local governance and spatial distribution of resources: the need to harness traditional leadership...

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Local governance and spatialdistribution of resources: The needto harness traditional leadership forservice delivery in South AfricaAcheampong Yaw Amoateng a b & Ishmael Kalule-Sabiti a ba Centre for Sociological Research , University of Johannesburgb Population Research and Training Unit , North West University(Mafikeng Campus)Published online: 01 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Acheampong Yaw Amoateng & Ishmael Kalule-Sabiti (2011) Local governanceand spatial distribution of resources: The need to harness traditional leadership for servicedelivery in South Africa, International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- andTransdisciplinarity, 6:2, 36-54, DOI: 10.1080/18186874.2011.650848

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International Journal of African Renaissance StudiesVol. 6 (2) 2011

pp. 36–54

ISSN (Print) 1818-6874ISSN (Online) 1753-7274© University of South Africa PressDOI: 10.1080/18186874.2011.650848

Local governance and spatial distribution of resources: The need to harness traditional leadership for service delivery in South Africa1

Acheampong Yaw AmoatengCentre for Sociological ResearchUniversity of [email protected]

Ishmael Kalule-SabitiPopulation Research and Training UnitNorth West University (Mafikeng Campus)[email protected]

AbstractUsing a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, the aim of the study forming the basis of the article was to examine how traditional leadership can be harnessed for the purposes of service delivery at the local level in South Africa. Specifically, the study sought to examine the juxtaposition of traditional and modern forms of governance in South Africa (institutional duality) and the role traditional leaders play in the provision and delivery of social and economic services to the sections of the population within their jurisdictions. The results of the study confirmed the existence of this institutional duality with regard to the Southern African institutional culture. In other words, even though traditional leaders no longer wield the considerable administrative, legislative and judicial powers they used to exercise over the chiefdoms, they are still very much part of the institutional culture of South Africa and the sub-region.

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37Local governance and spatial distribution of resources ...

Keywords: culture; institutional duality; local government; modern state; neo-liberalism; neo-traditionalism; service delivery; traditional leadership; Washington consensus

Introduction

Governance is about the equitable distribution of societal resources, and to the extent that this is true, African societies have always grappled with the matter. In pre-colonial times, African societies, through a variety of political systems with corresponding economic and social institutions, delivered services such as allocating land, law-making, and social and political control (Sakyi 2003). During this era, the predominant principle of social relations in society was presumed to be that of family and kinship associated with communalism. Within this context, every member of an African society was believed to have his or her position defined in terms of relatives on his mother’s or father’s side. Land, a major means of production, was owned by groups such as the family or clan (Rodney 1978). Moreover, according to oral and other anecdotal accounts, the different varieties of institutions of traditional leadership emerged in various parts of the continent within this context when, over time, some families, through wars of conquest, subjugated other family groups and widened their territorial bases. Eventually, these families became ruling aristocracies, thus giving birth to social and economic stratification in traditional society (ibid.).

However, the functionality of traditional leadership in terms of the provision of social and economic services in the pre-colonial era notwithstanding, the institution of traditional leadership has, because of its hierarchical character, always been the subject of intense debate between different sectors of society. The debate reached a crescendo during the colonial era when some colonial powers sought to use traditional authorities as part of the local government system, much to the chagrin of the local intelligentsia. In fact, throughout the African continent, one of the hallmarks of the rapidly evolving democratic culture has been the relentlessness with which traditional leadership has been subjected to scrutiny through open debate and discussion, with regard to its relevance in the provision of services in the modern polity. Not surprisingly, there is still no consensus on the relevance of the institution and its compatibility with the modern nation-state.

It is against this background of the raging debate concerning the relevance of the institution of traditional leadership in the modern democratic state, and the glaring failure of the government to deliver vital social, economic and political services to the populace – especially those in the rural hinterland – that the study was undertaken. The broader study was commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Southern Africa Regional Office) and sought to examine how traditional leadership can be harnessed for service delivery in southern Africa. The study employed a combination of secondary literature sources, surveys, and in-depth interview data from selected traditional leaders and officials of the state in Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Its central contention was that, to the extent that the

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38 Acheampong Yaw Amoateng and Ishmael Kalule-Sabiti

bulk of the countries’ populations embraced traditional leadership, the institution must be harnessed by the modern state for the purposes of service delivery in areas under its jurisdiction.

