ABSTRACTS Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges

This document is a collection of abstracts for the COMPACT National Research Conference 2025, titled "Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges." The abstracts outline various research papers and provocations focused on enhancing citizen participation, gender and youth inclusivity, innovative urban practices, and performance monitoring within South African municipalities.

• South Africa's local government is described as being in a structural contradiction, where it is "constitutionally developmental, yet functionally neoliberal," with austerity and market-led delivery weakening municipal legitimacy.
• To reclaim developmental local government, researchers propose a shift toward "democratic decommodification and fiscal justice from below," which includes the use of devolved participatory budgeting, community-led social audits, and the right to recall non-performing councillors.
• The right to water in South Africa is often undermined by dysfunctional municipalities, leading communities to use "invented spaces" (arenas for participation created by communities) when "invited spaces" (government-created arenas) fail or are not provided.
• Digital tools are being deployed to bridge the information gap between citizens and officials. The 'fixlocal' tool, launched in May 2025, helps citizens report problems and identify councillors, while Open Cities Lab's MyCandidate and MyRepresentative platforms track councillor performance and provide electoral information.
• Gender dynamics significantly impact political communication in municipalities; women tend to use "relational and collaborative communication styles," whereas men typically dominate "formal and institutional channels."
• The City of Cape Town's Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Index, introduced in 2023 and refined in 2024, has led to significant service improvements, including reducing median turnaround times for electricity connections from 91 to 27 days and reducing business license approvals by over 60%.
• Performance Management Systems (PMS) in the Polokwane Local Municipality have not been effectively implemented, with issues including minimal employee involvement in planning and a lack of awareness among employees regarding their performance targets in the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP).
• There is a call to treat digital and data systems as essential "public infrastructure" rather than fragmented IT projects, arguing that "digital reform is governance reform" and should be embedded in the updated White Paper on Local Government.

APA

Public Affairs Research Institute (2025). ABSTRACTS Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/COMPACTnatconfABSTRACTdigi56.pdf

Chicago

Public Affairs Research Institute. ABSTRACTS Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges. 2025. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/COMPACTnatconfABSTRACTdigi56.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Public Affairs Research Institute |title=ABSTRACTS Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges |date=2025 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/COMPACTnatconfABSTRACTdigi56.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{publicaffairsresearchinstitute2025abstracts, author = {{Public Affairs Research Institute}}, title = {{ABSTRACTS Reimagining Developmental Local Government: New Approaches to Legacy Challenges}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2025}, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/COMPACTnatconfABSTRACTdigi56.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }