Politics and conflicts in South African cooperative government: analysis of the discursive issues under the 1996 constitution

Arthur Shopola and Pandelani Harry Munzhedzi
Additional contact information
Arthur Shopola: North West University
Pandelani Harry Munzhedzi: University of Venda

International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 2024, vol. 13, issue 2, 207-215

Abstract: Globally, there is welter of evidence demonstrating that cooperative government is likely achievable where the same political party in charge of the national government is also a power holder at sub-governments level. This has been the experience of the South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) which has been in charge of the national government and the majority of provinces for 30 years, except in few instances where opposition parties are in control. Since the ANC lost Western Cape (WC) province to the Democratic Alliance in 2004, cooperative government has been a difficult practice due in part to party ideological differences. The contradictions often play out at executive levels but the silence of legislation, in as far as ensuring that cooperative government is achievable for common goal, necessitates attention. This non-empirical article refers to numerous cases of intergovernmental tensions, with the intention being to debate the discursive issues under the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter referred to as 1996 Constitution). Following comprehensive reflection, the article concluded that the extent to which national government is showing inherent inertia to work with WC and other areas where the DA is governing has been perpetuated by the lacuna in the current legal framework, but most of the conflicts have much to do with party ideology and politics of the ‘left’ where parties just oppose executive decisions and programmes not on substance but because they are official opposition. As a result, the continuation of these actions stands to bedevil the national and provincial executive relations in a decentralised South Africa. Key Words:Politics' conflicts' cooperative government ' ANC' Ideology.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs/article/view/3229/2239 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v13i2.3229 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rbs:ijbrss:v:13:y:2024:i:2:p:207-215

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478) is currently edited by Prof.Dr.Umit Hacioglu

More articles in International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478) from Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance Editorial Office,Baris Mah. Enver Adakan Cd. No: 5/8, Beylikduzu, Istanbul, Turkey. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Umit Hacioglu ().