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Both Ethiopia and South Africa place state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at the centre of their state-led development effort. In both countries, there is a strong and dominant ruling party/alliance, whose influence stretches into virtually all sectors of society. However, Ethiopia has not experienced large scale corruption in its SOEs. In fact, its SOEs seem to be doing well with Ethiopian Airlines as a prominent and shining example.

On 13 August 2019, Prof Ebenezer Durojaye of the Socioeconomic Rights Project delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius. His presentation focused on ‘The relevance of a rights-based approach to non-communicable diseases in Africa’.

The Dullah Omar Institute today submitted a petition to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the state of food insecurity in South African tertiary institutions. This petition was prompted by the recognition of an urgent need for intervention in South African tertiary institutions, related to food and nutrition (in) security.

The latest municipal audit results (2017-18) released by the Auditor-General (AG), Kimi Makwetu, found amongst others that a third of municipalities are not in a financial position to pay their creditors. The financial woes of municipalities weigh heavily on municipal creditors, in particular, bulk services suppliers, such as Eskom and water boards. As of June 2018, municipalities owed Eskom R18,26 billion with arrears amounting to R9,12 billion while debt to Water Boards stood at R 9,05 billion with arrears at R5,85 billion, respectively.

On 21 February 2019 the then Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Zweli Mkhize, delivered his address on the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill in Parliament. In his address he stressed that the Amendment Bill is aligned to the tasks that President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned when giving the State of the Nation Address in February 2019. Among these tasks is the need to accelerate inclusive growth, job creation, improving the education system, improving the conditions of life for all South Africans, fighting state capture and corruption, skills development and strengthening the State’s capacity to respond to the needs of the people. Dr Mkhize further stressed that the Amendment Bill will strengthen municipal governance and address the management of local government elections. It remains to be seen whether this will be yet another case of over-promising and under-delivering by our government or a win for effective governance in municipalities.

The Dullah Omar Institute is very proud to re-introduce the Local Government Bulletin, our regular newsletter with articles, updates and opinion pieces on local government law, policy and practice. The first Bulletin appeared in 1999, on the eve of the first democratic local government elections. The founding editors were Nico Steytler (now South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government) and Johann Mettler (now City Manager of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality) assisted by Jaap de Visser (now Director of the Dullah Omar Institute).

On the 13th July 2019, Laws.Africa together with OpenUp and two students sourced from the Dullah Omar Institute (DOI) successfully hosted a one-day youth orientated By-laws Workshop to the Cape Agulhas Youth Council in Bredasdorp. In attendance were, among others, officials from the Cape Agulhas municipality including the Deputy Mayor.

In 2015, member states committed to delivering access to justice for all by 2030. But this year a report by the Pathfinders Task Force on Justice found that 5.1 billion people still do not have access to justice. How is this gap going to be bridged?