This paper captures the value of public participation as a redeemer of South African municipalities in land use planning. In this paper, it is argued that there is scant public participation in local government developmental matters, especially in land-use planning. South African municipalities are congested due to lack of public participation in land-use planning in the municipal arena. This is despite the fact that the constitution requires active public engagement in questions of developing local administration. The challenge of inactive public participation endures throughout the IDP, and this is now perceived as a dream wish. It is further argued that it is important to involve the public in land-use, especially in the following categories: commercial, residential, public facilities, industrial, and open spaces. The arguments in this paper were also founded on Patsy Healey's 1997 theory of collaborative planning. Collaborative planning theory has been used to develop ideas and arguments. This is a conceptual paper based on secondary data. The paper relied heavily on current literature on public participation and land-use planning. Despite the arrival of democracy in South Africa, the theoretical findings of this research indicated that there is still apartheid in spatial planning. It is also discovered that the adopted South African apartheid spatial planning continues to overlook community involvement in municipal land-use planning. When it comes to planning, the study proposes that municipal authorities follow the Batho Pele principles. At the municipal level, public engagement should not be passive but interactive and consultative. Finally, the paper advocates for land-use planning reforms and the use of active public engagement to save South African municipalities from congestion.

In South Africa, Municipal Service Partnerships (MSPs) have been in existence afore the global breakout of COVID-19 Pandemic as an essential mechanism to expand and accelerate municipal service delivery in the local government sphere. However, once the National Lockdown (NL) was put in place by the state president Cyril Ramaphosa on the 26 of March 2020, many South African municipalities were and still are pushed to look for assistance from their partners in the private sector in order to help with addressing the challenges, imposed by the pandemic, especially, service delivery backlogs. Municipalities are entering into service contracts with the private sector for the provision of basic services that are deemed essential in terms of the National Lockdown Regulations (NLRs). In curbing the spread of the virus in the communities, municipalities extended their effort by commonly cooperating with private partners. For instance, most municipalities went to an extend of collaborating with private partners and other government agencies like Rand Water for the provision of water and water tanks at different schools and communities across the provinces and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), namely masks and hand sanitisers. Methodologically, this is a conceptual paper that is embedded from secondary data. The secondary data was analysed through the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. The article argues that South African municipalities and their MSPs are faced with huge challenges more than ever. It also argues that private partners have been long-standing with a commitment to serve communities on behalf of the government and that now includes partnering with the government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The call by President Ramaphosa has been noted for increased partnerships, solidarity, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and experience to fight the pandemic, poverty, service delivery backlogs and social injustice. The paper concludes by offering feasible solutions to curb the challenges, faced by MSPs and service delivery backlogs.

The democratic transition on the African continent has been accompanied by problems of poor governance, poor administration, third terms and centralized power, electoral administration conundrums, and corruption. This paper examines the overarching problems in Africa, including electoral challenges, the third term and centralization of power, societal, social, and economic governance, and the death of ethics. This is a desktop study, also known as a conceptual study, that is based on Asante's Afrocentricity Theory, which provides pedagogical thinking about power, dominance, racism, and the need to escape victimization. The findings of the article reveal that many African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Nigeria, face significant challenges due to poor governance and maladministration. The paper concludes by stating that to address the challenge of poor governance and maladministration in African countries, a multifaceted approach is necessary. One potential innovative solution is to increase transparency and accountability in government institutions using technology and data-driven decision-making. This could involve the implementation of digital systems for monitoring and reporting on government activities as well as the creation of independent oversight committees to ensure public officials are held accountable for their actions.

This paper explores the potency of rural cooperatives for the effective planning and implementation of rural strategies to address poverty. Rural cooperatives function as a participatory approach that provides the potential to equip and empower people in rural areas with various skills. Hence, rural cooperatives represent the means and strategies to unshackle rural people from the vicious circle of poverty. The contestation about a deadlock of rural development has become pertinent in the recent and ongoing political transformation in South Africa. This paper is grounded on the social capital theory and its ideals. As such, it depends on a literature review for its premise, argument, crux and purpose, as well as drawing up results and conclusions. The paper gathers information in respect of various scholars’ notions on rural cooperatives and rural development from related articles, journals and books. The paper reveals that where the South African government is confronted and characterised by some form of upheaval and service delivery challenges, so rural cooperatives are fit to capacitate citizens to avoid depending on the government for scarce resources. The paper further reveals that rural cooperatives are deemed to ameliorate the long-standing patterns of developmental backlogs in almost all South African municipalities. The conclusion that can be made from this paper is that the authentic promotion of rural development in the formulation of a well-informed legislative framework, that is clear and unambiguous, can deal effectively with the challenges of rural cooperatives.

This paper aims to explore the potency of ethical frameworks in the advent of a democratic dispensation in State-Owned Enterprises in an attempt to address conundrums of unethical leadership and devastating public accountability. This paper argues that South Africa is grappling with fitting in the notion of ethos and accountability. On the same line, the contestation about the impasse of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) befits germane in the topical and constant political transformation in South Africa. SOEs endure eccentric to those serving it and those who benefit from it, leading to a lack of orthodoxy by public officials to ethical framework prescribed and contemplated in legislation for good conduct in public services. Ethical leadership and public accountability are two sides of the same coin; however, they serve as a nut and bolt of a well-functioning public administration. The two are inseparable. The paper is theoretical as such, and it is epistemologically juxtaposed and grounded or underpinned by agency theory and its ideals. Be that as it may, it further depends on literature base review for its premise, argument, crux, and purpose and drawing up results and conclusion. Thus, the paper gathers information regarding the various scholars’ notions on ethical leadership and public accountability from related articles, journals, and books.  The paper reveals that the South African State-Owned Enterprises are antagonized and branded by unethical leaders and public accountability challenges. At this juncture, the SOEs are faced with poor fiscal coordination and management. The paper further reveals that the SOEs are swimming in the pool of debts. The conclusion that can be deduced from this paper is that it calls for strengthening and reforming all legislative prescripts that govern the State-Owned Enterprises. Public administrators must avoid incubating politicians as it creates the ground for corruption and various types of ethical dilemmas.