service

No 235 The Community Development Worker of Tomorrow

SPECIALIST WEBSITES

httpwwwafrobarometerwebsite of POSrsquos Afrobarometer

httpwwwopendemocracyorgzawebsite of the Open Democracy Advice Centre

httpwwwpmgorgzawebsite of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group project

httpwwwqueensucasampwebsite of the Southern African Migration Project

54

Idasa Staff

KUTL WANONG DEMOCRACY CENTRE

357 Visagie Street cnr Prinsloo Street Pretoria 0001

PO Box 56950 Arcadia 0007

Ph (012) 392 0500 Fax (012) 320 2414

General OfficeMr Paul Graham ndash Executive Director

Ms Telele Mathinjwa ndash Assistant to ED

Ms Florince Norris ndash Finance Manager

AdministrationMr Ivor Jenkins ndash Director

Mr Mpho Adams ndash Receptionist

Mr Themba Maphoso ndash Building Officer

Mr Elias Ndlala ndash Caretaker

Ms Joyce Ramopana ndash Housekeeper

Ms Elizabeth Mahlangu ndash Housekeeper

Ms Salome Lehobye ndash ReceptionistHousekeeper

Mr Cassim de Bruin ndash IT Administrator

Mr Given Rasekgothoma ndash Assistant IT Technician

FinanceMs Violet Baloyi ndash Budget Controller

Mr Boyson Hamandishe ndash Accounts Controller

Ms Ethel Marabe ndash Financial Assistant

Mr Mandla Kumsha ndash Financial Assistant

Ms Maserame Maeyane ndash Finance Assistant

Ms Phila Gcwabe ndash Finance Assistant

55

Local Government CentreMr Siyabonga Memela ndash Programme Manager

Mr Mxolisi Sibanyoni ndash Course Designer

Ms Selinah Morley ndash Administrator

Policy Research and Documentation Unit

Mr Joseph Mavuso ndash Acting Manager

Ms Marianne Vries ndash Researcher

Ms Liziwe Dyasi ndash Researcher

Mr Molefi Masilo ndash Researcher

Mr Godfrey Netswera ndash Researcher

Mr Gerald Katsenga ndash Researcher

Institutional Support Unit

Mr Benjamin Mautjane ndash Manager

Mr Benedict Sandile Cele ndash Trainer

Mr Nkanyiso Mweli ndash Trainer

Community Safety ProgrammeMr Percy Mathabathe ndash Researcher

Mr Enough Sishi ndash Researcher

Ms Vasanthie Naicker ndash Administrator

Mr Leslie Adams ndash Project Organiser

AIDS and Governance ProgrammeMr Kondwani Chirambo ndash Manager

Ms Mary Caesar ndash Facilitator

Ms Vasanthie Naicker ndash Administrator

Ms Marietjie Myburg ndash Regional Media Co-ordinator

Community and Citizen Empowerment ProgrammeMr Ivor Jenkins ndash Acting Manager

Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance Unit

Ms Marie Stroumlm ndash Manager

Mr Mpho Putu ndash Acting Manager

56

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Mr Bennitto Motitsoe ndash Facilitator

Institutional Capacity Building Unit

Mr Nico Bezuidenhout ndash Manager

Ms Kuda Chitsike ndash Project Co-ordinator Zimbabwe NGO Institutional Capacity Building Project

Dialogue Unit

Ms Anastasia White ndash Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Mtaka ndash Co-ordinator ndash KZN Dialogue

Ms Yoemna Saint ndash Co-ordinator ndash Reflect Project

Mr Tony Reeler ndash Regional Human Rights Defender

Mr Teddy Nemeroff ndash Sustained Dialogue Co-ordinator

ABUJA NIGERIA

Peace Building amp Conflict Resolution ProgrammeMr Derrick Marco ndash Resident Programme Officer

Mr Joseph Shopade ndash Co-ordinator

Mr Ayodele Adekoya ndash Administrator

CAPE TOWN DEMOCRACY CENTRE

6 Spin Street Church Square Cape Town 8001 PO Box 1739 Cape Town 8000

Ph (021) 467 5600 Fax (021) 4612589

General OfficeMs Thembeka Sokutu ndash Personnel Administrator

AdministrationMr Vincent Williams ndash Centre Manager

Ms Lindiwe Kulu ndash Centre Administrator

57

Ms Khunji Mayekiso ndash Conference co-ordinatorReceptionist

Ms Phumla Sithole ndash Housekeeper

Ms Alma Madikane ndash ReceptionistHousekeeper

Ms Linda Swartbooi ndash Housekeeper

Mr Riano Daniels ndash Maintenance Officer

Mr Mnoneleli Noyila ndash Lift Operator

Ms Nozuko Sonjani ndash Housekeeper

FinanceMs Veronica Taylor ndash Finance Administrator

All Media GroupMr Chuck Scott ndash Manager

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Ms Vuyi Ngcobo ndash Librarian

Radio Unit (Cape Town)

Mr Brett Davidson ndash Unit Manager

Mr Shepi Mati ndash Producer

Mr Siyabonga Mbilane ndash Radio Producer

Publishing Unit (Cape Town)

Ms Moira Levy ndash Unit Manager

Ms Bronwen Muller ndash Editor

Ms Nomzi Ndyamara ndash Administrator

Democracy e-Communication Unit

Ms Samantha Fleming ndash Unit Manager

Budget Information ServiceMr Shun Govender ndash Programme Manager

Ms Faldielah Khan ndash Administrator

Ms Nobuntu Mbebetho ndash Research Assistant to BIS Researchers

Ms Carlene van der Westhuizen ndash Tax Researcher

Ms Mishay Nomdo ndash BIS Webmaster

Mr Russell Wildeman ndash BIS Education Specialist

58

Childrenrsquo s Budget Unit

Ms Shaamela Cassiem ndash Unit Manager

Ms Judith Streak ndash Researcher

Ms Lerato Kgamphe ndash Research Assistant

Ms Christina Nomdo ndash TrainerResearcher

Africa Budget Unit

Ms Marritt Claassens ndash Unit Manager

Mr Lawrence Matemba ndash TrainerCapacity Builder (SADC)

Mr Hamlet Johannes ndash Administrator

Provincial Fiscal Analysis Unit

Ms Alexandra Vennekens-Poane ndash Unit Manager

Ms Sasha Poggenpoel ndash Research Assistant

Local Government Finance Project

Mr Paul Whelan ndash Researcher

Research Unit on AIDS and Public Finance

Ms Alison Hickey ndash Unit Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Ndlovu ndash ResearcherCo-ordinator

Ms Teresa Guthrie ndash Co-ordinator

Budget Training Squad

Mr Luyanda Qomfo ndash Project Officer (training product development and marketing)

Womenrsquos Budget Project

Ms Penelope Parenzee ndash TrainerResearcher

Political Information amp Monitoring Ser viceMs Lindlyn Chiwandamira ndash Manager