The present analysis is limited to the South African data and looks at the issue of the role of traditional governance with regard to service delivery in the modern state. Specifically, the article seeks to examine the complementary role of traditional leadership by interrogating two of the central themes of the original study, namely the juxtaposition of both traditional and modern forms of governance in the southern African political culture, and both the historical and contemporary roles of the institution of traditional leadership in the provision of services to its adherents.

Theoretical framework

As a result of the generally exploitative relationship that characterised the colonial project, during which ‘racial justice’ dominated the discourse on governance, it became a fad in the 1960s and 1970s for the post-colonial African state to adopt socialist principles of development. However, in the 1980s, African states gradually reverted to the neo-liberal development paradigm with its wholesale embrace of the market reforms popularly known as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). However, in spite of this embrace of the so-called Washington Consensus by Africa’s ruling elite for more than two decades, African societies continue to be faced with various problems of governance – a situation which, without a doubt, has led to the loss of a great deal of legitimacy by the post-colonial African state. Coupled with the failure of the state structures inherited from the colonial state to govern in line with the socio-economic aspirations of Africa’s peoples, and the proven resilience of traditional institutions as a result of their effective institutionalisation, there has been a renewed interest in indigenous knowledge systems in general and institutions of governance in particular (e.g. Ake 1990; Ayittey 1991; Davidson 1992; Wunsch and Olowu 1990). This resurgence of interest in traditional institutions has been manifest in the increasing popularity of decentralisation which has occupied centre stage in policy experiments in several developing countries – including in Asia and Africa – in recent years; in fact, it is regarded as a way of diffusing social and political tensions and, at the same time, of encouraging local cultural and political autonomy (Bardhan 2002). However, some scholars have suggested that the fact that traditional governance is popular among mainly rural residents, as opposed to the vast majority of urban residents who cling to modern governance structures, has not helped to resolve crises of governance (see, for example, Mengisteab 2006).

Against this background of the contestations about the optimal governance system to ensure effective delivery of social and economic services to meet the aspirations of African peoples, three main strands of scholarship have emerged in the literature, namely neo-traditionalism, neo-liberalism and integrationism. The main arguments by proponents of each of the three strands of scholarship are examined below.

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The neo-traditionalist argument

Essentially, two main divergent views are discernible in the existing literature: the views of those who contend that traditional leadership is compatible with modern democratic governance because it possesses certain democratic elements, and the views of those who do not. As an example of the former, and commenting on the organisation of African societies around traditional leadership structures and the religious, legislative, administrative and judicial roles they played in pre-colonial times, Sakyi (2003, 131) observes:

Traditional leaders once held a firm grip on the social, economic, and political system that governed society. There were systems in place to regulate behaviour, and rules were well enforced to ensure a safe and orderly society. They had an adequate revenue base through taxes and other donations and royalties to support families and meet their societal obligations.

For these and other scholars, the hierarchy characteristic of most traditional governance structures was only a means to maintain order and stability in society – though it also upheld democratic principles in the sense that everything was done in the open (see, for example, Ansere 1993; Ayittey 1992; Busia 1951; Keulder 1998; Nsarko 1964; Tangwa 1998). Even though Mokgoro (1994) argues the hereditary nature of traditional leadership means that the institution is not subjected to the electoral process that characterises modern governance, he admits that power was traditionally exercised only through traditional councils which helped to negate absolutism. According to this view, therefore, traditional leaders have helped to maintain a system of government based on accountability, consultation and decentralisation. For example, supporting Mokgoro’s view, Williams (2002) notes:

The democratic aspects of traditional leadership and authority systems were instrumental in mediating the autocracy of the kingdom but were undermined by colonialism. ‘Physical force’ as the means by which African leaders exerted their authority was apparently exceptional before colonialism. Potentially highly exploitative practices such as polygamy and taxation were possible because of citizen deference to kingly authority and via specific ceremonial procedures and limitations.

To this group of scholars, therefore, the two structures of governance, namely traditional leadership and the modern state, are complementary.

