South Africa's fourth non-racial democratic election in 2009 caps fifteen years of state transformation. This period has been marked by unprecedented changes in state institutional architecture and policies governing the functioning of state organs, the complexity of which have been periodically reviewed by government. South African Governance in Review comprises papers prepared by the Democracy and Governance Research Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council, on some of the major governance issues facing the post-apartheid state. Based on research conducted as part of government's fifteen-year review of governance and administration, the papers focus on three issues: public sector anti-corruption, local government restructuring and capacity, and the role of traditional leadership in post-apartheid governance. This monograph will appeal to a range of interested readers including policy-makers, academics and analysts, as well as students and civil society.

Endorsement In this study on the evolution of the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay (centred around the city of Port Elizabeth), Mcebisi Ndletyana presents a cogent analysis of how a liberation movement is impacted upon by transition into political office. The reader is taken into the interplay among issues such as pedestrian efforts to meet popular aspirations, organisational inertia and the impact of personalities. Beyond 'the what' and 'the how', this book uniquely delves into the reasons behind the ignominious decline of the ANC in a region historically endowed with an excellent corps of cadres. If 'sins of incumbency' may sound cliched, this book brings it to life through an analysis of the greed of a political leadership without scruples and the rapacious impact of procurement-based capitalist class formation. The rot originates in ANC structures - akin to suicidal conduct, even after electoral defeat. Ndletyana's canvass may be local; but the lessons are universal. The book is as much about the past as it is about future. -Joel Netshitenzhe, Executive Director and Board Vice-Chairperson of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), has undergone dramatic changes over the last thirty years. Historically a hotbed of political activism, Port Elizabeth is an illuminating site. In 2016, observers greeted with shock the ANC's loss of the city, one of its crown jewels and a party stronghold. Yet, as this book shows through its analysis of power and politics in Port Elizabeth, the party's political decline was authored by its own hand. This book studies the ANC at a local level over a 28-year period and informs what is now playing out at a national level. The book traces four stages that characterise the party's post-1990 life in Port Elizabeth: rebuilding; ascension to political office; political decline; and adaptation to new contexts where its power was lost or is under threat. Ironically, the efforts to rebuild the ANC post-unbanning lie at the root of the decline, because they were misdirected. Buoyed to office by their party's heroic stature, the book shows how some party leaders in Port Elizabeth abused power for financial gain. A generally weak regulatory environment allowed abuse to become endemic. Service delivery failed, and corrosion of moral leadership set in. As the party failed to stem the morass, internal democracy gave way to a strongman syndrome and the party deteriorated into an instrument that provided access to, and dispensed, patronage. Stunningly, electoral loss did not trigger reforms. As the ANC battled to re-make itself outside of government, some leaders even recruited the underworld to settle contests and secure access to patronage. Port Elizabeth did not see a 'new dawn'. This evidence-based book is an enthralling account of how the ANC rebuilt itself into a governing organisation, but failed to cohere into an institution of democracy, becoming instead an amalgam of competing factions for patronage. Readers will judge how much Port Elizabeth is a microcosm of the entire ANC.

If we are to talk of a `new' intellectual movement, the question is begged: what happened to the `old' intellectual movement? What happened to the thinkers who inspired and led our struggle against colonialism, apartheid and exploitation? What has happened to the thinkers who gave substance and guidance and, in many cases, practical leadership to our attempts to undo the past and forge a new future? In pursuit of answers to these questions, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), in partnership with the Liliesleaf Trust, hosted a roundtable in March 2015 on the theme `The Role of Intellectuals in the State-Society Nexus'. The roundtable received inputs from a range of thinkers, including Ibbo Mandaza, Ben Turok, Ari Sitas, Ayanda Ntsaluba, Xolela Mangcu, Joel Netshitenzhe, Tshilidzi Marwala and Nomboniso Gasa, as well as provocative and piercing inputs from the attendees. This publication aims to put the contributions and debates at the roundtable further into the public domain and records the input of the main speakers, the respondents, as well as the discussion from the floor. The rigorous debate at the roundtable spilt out of the boundaries of the event itself and encouraged a number of thinkers to provide additional material for this publication: Z. Pallo Jordan, David Moore (with Tshilidzi Marwala) and Desiree Lewis. The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), which was publicly launched as a think tank in March 2011, was founded by a group of South Africans with experience in research, academia, policy-making and governance, who saw the need to create a platform for engagement around strategic issues facing South Africa. The Institute combines research and academic development, strategic reflections and intellectual discourse and applies itself to issues such as economics, sociology, governance, history, arts and culture, and the logics of the natural sciences.

Patronage politics divides us: A study of poverty, patronage and inequality in South Africa is the culmination of a research project that forms part of MISTRA's first suite of eight priority research projects. The research explores the relationship between patronage, poverty, and inequality with a particular focus on its impact on the conduct of local politics. The overall aim of the study was to explore the possibility of constituting public institutions in a manner that enables them to become legitimate arbiters between the various interests, rather than as instruments that are captured by contending interest groups for their own accumulation. Most importantly, this study was necessitated by the realisation that post-apartheid patronage politics has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This research study aims to help fill that gap, especially by contributing empirical research to the subject. The report goes beyond answering the primary questions of the study: it is a profile of socio-economic life in South Africa's various communities as experienced not only by locals, but also by foreign-born residents. The findings provide a window on relationships between councillors, business interests, and local party organisations.

The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), which was publicly launched as a think tank in March 2011, was founded to create a platform for engagement around strategic issues facing South Africa. It combines research and academic development, strategic reflections and intellectual discourse, and applies itself to issues such as economics, sociology, governance, history, arts and culture, and the logics of natural sciences. Essays on the evolution of the post-apartheid state: Legacies, reforms and prospects is a collection of essays by independent scholars and reports. This publication is intended to generate strategic reflection beyond issues to do with the day-to-day chores of governance. The views across the essays may not be entirely consistent; and the issues they raise may be contentious. This merely affirms the truism that the State is a contested terrain. The aim is to deepen the search for an understanding of the theory of the state as it applies to a transforming society such as ours, and to trudge the dividing line between theory and practice so they can feed into each other in a progressive spiral towards the desired 'end-state'.