Mr Zanethemba Mkalipi ndash Nepad Researcher

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash Administrator

Ms Shahieda Hendricks ndash Administrator

Public Opinion Service Unit

Mr Derek Davids ndash Unit Manager

59

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

Production Idasa Publishing

Cover Magenta Media

Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

Printing MegaDigital

Local Government CentreMr Siyabonga Memela ndash Programme Manager

Mr Mxolisi Sibanyoni ndash Course Designer

Ms Selinah Morley ndash Administrator

Policy Research and Documentation Unit

Mr Joseph Mavuso ndash Acting Manager

Ms Marianne Vries ndash Researcher

Ms Liziwe Dyasi ndash Researcher

Mr Molefi Masilo ndash Researcher

Mr Godfrey Netswera ndash Researcher

Mr Gerald Katsenga ndash Researcher

Institutional Support Unit

Mr Benjamin Mautjane ndash Manager

Mr Benedict Sandile Cele ndash Trainer

Mr Nkanyiso Mweli ndash Trainer

Community Safety ProgrammeMr Percy Mathabathe ndash Researcher

Mr Enough Sishi ndash Researcher

Ms Vasanthie Naicker ndash Administrator

Mr Leslie Adams ndash Project Organiser

AIDS and Governance ProgrammeMr Kondwani Chirambo ndash Manager

Ms Mary Caesar ndash Facilitator

Ms Vasanthie Naicker ndash Administrator

Ms Marietjie Myburg ndash Regional Media Co-ordinator

Community and Citizen Empowerment ProgrammeMr Ivor Jenkins ndash Acting Manager

Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance Unit

Ms Marie Stroumlm ndash Manager

Mr Mpho Putu ndash Acting Manager

56

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Mr Bennitto Motitsoe ndash Facilitator

Institutional Capacity Building Unit

Mr Nico Bezuidenhout ndash Manager

Ms Kuda Chitsike ndash Project Co-ordinator Zimbabwe NGO Institutional Capacity Building Project

Dialogue Unit

Ms Anastasia White ndash Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Mtaka ndash Co-ordinator ndash KZN Dialogue

Ms Yoemna Saint ndash Co-ordinator ndash Reflect Project

Mr Tony Reeler ndash Regional Human Rights Defender

Mr Teddy Nemeroff ndash Sustained Dialogue Co-ordinator

ABUJA NIGERIA

Peace Building amp Conflict Resolution ProgrammeMr Derrick Marco ndash Resident Programme Officer

Mr Joseph Shopade ndash Co-ordinator

Mr Ayodele Adekoya ndash Administrator

CAPE TOWN DEMOCRACY CENTRE

6 Spin Street Church Square Cape Town 8001 PO Box 1739 Cape Town 8000

Ph (021) 467 5600 Fax (021) 4612589

General OfficeMs Thembeka Sokutu ndash Personnel Administrator

AdministrationMr Vincent Williams ndash Centre Manager

Ms Lindiwe Kulu ndash Centre Administrator

57

Ms Khunji Mayekiso ndash Conference co-ordinatorReceptionist

Ms Phumla Sithole ndash Housekeeper

Ms Alma Madikane ndash ReceptionistHousekeeper

Ms Linda Swartbooi ndash Housekeeper

Mr Riano Daniels ndash Maintenance Officer

Mr Mnoneleli Noyila ndash Lift Operator

Ms Nozuko Sonjani ndash Housekeeper

FinanceMs Veronica Taylor ndash Finance Administrator

All Media GroupMr Chuck Scott ndash Manager

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Ms Vuyi Ngcobo ndash Librarian

Radio Unit (Cape Town)

Mr Brett Davidson ndash Unit Manager

Mr Shepi Mati ndash Producer

Mr Siyabonga Mbilane ndash Radio Producer

Publishing Unit (Cape Town)

Ms Moira Levy ndash Unit Manager

Ms Bronwen Muller ndash Editor

Ms Nomzi Ndyamara ndash Administrator

Democracy e-Communication Unit

Ms Samantha Fleming ndash Unit Manager

Budget Information ServiceMr Shun Govender ndash Programme Manager

Ms Faldielah Khan ndash Administrator

Ms Nobuntu Mbebetho ndash Research Assistant to BIS Researchers

Ms Carlene van der Westhuizen ndash Tax Researcher

Ms Mishay Nomdo ndash BIS Webmaster

Mr Russell Wildeman ndash BIS Education Specialist

58

Childrenrsquo s Budget Unit

Ms Shaamela Cassiem ndash Unit Manager

Ms Judith Streak ndash Researcher

Ms Lerato Kgamphe ndash Research Assistant

Ms Christina Nomdo ndash TrainerResearcher

Africa Budget Unit

Ms Marritt Claassens ndash Unit Manager

Mr Lawrence Matemba ndash TrainerCapacity Builder (SADC)

Mr Hamlet Johannes ndash Administrator

Provincial Fiscal Analysis Unit

Ms Alexandra Vennekens-Poane ndash Unit Manager

Ms Sasha Poggenpoel ndash Research Assistant

Local Government Finance Project

Mr Paul Whelan ndash Researcher

Research Unit on AIDS and Public Finance

Ms Alison Hickey ndash Unit Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Ndlovu ndash ResearcherCo-ordinator

