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The government as role player in the development context

Government can be defined as an institution, a system or a group of people with the

authority to govern a country or a state (Oxford Dictionaries). The main purpose of
government is to promote the welfare of the citizens and the country as a whole by
providing goods and services to the people, for the public good (Davids & Maphunye,
2005:52).

There are different levels of government which includes the national, provincial and local levels.

In this module we are focussing on the role of the national government and the local government as
role player in the development context.

National government
Davids and Maphunye (2005:52) emphasizes that in South Africa, the role of the state is deliberately
focused towards promoting the development of all South Africans. They explain that the national
government has many different state departments which are involved – you can see the list of
departments on page 56.

For this module we are however focusing on the “big picture”, general role of government in
development rather than going into detail regarding departments. The main source for this will be
Swanepoel (1997).

In his chapter on “The state and development”, Swanepoel (1997:56) explains that that the state or
government has a very “definitive” and even “decisive” role to play in development since successful
development cannot happen without a strong commitment from government. He continues to
explain that government needs to make a long-term commitment to development, to make sure
that it provides a climate for development.

On page 56 and 57 he identifies three important inputs government has to provide:

 National policy support

 Administrative support
 National planning and programming

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Read the material to make sure you understand the three contributions of government to
development.

On page 57-63 Swanepoel (1997) discusses four potential roles government can play in
development:

 The state/government as policy maker

 The state/government as policy implementor
 The state as benefactor
 The state as development supporter

Read these pages carefully and make sure that you understand each of the potential roles
government can play in development.

Pay special attention to the idea of participation by regular citizens in creating policies for
development. Swanepoel (1997:58) explains that policies should reflect the needs and sentiments of
the people for whom it is intended and therefore government must make sure they know and
understand these needs and sentiments by involving people in the process.

Regarding the potential roles government can play in development, Swanepoel (1997) concludes
that the most important roles governments in developing countries should play is in policy making
and supporting of development. He argues that in developing countries government often does not
have the capacity to implement policies or to act as benefactor to development. Government
should rather focus on the roles they are good at: formulating policies that enables development
and supporting development initiated and managed by other role players.

Davids and Maphunye (2005:53) state that “The public sector primarily designs and implements
policies and programmes that aim to fulfil the government’s broad social and economic development
objectives”. On pages 53-54 they explain that the government is doing the following:

 formulates social and economic policies

 designs and implements public programmes
 raises revenue
 manages accountability

Read these two pages to understand what government is currently doing.

With regard to the Sustainable Development Goals, The CSIR (2017) states that government
institutions have a critical role to play in the implementation of the SDGs in South Africa. It

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highlights different departments that have a specific role to play. An important argument made in
this document is that the SDGs should be aligned with the National Development Plan (NDP) of the
country. This document identifies the same problems faced by government as identified by
Swanepoel (1997): implementation and financing. It concludes that government should play an
important role in attracting financing from the private sector.

Please read page 3 of the CSIR document regarding the government cluster’s role in the SDGs.

Local government
The local government, or municipalities, are functioning the closest to people on grass roots level
and therefore they are often considered to be the most important level of government since they
can make sure that people are in the centre of development initiatives by facilitating participation
(Atkinson, 2002:3; Davids & Maphunye, 2005: 59).

Atkinson (2002:3) explains that local government are ‘closest to the people’ geographically since
these offices are easiest for people to reach; that local councillors can concentrate on local matters
that are community specific and that local councillors must, due to the ward system attend to the
needs and interests of people in specific neighbourhoods. Local government tend to understand the
problems and needs of people in local communities better that other levels of government, since
people working for local government are often living in the local communities and are therefore part
of the communities.

The objectives of local governments regarding development includes:

 provision of services to the communities in a sustainable manner

 promoting social and economic development
 encouraging involvement of communities in local government
 participating in national and provincial development programmes
 working with local communities to make sure their needs are met in a sustainable way and
to meet their quality of life
 playing an integrating and coordinating role between public and private investment
 democratise development by empowering the poor
 building social conditions favourable to development
 promotion of local economic development (LED)
 community empowerment and redistribution
(Davids & Maphunye, 2005: 59-60).

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Local government/municipalities should do integrated development planning, budgeting and

performance monitoring.

Every municipality should create its own Integrated Development Plan (IDP). This should be a
bottom-up process where each municipality should get the input of the citizens in that area to
determine their unique needs, problems and expectations (Davids & Maphunye, 2005: 60-61).

Davids and Maphunye (2005: 61) formulates it like this:

Essentially, and IDP sets out the vision, needs, priorities, goals and strategies of a municipal
council to develop the municipality during its term of office, as part of a long-term vision and
plan for development. Public participation in governance is a defining feature of the new
system of local governance… Public participation both in the content of the IDP and the
process which it is drafted, is compulsory. Municipalities have to contribute to building the
capacity of the local community to participate in municipal affairs and the councillors and
the officials to foster public participation. The IDP provides the framework for determining
the budget of the municipality.

Sources
Atkinson, D. 2002. Local government, local governance and sustainable development: getting the
parameters right. Cape Town: HSRC. http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?
productid=2000&freedownload=1 Datum gebruik: 7 Aug 2007.

CSIR. 2017. The sustainable development goals in South Africa: key actors, roles relationships and
gaps. http://www.nstf.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CSIR_Sustainable-Development-
Goals_Briefing-Note.pdf Date of use: 18 Jul 2018.

Davids, I. & Maphunye, K.J. 2005. The public sector: promoting development and good governance.
(In Davids, I, Theron, & Maphunye, K. J. eds. 2005. Participatory development in South Africa: a
development management perspective. Pretoria : Van Schaik. p. 52-65).

Swanepoel, H. 1997. The state and development. (In Swanepoel, H. & De Beer, F. eds. 1997.
Introduction to development studies. Johannesburg: Thompson. p. 56-64).

Dr EM Kloppers NWU 2018