The neo-liberal argument

These observations about the democratic nature of traditional governance notwith-standing, some scholars have argued against the involvement of traditional governance structures in modern governance structures. To them, traditional authority by its very nature compromises the democratic project underway in many African countries (see Bekker 1993; Mamdani 1996; Marais 2001; Mboya 1974; Ntsebeza 2005; Rugege

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2002; Simiyu 1987; Walker 1994; Zack-Williams 2002). These scholars contend that chieftaincy was corrupted by the colonial state and by the clientelism of the post-colonial mode of governance; that the populations under traditional authorities live as ‘subjects’ rather than as ‘citizens’ of the state and democratic governance would not be achieved while such systems continue to exist; and that traditional institutions impede the pace of development as they reduce the relevance of the state in the areas of social services and, moreover, heighten primordial loyalties (e.g. Mamdani 1996; Ntsebeza 2005). This group thus rejects any notion of accommodating traditional leadership in a modern democracy.

The integrationist argument

Between the above two ‘extreme’ views is the integrationist paradigm. The point of departure of this paradigm is essentially the crisis of governance associated with dissatisfaction with the Washington Consensus. Moreover, this position follows the calls in recent years, by both African scholars and Western donor agencies, to involve traditional authorities in the governance of ‘modern’ African states. These calls have arisen as a result of the social changes that have transformed the African social and political landscapes. Several scholars have observed the juxtaposition of Western-style democracy, which is based on the notion of political and social rights of individuals, with the ethnic-based collectivism characteristic of African societies (see Owusu 1991). To such scholars, the problem of governance is to recognise and satisfy the goals and aspirations of different groups and their leaders.

In fact, it has been argued that the institutional crisis in Africa cannot be resolved by relying exclusively on either external enclave transplant institutions or on purely traditional institutions, and that neither total ‘institutional transplant’ nor ‘traditional fundamentalism’ is a viable alternative for Africa (World Bank 1992). Thus, the integrationists argue for the idea of integrating traditional governance structures into modern structures of governance to ensure effective and efficient governance on the continent. For example, applauding the idea of integrating the two systems of governance, Skinner (2007) argues that similar measures, not unlike the Washington Consensus of the 1960s, have been employed by the new African elite, and that, essentially they have involved an outright abolition of traditional leadership structures in some countries, and a drastic reduction in their powers and influence in the affairs of the state in others. He argues that these African nationalists ignored their own ‘counter-racist’ philosophies such as ‘Negritude’ and the ‘African Personality’ by paying only lip service to traditional political cultures; and that the post-colonial African leaders firmly rejected compromise with African traditional authorities. For example, in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah rejected the idea of the new African states using agriculture as a basis for building their economies and employing ethnic-based coalitions such as those represented by traditional leaders (see, for instance, Lewis 1967).2

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Data and methodology

Three main sources of data were employed for the study: desktop review of secondary sources, in-depth face-to-face interviews with representatives of traditional leadership and the modern state, and the 2005 HSRC Social Attitudes Survey which contains several items on the population’s attitudes towards traditional leadership and service delivery in both urban and rural areas. The data for the study were collected between August and September 2007. Next, these data sources are discussed in some detail.

Desktop reviews

This was the dominant method and entailed the critical review of the existing literature in the form of books, monographs and journal articles around issues of the resilience of traditional authorities and how the institution could be harnessed in southern Africa, taking into account the change of attitude towards traditional authorities from colonial times to the present. Instances of the dynamic nature of the relationship between the institution, civil society and the state in the context of democratisation and governance were examined. Moreover, the bases on which the institution is a legitimate force to be used in promoting the interests of local communities and achieving local development were explored by consulting historical and modern records.

