A Roundtable dialogue hosted by Isandla Institute on 7 November 2012 therefore examined "The shape of things to come: Towards a more accountable, responsive and people-centred local government?" It placed a particular emphasis on discussing whether the proposed reforms will indeed bring about a more accountable, responsive and people-centred local government system and what the implications are for the three-way interface between public representatives, political parties and citizens.

To further enrich this debate Eduardo Pereira, Mayor of Várzea Paulista municipality in Sao Paulo, Brazil and President of the Brazilian Association of Mayors, shared relevant experiences and lessons from Brazil.

An article in the Cape Times discussing his inputs to the Roundtable can be found here: http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/taking-the-people-to-governance-1.1422429#.UKN1TYf0BK9

The consolidation of political participation and representation presupposes an active, engaged public that is able to claim rights, negotiate priorities and accept negotiated outcomes. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, dominant political cultures and institutional realities in South Africa militate against such an active citizenry. In the formal political arena of representative democracy, issue of substance tend to degenerate into mudslinging across party political lines. And the highly lauded edifice of public participation in local government is more often than not reduced to a symbolic, procedural and instrumentalist approach which at best results in wish lists where communities have little exposure to constraints, tradeoffs or priority setting. In addition to service delivery concerns, the lack of real influence on local decision making, combined with weak and seemingly unresponsive local leadership, are critical factors that serve to fuel recurring spates of community protests across the country.

The National Planning Commission (NPC) has been at the forefront of calling for active citizenship, which has found resonance with a wide range of actors and stakeholders. However, given the fractured nature of communities and weak non-partisan leadership at community level, there is a need to strengthen relevant competencies and capacities to enable the notion of active citizenship to become a reality. It is in this light that the idea of a citizenship academy as mooted in the 2011 National Development Plan is intriguing and potentially appealing.

Isandla Institute prepared a Discussion Paper before the event in order to clarify some of the key issues and questions raised by both the notions of active citizenship and the citizenship academy. This has been combined with a Roundtable Report in order to give an overview of the discussions that occurred during the day. The combined document can be found here.

Isandla Institute hosted a National Roundtable on the 18^th of October 2012 in Cape Town that brought together key stakeholders from the different spheres of the state, civil society, community leaders and other national organising bodies for honest and critical reflection on the opportunities and challenges created by embracing a participatory approach to incremental informal settlement upgrading. The day consisted of a keynote address from the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Ms Zou Kota-Fredericks, and a series of inputs from state officials, practitioners and NGOs to identify the key institutional, policy-related and practical levers available to municipal practitioners and civil society partners to ensure that the upgrading of informal settlements is done in partnership with communities.

In the recent past, there have been a number of discussions about the future of South Africa's provincial governments. These have largely emanated from within the structures of the African National Congress (ANC) and that of its Alliance partners. These discussions have centred on various issues but largely raise political, economic, and structural and administration (efficiency) questions. Currently, there is also an ongoing discussion in the public discourse about the crisis in some provincial departments pronounced even more by the National Treasury's recent use of Section 100 of the Constitution to intervene in a number of provinces: Limpopo, Gauteng and Free State provinces (albeit in different formats). However, less is said about the impact of these on local government and governance.

The Roundtable was well attended by key stakeholders, including political parties and state officials, who engaged in vibrant discussions about a range broad issues, including:

• The role provincial government plays in the current governance system and the arguments provided to retain/merge/scrap the current system
• The nature of problems with provincial government as a system and/or specific provincial administrations
• From the perspective of local government and local democracy, what are the benefits/drawbacks if provincial government in South Africa is retained, merged or scrapped?
• What are the implications for the powers and functions of local government and for overall municipal functioning? (What does it mean for the two-tier system of local government?)
• What are the likely implications for regional political structures and how could this affect the functioning of municipalities and local political structures?

As a result of these discussions the Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN) has formulated a joint position on these issues that can be found here.

To link to a web-based version of the artice click here, or a scan of the article here. For more on the overall Right to the City Dialogue Series click here.

To lay a basis for the discussions on the day, Isandla Institute produced a discussion paper to outline the most salient points. To read this paper click here. The main points of the day were captured in an op-ed published on the 3 October 2011 available here.