Decentralising housing function from provincial to local government in South Africa : a case study of municipal accreditation programme

Abstract

The debate on decentralisation has intensified on various global platforms wherein both developed and developing countries demonstrate interest in the subject. It is acknowledged by scholars and practitioners in the fields of social sciences and management sciences that decentralisation increases power and authority in sub-national governments. In the South African context, the Constitution of the Republic South Africa (RSA) (Section 156(4)) provides that functions such as the housing function must be assigned to local government. The Municipal Accreditation Programme as implemented by the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) is a classic case of decentralising (delegating and devolving) the housing function from one sphere of government to another in South Africa (DHS, 2012). Regardless of the constitutional provision for decentralisation, the challenge encountered is that the provincial sphere of government is unwilling to delegate and devolve the housing function to local government. As such, a scientific investigation was more than likely to unearth some of the reasons for the unwillingness and challenges affecting the Accreditation Programme in order to provide possible solutions and policy recommendations regarding the problem identified. The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges and perceptions on decentralising the housing function to the local government in South Africa using the case of the Accreditation Programme. The study was anchored by the Weberian Theory of Bureaucracy and Rationalisation. Also, Peter Evans’s embedded thesis was utilised as ancillary to Weberian theory. A qualitative research study was conducted wherein an exploratory case study design was adopted. Purposive sampling was utilised to single out relevant participants for the research problem identified. Interviews were conducted to gather data and thematic data analysis was utilised to analyse data. Besides the solutions provided which are more on the applied dimension for the empirical contribution of the study, this study also provides a theoretical contribution by suggesting some fundamental basis of a Weberian developmental state theory in the South African context. The empirical and theoretical contribution that this study provides address the researcher’s quest to contribute in generating knowledge on the subject of decentralisation.