Abstract
Unlike the situation in the past, when local government’s role was limited to service delivery, local government is now constitutionally mandated to play an expanded developmental role. As a “co-responsible” sphere of government, local government is obliged to contribute towards realising the transformative constitutional mandate aimed at social justice. South African scholars and jurists share the view that social justice is primarily concerned with the eradication of poverty and extreme inequalities in access to basic services, and aims to ensure that poor people command sufficient material resources to facilitate their equal participation in socio-political life. In order to enable municipalities to fulfil their broad constitutional mandate, the system of integrated development planning (IDPs) came into effect in South Africa in 2000. Each municipality is obliged to design, adopt and implement an integrated development plan in order to achieve its expanded constitutional mandate. The IDP is considered to be the chief legally prescribed governance instrument for South African municipalities.The purpose of this article is to explore and critically investigate the relevance and potential of IDPs in contributing towards the achievement of social justice in South Africa. This article argues inter alia that the multitude of sectors that converge in an IDP makes it directly relevant and gives it enormous potential to contribute towards social justice because, depending on the context, municipalities could include and implement strategies that specifically respond to diverse areas of human need. In this regard, the legal and policy frameworks for IDPs provide a structured scheme that could be used by municipalities to prioritise and meet the basic needs of especially the poor. Despite its potential, it is argued that the ability of IDPs to respond to the basic needs of the poor is largely constrained by a series of implementation challenges partly attributed to the underlying legal and policy framework.Keywords: Transformative constitutionalism; Social justice; Local government, IDPs.
Highlights
This commitment is expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution, which indicates that it was adopted: as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of the past and to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; lay the foundations of a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is protected by the law; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person
Following the transition to democracy, local government became a co-responsible sphere of government with a wide range of powers and functions, and was mandated to play an expanded developmental role
As a co-responsible sphere of government, local government is obliged to contribute towards achieving the transformative commitments of the Constitution, including the pursuit of social justice
Summary
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter the Constitution) is described as transformative because it is committed to correcting the injustices of the past and to establishing a society based on democratic values, social justice and human rights. This commitment is expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution, which indicates that it was adopted: as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of the past and to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; lay the foundations of a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is protected by the law; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person. The Systems Act obliges every municipality to undertake "developmentally oriented planning" in order to ensure that it: strives to achieve the constitutional objects of local government; gives effect to its developmental duties; and contributes, together with other organs of state, to the progressive realisation of the socio-economic rights contained in sections 24, 25, 26, 27 and 29 of the Constitution.33 This obligation suggests that the objective of integrated. The analysis in this article relies on the limited (published) academic material on the subject, the main legal framework for IDPs (chapter 5 of the Systems Act), the White Paper on Local Government (1998), the IDP Guide Packs and the (Final Draft) Policy Paper on Integrated Development Planning (2000).39 This analysis should be understood against the backdrop of the obligation imposed by the Constitution on all spheres of government to implement socio-economic rights in order to meet the basic needs of the poor Academic material on this subject remains meagre. The analysis in this article relies on the limited (published) academic material on the subject, the main legal framework for IDPs (chapter 5 of the Systems Act), the White Paper on Local Government (1998), the IDP Guide Packs and the (Final Draft) Policy Paper on Integrated Development Planning (2000). This analysis should be understood against the backdrop of the obligation imposed by the Constitution on all spheres of government to implement socio-economic rights in order to meet the basic needs of the poor
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