the requirements of consistency and uniformity. Wherever possible, for verification purposes, meetings will be attended by a team consisting of two observers.
TABLE 2 OBSERVATION RECORD
Council and Committee Meetinl!s
Item/Activity observed Notes
I. Composition of Committee (1.1) umerical (1.2) Gender Sensitivity (1.3) Race
(1.4) Political Affiliation 2. Terms of reference
3. Rules of Order 4. Delegations 5. Public Participation 6. Resoonse to Public Inout 7. Efficiency
8. Decision-Making Process (8.1) Consensus (8.2) By Majority Vote
9. Influence of Officials on decision-making 9. Referral of Items to Other Political Structures e.g
Ward Committees.
Particular attention will be given to the degree that the requirements of efficiency and democracy are upheld during decision-making. For example, with regardto efficiency, attention will be given to the size of the decision-making structure, the terms of reference, standing rules, delegation of authority, frequency and duration of meetings, workload etc. The observer will also give attention, on the other hand, to levels of inclusivity, transparency, accountability and participation during his/her attendance at meetings.
Care will need to be taken to ensure that the observation recordcontains detailed, non judgemental, concrete descriptions of what has been observed. This will facilitate the analysis process and allow for the systematic comparison and verification of data obtained through other data collection methods and techniques.
(Category C) and two hundred and thirty one (231) local councils (Category B).47 Another distinction which can be drawn is the type of municipality. The type of municipality is determined by the type of executive authority in existence in that municipality. The category, type, size etc. are contained in the notice published in terms of Section 12 of the Structures Act, which establishes the municipality. The following types of municipality are identified in Section Seven of the Structures Act: -
(a) Collective executive system which allows the exercise of executive authority through an executive committee in which the executive leadership of the municipality is collectively vested.
(b) Mayoral executive system which allows for the exercise of executive authority through an executive mayor in whom the executive leadership of the municipality is vested and who is assisted by a mayoral committee.
(c) Plenary executive system which limits the exercise of executive authority to the municipal council itself.
(d) Sub-council participatory system which allows for delegated powers to be exercised by sub-councils established for parts ofthe municipality.
(e) Ward participatory system which allows for matters for local concern to wards to be dealt with by committees established for wards.
With regard to (e) above which deals with ward committees, Section 72 ofthe Act identifies the types of municipalities which are entitled to establish ward committees.
From a practical point of view, it is not possible, within the framework of this study, to research the decision-making structures and processes of all 284 municipalities. With this in mind, the first steps towards selecting municipalities as case studies, was to exclude Category C municipalities (District Municipalities). The case studies have been drawn from categories A and B only. The reason for excluding Category C municipalities is that district municipalities do not have the same degree of interaction with communities as experienced
being that local municipalities continue to perform most of the functions of district municipalities (as listed in Section 84 of the Structures Act). Until the division of functions between district and local councils has been finalised, research into the impact of public participation on decision-making in district municipalities would be meaningless.
The second step was to select municipalities in different categories, and with different types of executive authority. Given these criteria, four municipalities have been identified details of which are contained in Table 3. How community involvement in decision-making is facilitated varies from one municipality another, but, the requirements for this to happen are contained in the new municipal legislation, in particular, Chapter Four of the Systems Act.
As already stated most of the new municipalities are too big in terms of population, size and area to allow for direct participation by the majority of the residents in all municipal activities. With this in mind and working from the premise that it is not possible for councils to engage ward committees on every matter, it is necessary to limit the number of issues for the purpose of this research, and in so doing acknowledging the construction of boundaries. Hence only three activities have been selected, namely, processes leading up to the adoption of the annual budget and the enactment of by-laws and the approval of building plans. With regard to the choice of by-laws, attempts will be made to identify by-laws common to all four case studies, for example, the credit control by-laws. Statutory provisions are contained in the new municipal legislation which require municipalities to facilitate extensive public participation before adopting a by-law and the budget. The procedures, with particular reference to the requirements for public participation are contained in Appendices 6 and 7.
To sum up, therefore the selection of municipalities to be researched, as shown in the table below, was based on two key variables of a structural nature, namely, the category of municipality (metropolitan or local) and the type (executive mayor or executive committee).
TABLE 3: CHOICE OF CASE STUDIES
Executive Ward
Municipality City Category Type Authority Committees
elson Port A Executive Executive Yes
Mandela Elizabeth Metropolitan Mayor powers exercised by an 52 Wards
Metropolitan Municipality System executive mayor
Council assisted by a mayoral
committee
eThekwini Durban A Executive Executive powers No
Metropolitan Metropolitan Committee exercised by an
Council Municipality System Executive Committee
Buffalo City East B Executive Executive powers Yes
local London Local Mayor System exercised by an 45 Wards
Council Municipality executive mayor
assisted by a mayoral committee
Msunduzi B Executive Executive powers Yes
Local
P.M. Burg Local Committee exercised by an 37 Wards
Council Municipality System executive committee
Reference was made at the beginning of this chapter to a threshold with a suggestion that efficiency in decision-making is likely to be impeded by democratisation only if the level of efficiency has reached a certain threshold. For the purpose of this thesis, threshold is recognised as the level which separates these municipalities which are able to fulfil their basic function and those which are not. Infonnation obtained from the Department of Provincial and Local Government, (DPLG) confinned that there are currently 139 municipalities which are unable to fulfil their basic functions.
The municipalities which have been selected as case studies as shown in the above table are all functioning above the threshold level.