News

Dullah Omar Institute’s Dr Tinashe Calton Chigwata, and Melissa Ziswa’s journal article titled: Entrenching Decentralisation in Africa: A Review of the African Charter on the Values and Principles of Decentralisation, Local Governance and Local Development, got published in the Hague Journal on the Rule of Law yesterday.

Amidst the backlash against the budget tabled in Parliament this week as “anti-poor”, an answer to a Parliamentary question revealed that often money alone is not enough to address serious social ills. Political will is just as crucial to put systems in place to achieve the very thing budgets are intended for. This in turn will require rigorous monitoring by citizens and civil society of budget spending and its impact – something that will hopefully improve with the new Vulekamali initiative for greater public input in budget processes.

The budget tabled in Parliament this week, does not address a crumbling health system, certain civic organisations warned. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced a R205 billion budget for health in the new financial year that is set to increase to R240,3 billion.

Social protection is an important safety net for the poor yet not all will benefit from this. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba this week delivered his budget speech in Parliament and announced the government’s plan to increase its spending on social protection from R193.4 billion in the next financial year to R223.9 billion by 2021.

This week South Africans got a glimpse into the state of South Africa’s finances and how it will affect their pocket when Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba delivered his budget speech in Parliament. Some have since labelled the budget as a “betrayal” and an “insult” to the poor. This backlash raises interesting questions on the level of public input in the budget. Very few ordinary South Africans get proper insight into the budgetary process or meaningfully participate in what is often a very complex process. This was highlighted recently in the Open Budget Survey 2017 showing South Africa may lead on budget transparency but disappoints in fostering public participation in the budget process.

According to this second fact sheet, metros and highly urbanised provinces most prone to civic protests. It analyses the geographical spread of civic protests.

Dullah Omar Institute’s Applied Constitutional Studies Laboratory has released its first Fact Sheet , Civic Protest Barometer 2018 - Drop in Civic protests in South Africa in 2017.

The SARChI Chair in Multlevel Government, Law and Policy, Prof Nico Steytler, is hosting two visiting doctoral researchers from Europe. The two will be with the institute for the duration of 2018.