The Constitution mandates local government to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner and to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.

In his 2003 State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki announced that "government will create a public service echelon of mutli-skilled community development workers". The community development worker programme is an effort to deepen democracy at the local level and is intended to give citizens direct access to government in a people-centred way.

With the upcoming local government election drawing closer, gender representation has become an issue once again. The use of a quota policy to address the problem of under representation of woman has been the subject of heated debate. This debate has brought to the fore the role of parties policies on gender representation within the context of the current electoral system.

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) will spend R15 to 20 billion on labour-intensive projects by 2009. The short-term goal is to create a million temporary jobs to alleviate poverty, especially in rural areas. This article discusses the four sectors of the EPWP.

The Speaker of the Lejweleputswa District Municipality convened a council meeting on 15 July 2003 in which he purported to appoint a commission of enquiry to investigate alleged irregularities at that district municipality. The issue before the Free State High Court was whether the speaker of a district had the power to appoint a commission of enquiry.

Many people aggrieved by decisions made by municipalities have latched on to the fact that they have a right to appeal in terms of section 62 of the Municipal Systems Act. Municipalities have recently experienced a significant increase in the number of appeals lodged in terms of section 62. This has led to municipalities having to grapple with the parameters and practical implications of section 62. This article highlights a few difficulties in this regard.

Cross-boundary municipalities are set to disappear on the date of the forthcoming elections local government election. On that date, provincial borders and the current cross boundary municipalities will be incorporated in one or other province. Five provinces are affected by the disappearances of 16 cross border municipalities. In addition, there will be a shift of municipalities between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

The powers and functions of local government are listed in schedules 4B and 5B of the Constitution. The schedules list functional areas without detailed definitions of each area. There is a considerable overlap between local government functional areas and those of provincial government, listed in Schedules 4A and 5A. Due to this, there is a degree of confusion about who does what. A lack of clarity about role definition may prejudice service delivery and cause conflict over resources and authority.

This case highlights the need for provincial governments to carefully re-evaluate all ordinances predating the constitutional dispensation because in all likelihood, many of their provisions are unconstitutional.

The Intergovernmental Relations Act 13 of 2005 was signed into law by the President on 10 August and took effect on 15 August 2005. The implementation of the Act brings a long process of consultation and drafting to a close. The next step is the implementation of the Act.

Property rates are an important source of revenue for municipalities and this is reflected in the preamble to the Property Rates Act of 2004.There is a need to provide local government with access to a sufficient and buoyant source of revenue necessary to fulfil its developmental objectives. At the same time, however, a municipality's financial health should not be attained at the unjustifiable expense of the poor within its area. The power to impose rates should take into account the imbalances of the past and the burden of rates on the poor.

Each municipality classified as high capacity in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 is required to compile a service delivery and budget implementation plan. The SDBIP is a management, implementation and monitoring tool that will assist the mayor, municipal manager, councillors, senior managers and the community with realising the municipality's strategic objectives as outlined in the Integrated Development Plan.

The Municipal Structures Act of 1998 mandates the Municipal Demarcation Board to declare part of an area that must have both district and local municipalities as a district management area, if the establishment of a category B municipality in that part of the area will not be conducive to fulfilling the objectives of section 24 of the Demarcation Act.

After some delays, the Municipal Property Rates Act of 2004 was finally brought into operation on 1 July 2005. This comprehensive Act institutes a uniform structure to the levying of property rates, which was previously governed a number of old provincial ordinances. This article highlights only a number of key features of the Act.

Contract renegotiations and amendments are a relatively common feature of long-term service delivery agreements and public-private partnerships. The legislature has recognised this in existing and newly promulgated legislation which clearly aims to limit risks associated with contract amendments.

The Public-Private Partnership procurement process overlaps in many respect with the recently published Supply Chain Management Regulations. The overlap occurs where a proposed transaction is both a PPP and one of the matters to which the SCM regulations apply. Although the focus in this article is not on the SCM regulations, any attempt to discuss the PPP procurement process separately from the SC, regulations would be incomplete.

Africa has a rich history of indigenous and traditional forms of local government. However, lack of coherence between local government and traditional forms of local government are prevalent throughout the continent. The time for unified local government has arrived.

The recent controversy surrounding the municipal manager of the Central Karoo District Municipality raised important questions regarding which sphere of government is responsible for the conduct of a municipal manager. Ultimately , who has the power to dismiss a municipal manager?

The Municipal Demarcation Board has released its 2004/2005 local government capacity assessment report. It showed a steady increase in both the range and level of services provided by local and district municipalities.

Can mayoral committees and executive committees hold meetings behind closed doors about critical issues like draft by-laws or draft budgets? Does section 20 of the Systems Act allow the public access to all meetings of council and mayoral committees? This article discusses this issue and postulates a proper interpretation of the meaning of section 20.

On 4 May 2005 the City of Johannesburg started registering beneficiaries under the Special Cases Policy of 2004. The main purpose of the policy is to write off municipal services debts owed by indigent people and to provide subsidisation of basic services for identified classes of people.

On 19 April 2005, a new intergovernmental forum was launched for the provincial government and municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. The Forum reflects the structure and spirit of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Bill of 2005 currently before Parliament. This article discusses the objects, composition, functions, and functioning of the forum.

The President's Co-ordinating Council is a consultative forum for the President to raise matters of national interest with Premiers and organised local government on the implementation of national policy and legislation in provinces and municipalities. This article discusses the role of the forum with a specific focus on Project Consolidate.

Who can own up to having read a standard service delivery agreement from start to finish and having understood it all? Very few people, i imagine. In the main, service delivery agreements are notoriously long, complex and wordy and are usually filled with legalese. They make little attempt to help the reader gain a meaningful understanding of the basic terms governing the contracting parties relationship. In short, they are inaccessible to the ordinary reader.

Regulations governing public/private partnerships in the local government sphere came into effect on 1 April 2005. Section 120 of the Municipal Finance Management Act also regulates PPP's and the new PPP regulations have the effect of elaborating or expanding on some of the concepts introduced in section 120.