In-depth face-to-face interviews

Besides the reviews drawn from existing literature, face-to-face interviews were conducted with representatives of traditional authorities, local government and civil society organisations. In the specific case of South Africa, the interviews were conducted in the Limpopo Province, where one local government official and one traditional leader granted interviews. In the interviews informants were prompted, through an interview guide, to provide information on such issues as the description of the major features of traditional governance structures in the past and present (roles, responsibilities and relationships); how the traditional system handles the provision and administration of public goods and services such as the administration of justice; the management of common pool resources; how the traditional system of governance supports productive and non-productive social activities; NGO activities related to, for instance, HIV/AIDS – prevention, mitigation and care; drug/alcohol abuse, social grants and acquisition; how the traditional system handles participation and accountability (role of women, the youth and ‘foreigners’); the nature of the relationship between the traditional system and the state-based administrative system – areas of cooperation and conflict, and mechanisms to resolve conflicts where they existed.3

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The social survey

In South Africa, due to its availability, a quantitative data set was analysed for informa-tion on the population’s attitudes towards the different levels of governance under the country’s 1996 constitution which duly recognises traditional authorities. Because of the country’s cultural diversity, Section 185 of the constitution makes provision for the recognition of cultural communities. In addition, and since traditional leadership forms part of the indigenous knowledge system of the majority black African population of the country, the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 41 of 2003, was passed to give effect to section 211(1) of the constitution which recognises the ‘role and status of traditional leadership’. Further to this, since 2009 the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has been re-oriented to monitor and implement this and related legislation governing traditional leadership. It was not without due consideration of the myriad criticisms of traditional leadership that the Act sought to set standards and norms to align the institution of traditional leadership with the ethos of modern democratic governance. Among the key constitutional imperatives the Act sought to achieve in regard to the restoration of the integrity and legitimacy of the institution, were equality and respect for human rights.

The source of the social survey data was the Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) 2005 round of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), which is a national probability sample of 5 734 persons aged 16 and older. The sampling frame for the survey was the Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) master sample, which was designed in 2002 and consists of 1 000 primary sampling units (PSUs). A sub-sample of 500 primary sampling units was drawn from the 2001 population census enumerator areas (EAs) and stratified by province, residence type and majority population group. Since the master sample excludes special institutions (such as hospitals, military camps, old-age homes, schools and university hostels), recreational areas, industrial areas and vacant EAs, it focuses on dwelling units or visiting points as secondary sampling units (SSUs), which have been defined as ‘separate, (non-vacant) residential stands, addresses, structures, flats and homesteads’.

The questionnaires for the survey were translated into seven of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Conventional face-to-face interviewing techniques were used to interview the selected individuals between August and September 2005. The SASAS includes a range of questions about demographic background, democracy and governance, public services such as education and health, family life and poverty and social exclusion. Moreover, the survey ascertained, among other things, people’s levels of trust in the state in the form of the national government, provincial government, local government, parliament and the courts on the one hand, and traditional authorities on the other. With such other factors as place of residence, age and issues of service delivery, this source of information proved valuable for the present study, especially given its policy thrust. The data were weighted to take account of the fact that not all the units covered in the survey had the same probability of selection. The weighting reflected the relative selection probabilities of the individual at the three main stages of selection: visiting point (address), household and individual.

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Procedure

Initial contacts were made with the officials responsible for traditional governance in each provincial/regional department of local government in each country in the study, through e-mails with follow-up phone calls. The initial e-mails explained the objectives of the study and the source of the funding. In the initial correspondence, permission was sought to conduct the interviews with the representatives of the respective groups (NGOs, traditional authorities and local government in the respective areas). In addition, the support of the responsible officials was enlisted to gain access to the key informants for the interviews. In South Africa, once the telephone number of the traditional leader who had agreed through the local government official to be interviewed had been obtained, the interviewer contacted him to arrange a suitable date and venue for the interview and he was kind enough to offer to travel to the interviewer’s hotel in Polokwane for the interview.4

Analysis and results

All the interviews were transcribed and the content was analysed thematically based on the objectives of the study. Moreover, the interviews served to complement the existing literature for the case studies for each country. In the case of South Africa, where the HSRC’s South African Social Attitudes Survey for 2005 was available, basic descriptive statistics such as frequency distributions and cross-tabulations were employed to analyse that component of the data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software.