Ms Teresa Guthrie ndash Co-ordinator

Budget Training Squad

Mr Luyanda Qomfo ndash Project Officer (training product development and marketing)

Womenrsquos Budget Project

Ms Penelope Parenzee ndash TrainerResearcher

Political Information amp Monitoring Ser viceMs Lindlyn Chiwandamira ndash Manager

Mr Zanethemba Mkalipi ndash Nepad Researcher

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash Administrator

Ms Shahieda Hendricks ndash Administrator

Public Opinion Service Unit

Mr Derek Davids ndash Unit Manager

59

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

Production Idasa Publishing

Cover Magenta Media

Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

Printing MegaDigital

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Mr Bennitto Motitsoe ndash Facilitator

Institutional Capacity Building Unit

Mr Nico Bezuidenhout ndash Manager

Ms Kuda Chitsike ndash Project Co-ordinator Zimbabwe NGO Institutional Capacity Building Project

Dialogue Unit

Ms Anastasia White ndash Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Mtaka ndash Co-ordinator ndash KZN Dialogue

Ms Yoemna Saint ndash Co-ordinator ndash Reflect Project

Mr Tony Reeler ndash Regional Human Rights Defender

Mr Teddy Nemeroff ndash Sustained Dialogue Co-ordinator

ABUJA NIGERIA

Peace Building amp Conflict Resolution ProgrammeMr Derrick Marco ndash Resident Programme Officer

Mr Joseph Shopade ndash Co-ordinator

Mr Ayodele Adekoya ndash Administrator

CAPE TOWN DEMOCRACY CENTRE

6 Spin Street Church Square Cape Town 8001 PO Box 1739 Cape Town 8000

Ph (021) 467 5600 Fax (021) 4612589

General OfficeMs Thembeka Sokutu ndash Personnel Administrator

AdministrationMr Vincent Williams ndash Centre Manager

Ms Lindiwe Kulu ndash Centre Administrator

57

Ms Khunji Mayekiso ndash Conference co-ordinatorReceptionist

Ms Phumla Sithole ndash Housekeeper

Ms Alma Madikane ndash ReceptionistHousekeeper

Ms Linda Swartbooi ndash Housekeeper

Mr Riano Daniels ndash Maintenance Officer

Mr Mnoneleli Noyila ndash Lift Operator

Ms Nozuko Sonjani ndash Housekeeper

FinanceMs Veronica Taylor ndash Finance Administrator

All Media GroupMr Chuck Scott ndash Manager

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Ms Vuyi Ngcobo ndash Librarian

Radio Unit (Cape Town)

Mr Brett Davidson ndash Unit Manager

Mr Shepi Mati ndash Producer

Mr Siyabonga Mbilane ndash Radio Producer

Publishing Unit (Cape Town)

Ms Moira Levy ndash Unit Manager

Ms Bronwen Muller ndash Editor

Ms Nomzi Ndyamara ndash Administrator

Democracy e-Communication Unit

Ms Samantha Fleming ndash Unit Manager

Budget Information ServiceMr Shun Govender ndash Programme Manager

Ms Faldielah Khan ndash Administrator

Ms Nobuntu Mbebetho ndash Research Assistant to BIS Researchers

Ms Carlene van der Westhuizen ndash Tax Researcher

Ms Mishay Nomdo ndash BIS Webmaster

Mr Russell Wildeman ndash BIS Education Specialist

58

Childrenrsquo s Budget Unit

Ms Shaamela Cassiem ndash Unit Manager

Ms Judith Streak ndash Researcher

Ms Lerato Kgamphe ndash Research Assistant

Ms Christina Nomdo ndash TrainerResearcher

Africa Budget Unit

Ms Marritt Claassens ndash Unit Manager

Mr Lawrence Matemba ndash TrainerCapacity Builder (SADC)

