Chapter 10: Conclusion and Recommendations
3.4 HIERARCHY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
adopted to address the problem at hand. The different hierarchies in the policy development process are critical and need to be well understood by any institution developing a policy. Such an understanding will ensure alignment and integration among political and administrative priorities.
and other stakeholders to ensure that a workable policy is developed (Cloete, 1998:
120).
The municipal policy should be consistent with the provision of the RDP, thereby making sure that there is synergy between political priorities and administrative priorities. What this means is that no matter what the views are, the administration must always adapt to the political environment. As Cameron & Stone (1995: 23) maintain, public administrators should always be apolitical, and implement new government‟s policy with vigour even if there has been a change of government.
According to Cloete (1998: 130) public officials cannot influence political policy in one-way or another (although they can make significant contributions to the final policy). One can say that such a connotation in a way underestimates the role of officials in policy development (make it insignificant), something that one can argue is not the case. This is because over and above being officials, most senior officials are active in politics and since they are specialists in their various fields, their involvement in policy is significant. Accordingly, Appleby (1949, cited in Denhardt, 1993: 56) argues that the issue of viewing policy and administration as separate activities is a fallacy. Appleby argues that administrators are important policy actors, who can influence the policy making process in many ways such as through recommendation to legislature.
Perhaps the clearer scenario in this regard is the one provided by Hanekom (1987: 21- 28). Hanekom defines the roles of politicians and administrators in a more balanced way without underplaying the significance of the role played by the officials (administrative function). According to the assertion, Parliament is the primary policy-maker with the power to decide on policy, while the state departments are dependent on Parliament to initiate their actions, responsible to Parliament and therefore supplementary policy-makers. This point is further supported by Latib (in Cloete & Mokgoro, 1995: 11), who finds that senior public servants are an important component of the policy process.
As a result, for effective policy development and ultimately implementation, the relationship is that of a “partnership” rather than of “boss-servant,” as implied by Cloete‟s assertion. Hanekom (1987: 23) clearly summarises this relationship by maintaining that:
“As primary policy-maker it is the responsibility of the political office-bearer to provide the officials in his department(s) with guidelines to follow - which means that he is the master and the public official is an instrument (a secondary policy-maker) utilised in public policy.”
In relation to the research problem, this means that when developing policy for managing informal businesses, Polokwane Municipality should consider the role of both the Municipal Council (constituted by political office-bearers) and the administration, as well as the ruling party‟s policy stance of informal business. This is critical. It would also be important to understand the political-administration interface at the municipal level as far as policy development and implementation are concerned.
3.4.2 Political Implementation Policy/Government Policy
Once the political policy has been adopted, the political executive institutions should transform the political idealism into workable realities, creating practical policy programmes to carry out the policy of the government of the day. Such policies could state what should be done, perhaps also how, where and by whom.
These policy programmes often serve as policy frameworks for other authorities (Botes et al, 1996: 311 and Cloete, 1998: 131-132). For example, informed by the spirit of the RDP, the 1995 White Paper on the National Strategy for the development and promotion of small business in South Africa was developed as a government policy. This government policy is consistent with the political policy. In the South African context, government policy would normally be developed by the national and provincial spheres of government.
3.4.3 Administrative Executive Implementation Policy/Departmental Policy
This refers to the implementation policy as determined by political office-bearers, in conjunction with high ranking officials (De Coning in Cloete & Wissink, 2000: 16).
At this level, departments formulate their policies. According to Cloete (1998: 132) and Botes et al (1996: 311), this stage is usually left to the officials, that is, the head of department and his top officials. In a municipal environment, this level would be the responsibility of the municipal manager and the senior managers. In relation to the study, the policy for managing street traders would fall under this category.
Departmental policies are informed by the government policy, which is in turn informed by the political policies. The policy developed by the municipality should be aligned to the governmental policy. For example, the policy for managing street trading should be informed by the 1995 White Paper on the National Strategy for the development and promotion of small business in South Africa.
3.4.4 Operational Policy/Administrative Policy
In order to give effect to the various policy positions made at the three levels described above, there is a need to take some policy decisions at the operational level (Cloete, 1998: 132 and Botes et al, 1996: 311-312). Botes et al (1996: 312) provide examples of such policies: staff policy, financial policy and organisational policy. In relation to the study, other operational policies such as rental policy, allocation policy, by-law and others can be developed in order to operationalise the policy.
The figure below provides an illustration of the various policy levels and how they can be linked together in line with this study:
POLITI CAL POLICY
GOVERNMENT POLICY
DEPARTMENTAL POLICY
OPERATIONAL/ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY
RDP
SMME Strategy
Informal Trading Policy
Rental and Allocations Policy
Figure 3-1: Hierarchy of policy statements
(Source: Developed by author, information sourced from Botes et al, 1996; Cloete, 1998; De Coning in Cloete & Wissink, 2000 and Hanekom, 1987).
Although the various levels or hierarchies discussed above are separated, they are in reality intertwined. This is because should there be a discrepancy, it could result in a situation where what the executive institution is doing is different from the political party policy position, thereby creating problems. It is therefore important, for the purpose of the study, to reflect on this relationship and to assess the current policy of
Polokwane Municipality in order to provide recommendations for further improvement should it be necessary to do so.