Theme 1: The nature of the ‘institutional duality’ of the southern African political culture and analysis of the democratic processes and their relationship to chieftaincy in southern Africa

One of the central themes of the study was the identification and description of the essential nature of the institutional duality of the southern African political culture. As already noted, in pre-colonial times, African societies were governed through structures that ranged from those that were highly hierarchical to those that were highly decentralised. Indeed, it was partly due to the fact that the institution of traditional leadership is an integral part of the African cosmology that, at the onset of British colonial rule on the continent, Lord Lugard, the British colonial administrator in the northern Nigerian Caliphates, concluded in his book, The dual mandate, that the institution was to be accommodated at the local government level.

Thus, whether the decision to maintain this primordial system of governance by the colonialists was intended to serve their own colonial interests in terms of cost, or whether it was motivated by a genuine desire to maintain African indigenous institutions, the fact remains that the institution of traditional leadership has remained a permanent feature of the African social, cultural, political and economic landscape. It is this resiliency of the

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institution of traditional leadership that largely explains the failure of the first generation of African political leaders and their liberal scholar accomplices to undermine or even abolish it in the period immediately following decolonisation. In other words, it is the importance and resilience of the institution of traditional leadership that has led to the culture of institutional duality in the African political landscape.

We found strong empirical support for this institutional duality in the political culture of South Africa in the study; all three of the data sources corroborated its existence. The results of the analysis of the social attitudes survey data, as presented in Tables 1 and 2, show the existence of this institutional duality. Tables 1 and 2 also show the relationship between province and trust in the three levels of governance vis-à-vis traditional authorities in the country. Specifically, a five-point Likert scale was used to measure this relationship. The question asked in the survey was: ‘How much do you trust each of the following?’ and the responses ranged from ‘strongly trust’, ‘trust’, ‘neither trust nor distrust’, ‘distrust’ to ‘strongly distrust’.

Table 1 shows the level of trust by province, while Table 2 shows the level of trust by residence. Since traditional governance in South Africa is found only among black Africans, this analysis of the survey data was limited to this section of the South African population.

Table 1: Relationship between province and trust in levels of governance in South Africa

Level of governance Province (%)

WC EC NC FS KZN NW GT MP LP Total

Traditional authority 44 52 25 63 64 59 41 63 68 57

Local government 24 80 42 54 53 52 39 59 48 53

Provincial government 36 86 50 73 74 64 50 71 71 67

National government 37 95 72 74 74 77 67 78 72 76

Source: 2005 South African Social Attitudes Survey

Table 2: Relationship between place of residence and trust in levels of governance in South Africa

Level of governance Residence (%)

Urban Rural

Traditional authorities 50.9 64.0

Local government 48.7 58.5

Provincial government 63.1 73.3

National government 71.9 79.4

Source: 2005 South African Social Attitudes Survey

Both Tables 1 and 2 depict several issues that are central to the theme of ‘institutional duality’ in the country’s political culture. First, apart from the three provinces where there are no recognised traditional authority structures (i.e. Western Cape, Northern

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Cape and Gauteng), the level of trust in traditional authorities ranged from 52 per cent in the Eastern Cape to 68 per cent in Limpopo. Second, even in the Western Cape and Gauteng, 44 per cent and 41 per cent respectively of the African residents said they either ‘strongly trust’ or ‘trust’ traditional authorities.5 Third, and most importantly, Table 1 depicts a bifurcation of the South African political-administrative system, a reflection of the culture of institutional duality. Specifically, the table shows that, with the exception of the Eastern and Northern Cape, peoples’ level of trust in traditional authorities is significantly higher than their trust in local government.6 Thus, it is quite evident that in the minds of black Africans in South Africa, there is no distinction between traditional authorities and local government, while provincial and national governments are perceived as representing one structure. This finding is, in fact, the gist of the argument by the traditional authorities, as represented by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi during the country’s constitutional negotiations in the early 1990s, that ‘traditional authorities are the local government’.

Apart from further illustrating the institutional duality that characterises the country’s political and social landscape, Table 2 debunks the myth that the popularity of the institution of traditional leadership is confined to rural areas. For example, even though almost two-thirds of rural residents are trusting of traditional authorities, more than 50 per cent of urban residents trust traditional authorities. While a 14 percentage-point difference between rural and urban residents was not statistically significant, it is worth noting that, substantively, this finding further illustrates the resilience of the institution in the social organisation of African societies. In fact, it is possible that, when it comes to important socio-political institutions such as traditional authorities, the conventional dichotomy between rural and urban existence may well be a myth as a result of factors such as widespread unemployment and illiteracy, as well as their resultant ethnically-based network groups in the urban milieu. These processes may explain the absence of significant shifts in black Africans’ values with regard to their attachment to traditional authorities as they move from rural to urban areas.