Mr Hamlet Johannes ndash Administrator

Provincial Fiscal Analysis Unit

Ms Alexandra Vennekens-Poane ndash Unit Manager

Ms Sasha Poggenpoel ndash Research Assistant

Local Government Finance Project

Mr Paul Whelan ndash Researcher

Research Unit on AIDS and Public Finance

Ms Alison Hickey ndash Unit Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Ndlovu ndash ResearcherCo-ordinator

Ms Teresa Guthrie ndash Co-ordinator

Budget Training Squad

Mr Luyanda Qomfo ndash Project Officer (training product development and marketing)

Womenrsquos Budget Project

Ms Penelope Parenzee ndash TrainerResearcher

Political Information amp Monitoring Ser viceMs Lindlyn Chiwandamira ndash Manager

Mr Zanethemba Mkalipi ndash Nepad Researcher

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash Administrator

Ms Shahieda Hendricks ndash Administrator

Public Opinion Service Unit

Mr Derek Davids ndash Unit Manager

59

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

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Ms Khunji Mayekiso ndash Conference co-ordinatorReceptionist

Ms Phumla Sithole ndash Housekeeper

Ms Alma Madikane ndash ReceptionistHousekeeper

Ms Linda Swartbooi ndash Housekeeper

Mr Riano Daniels ndash Maintenance Officer

Mr Mnoneleli Noyila ndash Lift Operator

Ms Nozuko Sonjani ndash Housekeeper

FinanceMs Veronica Taylor ndash Finance Administrator

All Media GroupMr Chuck Scott ndash Manager

Ms Dineo Mokotini ndash Administrator

Ms Vuyi Ngcobo ndash Librarian

Radio Unit (Cape Town)

Mr Brett Davidson ndash Unit Manager

Mr Shepi Mati ndash Producer

Mr Siyabonga Mbilane ndash Radio Producer

Publishing Unit (Cape Town)

Ms Moira Levy ndash Unit Manager

Ms Bronwen Muller ndash Editor

Ms Nomzi Ndyamara ndash Administrator

Democracy e-Communication Unit

Ms Samantha Fleming ndash Unit Manager

Budget Information ServiceMr Shun Govender ndash Programme Manager

Ms Faldielah Khan ndash Administrator

Ms Nobuntu Mbebetho ndash Research Assistant to BIS Researchers

Ms Carlene van der Westhuizen ndash Tax Researcher

Ms Mishay Nomdo ndash BIS Webmaster

Mr Russell Wildeman ndash BIS Education Specialist

58

Childrenrsquo s Budget Unit

Ms Shaamela Cassiem ndash Unit Manager

Ms Judith Streak ndash Researcher

Ms Lerato Kgamphe ndash Research Assistant

Ms Christina Nomdo ndash TrainerResearcher

Africa Budget Unit

Ms Marritt Claassens ndash Unit Manager

Mr Lawrence Matemba ndash TrainerCapacity Builder (SADC)

Mr Hamlet Johannes ndash Administrator

Provincial Fiscal Analysis Unit

Ms Alexandra Vennekens-Poane ndash Unit Manager

Ms Sasha Poggenpoel ndash Research Assistant

Local Government Finance Project

Mr Paul Whelan ndash Researcher

Research Unit on AIDS and Public Finance

Ms Alison Hickey ndash Unit Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Ndlovu ndash ResearcherCo-ordinator

Ms Teresa Guthrie ndash Co-ordinator

Budget Training Squad

Mr Luyanda Qomfo ndash Project Officer (training product development and marketing)

Womenrsquos Budget Project

Ms Penelope Parenzee ndash TrainerResearcher

Political Information amp Monitoring Ser viceMs Lindlyn Chiwandamira ndash Manager

Mr Zanethemba Mkalipi ndash Nepad Researcher

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash Administrator

Ms Shahieda Hendricks ndash Administrator

Public Opinion Service Unit

Mr Derek Davids ndash Unit Manager

59

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

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Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

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Childrenrsquo s Budget Unit

Ms Shaamela Cassiem ndash Unit Manager

Ms Judith Streak ndash Researcher

Ms Lerato Kgamphe ndash Research Assistant

Ms Christina Nomdo ndash TrainerResearcher

Africa Budget Unit

Ms Marritt Claassens ndash Unit Manager

Mr Lawrence Matemba ndash TrainerCapacity Builder (SADC)