Besides the quantitative (survey) data, the existence of this institutional duality in South Africa’s political culture was corroborated by both the interview and secondary data, as reported by the representatives of both traditional authorities and local government. For instance, in the interview with the informant from the Department of Local Government and Housing in Limpopo province, it was clear that she was referring in the following statement7 to the two pieces of legislation that take cognisance of the duality:

Maybe as a brief background I think this government – government of the day – has actually taken a conscious decision to recognise traditional leaders which has been, I think, a major step, that we recognise them as part of our system. But similarly to say that provincially as well, we have gone a bit further to say we have a House of Traditional Leaders that is recognised under the leadership of our Premier, that is, it is located within the Premier’s office. So based on that, there is no way that you can have any programme being implemented without the participation of the traditional leaders … My understanding is that if you are a community member in a rural village, be it a nurse or a teacher or whatever, you are obliged to the decisions taken by that particular

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traditional leader, but similarly as a municipality, as they roll out the Property Rates Act you would be liable for those, because they are within the middle income, which means that they can be able to pay for the rates. So it’s ... it is good to have them in the community; the people, can also liberate the whole community. [The text is reproduced verbatim: Editor]

In a similar admission of the institutional duality, our traditional authority informant made the following statement in which he contrasted the mechanisms of accountability under the two systems of governance. In fact, according to this informant, traditional leadership is, by its very nature, more accountable to the people than the modern local government system which is riddled with corruption. This is what he had to say:

That is the best way to ensure accountability, which I want to say is missing from the present, modern, local government setup. You know it’s getting away, there’s no system where for example every year the elected councilors are called and account to the community on what they’ve done. The only thing that happens is when they talk about budgets and what have you. To me it’s not enough to give the community sufficient room to say ‘but hang on comrade councillor, we elected you, you were just an ordinary man, suddenly you are driving a big 4 x 4, how did you manage? Can you share with us? Where did you get this money because we are still suffering, we are still the very same society that elected you, but you are a few hundred metres away from us; tell us, why did you make magic out of this thing?’ [The text is reproduced verbatim: Editor]

At a 2004 workshop of kings and queens on the continent under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a similar sentiment was echoed by King Molotlegi of the Bafokeng of the North West province in the following words:

As traditional leaders and members of traditionally-governed communities, we are not opponents of the national government, but rather its constituents, ready to participate in the wider national debate. What’s needed is a mindset in which traditional structures are viewed as valuable partners, rather than as competitors or opponents, in the formation of African democracies.

Theme 2: The nature of the current interface between traditional governance structures and local governments with regard to the delivery of such services as land administration, dispute resolution, water, health, education and HIV/AIDS

The second theme addressed was that of the relevance of traditional leadership in terms of the roles traditional authorities play within the context of the modern democratic state. Needless to say, traditional authorities were the repository of political-administrative power in the pre-colonial period. To this effect, provision of services such as land administration, construction of feeder roads, latrines and wells, along with dispute resolution, were all the sole prerogative of traditional leaders during this period.

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The resources for the provision of these services were in the form of levies, donations, royalties and tributes from vassal states.

With the emergence of the nation-state under colonial and post-colonial regimes, the modernisation of basic services, and the need to provide such services on a larger scale, compelled the state to assume responsibility for the provision of these basic services through its elected local government structures such as municipal and district councils. Thus, following the emergence of the colonial and post-colonial states, traditional authorities no longer had independent resource bases to provide services for their communities – a situation which led to the truncation of the powers they had wielded during the pre-colonial dispensation. Within the context of the modern dispensation, therefore, the role of traditional leaders was limited to mobilising their communities to complement the efforts of the central government in the provision of these services.

However, following the failure of the neo-liberal reform agenda, the role of traditional leadership with regards to the provision of these services at the local level has come to occupy centre stage in development thinking on the continent. Local communities, through their chiefs and other stakeholders, are being called upon to play bigger roles in the development of these communities, although the dominant role is being played by the state. In South Africa, the state’s approach to service delivery is duly informed by the Municipal Service Partnerships (Department of Constitutional Development 1999). As we observed in Table 2, even though the substantive difference is not much, traditional leadership tends to be more popular in rural than in urban areas. The answer to the pertinent question as to why traditional leadership is more popular in rural areas appears to lie in the obsession with colonial-style development models. Specifically, the modern state tends to be biased towards urban areas with regard to the provision and delivery of services to the populace.

On the other hand, the functionality of traditional leadership for rural populations with regard to the provision and delivery of vital services is shown by the survey data in the present study, as presented in Figures 1 and 2. As shown in Figure 1, when respondents were asked to indicate their ‘satisfaction with the working of democracy’ in the country, rural residents said they were satisfied with the working of democracy as a broader notion. However, as Figure 2 shows, when democracy translates into the provision and delivery of specific basic services that define citizenship in a democratic state, the only service rural residents were relatively satisfied with was access to social grants.

Indeed, social grants have been a major pillar in the state’s anti-poverty programme since the political transition, and have received a major boost from the Department of Social Development with a projected expenditure of R20 billion in 2001/2002 (Department of Social Development 2003). Moreover, the old-age grant was estimated to be worth about twice the median per capita income of African households (Case and Deaton 1996, 1) and is used to purchase household provisions and for the education of grandchildren. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of urban residents said they were satisfied with access to electricity, compared to only 51 per cent of rural residents who said they were thus satisfied. This bifurcation of governance, which is mirrored in the

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geographical schism with regard to access to basic services, is further illustrated in Figure 3 which shows satisfaction with access to municipal officials. While almost six in ten urban residents said they were satisfied with access to municipal officials, less than one in two rural residents said they were dissatisfied with this access. Even though the survey data could not be used to ascertain the reasons why rural residents were less satisfied with services provided by the state, one could not rule out the increasing sense of disconnect between the ruled and the rulers as a result of the increasing rationalisation of public services. Rudin (2011) indicts the neo-liberals’ tendency to ‘commodify’ public services through their reliance on the middle class in the private sector as the main culprit for municipal dysfunction. Indeed, the tendency in recent months for service-delivery protesters to call on politicians to come and address them every time there is a protest somewhere, attests to this sense of disconnect between the masses and their representatives in government; technocrats have replaced politicians in the provision of basic services.

On the other hand, the interview data confirmed that however inadequate the participation of traditional leaders in modern local government structures may be, they continue to play their time-honoured role of initiating and executing development projects in their communities, independent of the state. Our traditional leader informant in Limpopo province described a typical community-initiated development project in his area of jurisdiction in what he referred to as a Community Integrated Development (CID). This was the initiative of the Traditional Council and it consisted of cultural tourism, the intensification of the current subsistence farming system, the cleaning and bottling of water in the area, the production of poultry, a fishery and a butchery. Moreover, the community had engaged the services of a consultant who assisted in costing the project.

Here is how the chief described the project:

We developed, even before the current local government, and produced what we called Community Integrated Development. We analysed the area and said we can’t build on things that we don’t have. We should focus on things that we do have, and when we looked in that community we concluded that it is a mountainous area with perennial rivers, rocks, field, open field where you can farm. So, we then said that’s what our strength is. So we are looking at traditional or cultural tourism form of, you know, economic build up ...

According to the chief, the independent efforts by the Traditional Council to provide vital services to their communities in the form of job creation, education, clinics etc. did not stop at the production of the plans. Since a British company was involved in the production of asbestos in the area in the past, the Traditional Council approached the British High Commission in Pretoria to help fund the project on the basis of corporate social responsibility. In addition, they sent a delegation to meet and share their plans with the then Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.