Mr Hamlet Johannes ndash Administrator

Provincial Fiscal Analysis Unit

Ms Alexandra Vennekens-Poane ndash Unit Manager

Ms Sasha Poggenpoel ndash Research Assistant

Local Government Finance Project

Mr Paul Whelan ndash Researcher

Research Unit on AIDS and Public Finance

Ms Alison Hickey ndash Unit Manager

Mr Nhlanhla Ndlovu ndash ResearcherCo-ordinator

Ms Teresa Guthrie ndash Co-ordinator

Budget Training Squad

Mr Luyanda Qomfo ndash Project Officer (training product development and marketing)

Womenrsquos Budget Project

Ms Penelope Parenzee ndash TrainerResearcher

Political Information amp Monitoring Ser viceMs Lindlyn Chiwandamira ndash Manager

Mr Zanethemba Mkalipi ndash Nepad Researcher

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash Administrator

Ms Shahieda Hendricks ndash Administrator

Public Opinion Service Unit

Mr Derek Davids ndash Unit Manager

59

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

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Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

Printing MegaDigital

Ms Annie Chikwanha ndash Fieldwork Co-ordinator

Mr Thobani Matheza ndash Researcher

Ms Tanya Shanker ndash Administrator

PIMS-South Africa Ms Judith February ndash Manager

Ms Nokhukhanya Ntuli ndash Legislation Monitor

Mr Lorato Banda ndash Governance Researcher

Ms Collette Herzenberg ndash Governance Researcher

Right to KnowMr Richard Calland ndash Manager

Ms Ilse Toerien ndash AdministratorPA to Programme Manager

Southern African Migration ProjectMr Vincent Williams ndash Programme Manager

Interns Visiting ResearchersMs Francine Chirambo Ms Gemma Driegen Mr Jonathan Faull Ms Louise Jarrett Mr Simphiwe JeleMs Aly Kellman Mr Siraaz Khan Ms Ethel Kriger Mr Frank Magagula Ms Jill Marshall Ms VanessaMasilela Mr Pumzo Mbana Mr Mkhuseli Mbebe Mr Thato Moloto Ms Sindy Mpurwana MrMasibonge Mzwakali Mr King Nkosi Ms Lauren Paramoer Mr Andrew Roth Mr Christian ShimatiMr Andile Sokomani Ms Claudia Taylor Ms Tiffany Tsang Mr Simphiwe Tshume Ms Yvette van derWesthuizen Ms Bevin Worton

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

The Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)Ms Alison Tilley ndash Centre Manager

Mr Bill Thomson ndash Trainer

Ms Radiyah Hendricks ndash Administrator

Mr Mukelani Dimba ndash Trainer

Ms Teboho Makhalemele ndash Human Rights Lawyer

Ms Lorraine Stober ndash Protected Disclosures Lawyer

Mr Melvis Pietersen ndash Fieldworker

60

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

61

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Production Idasa Publishing

Cover Magenta Media

Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

Printing MegaDigital

Parliamentary Monitoring GroupMs Gaile Mossmann ndash Manager Editor

Ms Shaheda Bassier ndash EditorDocumentation Officer

Ms Janet Howse ndash EditorCo-ordinator

Mr Peter Michaels ndash Senior Monitor

ASSOCIATES

Impumelelo Innovations Award TrustMs Rhoda Kadalie ndash Executive Director

Ms Jacqueline Viglino ndash Programme Officer and Administrator

Mr Christopher Mingo ndash Evaluations Manager

Mr Ryan Dantu ndash Intern

Mr Jeff Lever ndash Senior Researcher

Computer Support ndash Cape Town OfficeMr Sharief Osman

61

62

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66

67

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69

70

Production Idasa Publishing

Cover Magenta Media

Cover photo Cape ArgusTrace Images

Printing MegaDigital

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Printing MegaDigital

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Production Idasa Publishing

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Printing MegaDigital

Production Idasa Publishing

Cover Magenta Media

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Printing MegaDigital