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Figure 1: Satisfaction with democracy by residence

Figure 2: Satisfaction with service and residence type

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Figure 3: Satisfaction with access to municipal officials

Summary and conclusion

The study analysed here sought to examine how traditional leadership can be harnessed for the purposes of service delivery at the local level in South Africa. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the institutional duality which characterises South Africa’s political culture and the role traditional authorities play in the provision and delivery of social and economic services to the sections of the population within their jurisdictions. The data confirmed the duality of the southern African institutional culture. In other words, even though traditional leaders no longer wield the considerable administrative, legislative and judicial powers they used to exercise over the chiefdoms, they are still very much part of the governance institutional culture of the sub-region. In South Africa, as in most countries in the region, traditional authorities enjoy both constitutional and legal protections and are seen by both traditional leaders and government representatives as partners with regard to development at the local level. The continued importance of the institution of traditional leadership is largely due to the broadening of participation by ordinary members of their communities, based on technical competence and contributions to development efforts in these communities.

In South Africa, the renewed legitimacy which traditional authorities enjoy in the country’s democratic dispensation was shown by the high levels of trust from all sections of society, regardless of residence, age and gender. Because of this, traditional authorities believe they have a critical role to play in development through complementing the efforts of the modern state administrative structures as far as service delivery is concerned. In fact, in South Africa, traditional leaders are adamant that they constitute local government and therefore require a greater and more effective role in local governance. For example, on the question of public service delivery, the position of the traditional leaders is that Traditional Councils are ideally placed to facilitate the

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delivery of services to rural communities. Thus the councils or their subsidiaries, the headmen, are much closer to the people they serve. They believe, therefore, that the process of service delivery would greatly be enhanced if government departments and other organs of state can establish offices and relevant personnel in the Traditional Council establishment, and in the process accord rural citizens the same rights and privileges that their urban counterparts currently enjoy.

The distribution of services in pre-colonial African societies was organised through various structures of traditional governance. With the inauguration of the colonial project, these traditional leadership structures lost a considerable amount of the administrative, legal, judicial and religious powers they had previously wielded. Even though many of the colonial powers tried to maintain these traditional governance structures – especially the British under their Indirect Rule system – in the absence of any independent resource base to provide services to their communities the powers and authority of traditional leaders were truncated considerably. However, following the realisation of the importance of indigenous knowledge systems in the development planning of non-Western societies, there has been renewed interest in traditional institutions of governance to deliver on the promise of democracy in the form of better living standards to the masses of Africa’s peoples, especially those in the rural areas.

This renewed interest in traditional governance is reflected in the increased rate at which African countries are adopting decentralisation to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of services, especially at the local community level. Needless to say, this renewed interest in traditional governance structures and decentralisation on the continent has been given meaning through constitutional and legal frameworks in countries where traditional governance has always been part of the social organisation.

For their part, as custodians of traditional leadership, traditional authorities or chiefs, in line with the provisions of the constitution, have been amenable to transform the institution by the various legislative instruments. This situation of mutual accommodation by the two forms of governance largely explains the institution of traditional leadership’s increasing popularity amongst the people. For instance, traditional leaders have sought, through various mechanisms, to strengthen their relationships with various state structures. Thus, nobody can deny the fact that the two structures of governance complement each other in the sphere of service delivery, in the areas of jurisdiction of traditional leadership. In fact, the role of traditional leadership in the delivery of basic services at the local level has become more critical in the face of the increasing privatisation of public services and the increasingly technocratic and predatory middle class whose interests overlap with those of the state.

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Notes

1. We are grateful to both the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) office in Lusaka, Zambia, for commissioning the parent study, and to the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript.

2. In fact, the new African leaders’ tendency for rapid industrialisation without the requisite agricultural base led to the proliferation of several ambitious projects which became ‘white elephants’, and, needless to say, ruined the economies of most of these post-colonial states.

3. In South Africa, since the traditional leader and the local government official were both highly educated, the interviews were conducted by the first author personally and in English.

4. It is significant to mention that the discussion grew so lively that an interview which was supposed to last for an hour went on for close to three hours.

5. This could be a reflection of the in-migration of Africans from traditional authority areas into the two economically dominant provinces in the country.

6. In fact, in the Western Cape where there is no recognised traditional authority structure, Africans are more trusting of traditional authorities than any other level of governance.

7. The 2003 Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act and the 2003 Communal Land Rights Act respectively.

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