THEME 3 – Decision Making Processes

The Processes theme is divided according to the various sectors interviewed, namely Provincial Government, Local Government and Consultants. Interviewees were presented with a hypothetical scenario and asked to explain the decision making process in relation to this scenario. This section is best illustrated graphically, as did most of the interviewees. It was interesting that all the interviewees understood and translated the various processes in a very similar fashion.

This section of the interviews was formulated in an effort to understand the decision-making powers and to probe relations between the decision makers. It also relates to issues of institutionalism, such as the history of the institution and relationships among institutions, governance in terms of decision making processes and power relations between institutions and within institutions and how institutions influence decision making

PROVINCIAL

The hypothetical example that was given to both provincial officials was of a municipality applying to the Provincial Government to have its UDB or a section thereof, realigned. The relevant municipality would apply to the Provincial Authority, in this case the Department of Economic Development, specifically the Integrated Development Planning Unit, to realign the UDB. This would entail consultation with the relevant officials responsible for the UDB and

Page | 129 the submission of a motivation for the change in boundary alignment. The following sketch and associated comments were given to illustrate the process of adoption or rejection.

Figure 5.3: Decision Making Process of Provincial Government in terms of Spatial Decisions (as illustrated by both Provincial Interviewees)

The process illustrated by the Provincial Government Officials (Figure 5.3), showed an example of decision making that does not lie with the trained professionals, but rather in the hands of political players. A ‘no change’ recommendation was made at four stages within this process, this but was ignored at the final stage, where a change was approved. In this interview, it was stated that there is an element of suspicion related to such decisions, where some corruption might occur or where senior officials have their own agendas. For example, land, owned by a political player, is outside of the UDB and an application for realignment is arranged through someone else. Politicians will endorse the recommendation by the particular officials if it is in their favour or reject it if it isn’t. This constitutes a serious allegation or suspicion on the officials’ side, but interviewees reiterated that this is seen and experienced on a regular basis. The officials expressed that they are employed and paid for their expertise and knowledge, but that it seldom influences decisions made by higher-ranking officials and politicians.

The sentiment of the officials was that they are detached from final decisions in terms of the process above and that there is limited communication between them and the decision

Municipality would apply to the Department of Economic Development (DED) to have the UDB realigned in a certain area – the Municipality would have consultations with the DED to discuss and debate this. After the consultation period and the submission of the application the Municipality might get an indication of the likely outcome, which in this case might be NO CHANGES.

1

The DED reassesses the application in-house and writes a recommendation on the matter based on facts presented and discussed. The recommendation is for NO CHANGES. Change font

2

At this stage it was indicated that professional planners apply their mind and professional discretion to the proposal in writing the recommendation.

The recommendation is sent to the Head of Department of DED where an endorsement is sought for the recommendation – the recommendation would be endorsed for NO CHANGES

3

The recommendation is sent to the Head of Departments Forum of Provincial Government where a further endorsement is sought for the recommendation – the recommendation would be endorsed for NO CHANGES.

4

The recommendation is sent to the Executive Committee (EXCO) of Provincial Government where an endorsement is sought for the recommendation – the recommendation would be denied and the application for CHANGES would be approved.

5

Page | 130 makers except for the respective recommendations made. This means that they are left

“between a rock and a hard place” as there is disparity between what they communicate to applicants, regarding their views and recommendations and what the outcome is. This creates tension and may, in some cases, damage professional relationships between officials at various government levels.

The example given to interviewees was that of the City of Johannesburg. The Provincial officials noted that if the author had chosen another city as a case study, i.e. Tshwane or Ekurhuleni, a different relationship dynamic would be made known. No secret was made, in either the interviews with the Provincial Officials or the interviews with Local Government Officials, that tension exists between these two spheres of government due to the urban development boundary issue. This relationship has been ‘damaged’ and is somewhat strained due to the above mentioned issues occurring. Both parties stated that the City of Johannesburg has little regard for what is said and decided at Provincial level, as the Provincial UDB is not legislated through an act of law, whereas the Municipal UDB is legislated through the Municipal Systems Act through the formulation of the IDP. This process of engagement, between the two spheres of government around the alignment of the UDB, occurs as a form of, or rather an attempt at, intergovernmental alignment and co-operative governance. However, good intentions do not always have the desired outcomes and in some cases, such above, it is only done for reasons of protocol and because it is required. In terms of legislation, that provincial government oversees local government activities to a certain extent. Exactly how this area should work is and not clearly understood by the interviewees or the author. The process is compliance driven rather than strategic and integrated between spheres of government and shows strained governance relations between the role-players.

One of the consultants noted that power struggles and processes of decision making are a common problem in provinces where larger and stronger municipalities exist, such as the Western Cape and Gauteng in particular.

A further example of tension between Gauteng Provincial Government and the City of Johannesburg is that of the ongoing legal woes between the two parties relating to the Development Facilitation Act and the Gauteng Development Facilitation Act Tribunal. In short and without any legal jargon, the City of Johannesburg had taken the Gauteng Development Facilitation Act Tribunal to court as they felt that Provincial Government had no authority to make decisions in their area of jurisdiction relating to land use applications. The issue was raised when the City of Johannesburg felt that the Tribunal made decisions contrary to their policy and the City subsequently gave no regard to their decisions and the outcomes thereof in terms of updating land use records in the City’s registry. This has left land owners, who have made use of this avenue to apply for land use changes, in limbo as the rights have been granted by one authority but is not recognised by another. This means that should the land owner exercise his rights without the Local Authority accepting the Provincial decision, the Local Authority could deem the use illegal and take legal action against the land owner.

This illustrates that the relationship between two spheres of government has been compromised, with this legal exercise underway for between four and five years. Government

Page | 131 relationships therefore impact on property owners, as two spheres of government, which should ultimately strive for the same outcomes and goals, are at loggerheads with each other in terms of power issues where real decision making has been brought into question. The court cases thus far have been ruled in favour of the Provincial Authority, yet the City of Johannesburg continues to fight the decision and has been granted leave to appeal.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

In the case of the interviews with local government officials, the hypothetical example was given that a new policy document was to be developed and approved. Interviewees were then asked to explain the process of adoption/rejection within the local government set up.

The Local Authority, in this case the City of Johannesburg, has a very clear process of policy formulation and adoption, as illustrated in Figure 5.4, and discussed by the various local government officials.

Figure 5.4 illustrates the adoption process of policy documents as a whole. I was also interested in whether new concepts are continually being introduced into these documents.

The interviewees stated that the introduction of new concepts are limited but that minor adjustments to current SSC are continually being introduced through document review processes. The current concepts, as shown in Chapter 4, are continually being refined and monitored for performance. Interviewees were asked what the procedure would be in the event that new concepts are introduced. The responses received included that desktop studies are undertaken and sometimes such concepts would be tested in a pilot study.

One response was rather intriguing as Interviewee C stated clearly that, in some instances, new concepts are picked up on by politicians who in turn ‘force’ or the agenda to incorporate or use such concepts. An example given by the interviewee, was the Gauteng Global City Region (GGCR). I probed whether the City of Johannesburg was involved in the study of this concept and it was stated that it should involve the City, as it would naturally form part of the GGCR, but no interaction had occurred between the City, neighbouring cities or Gauteng Province, who were the drivers of this agenda at the time of the interview. I searched for global city region related topics on the City of Johannesburg website and it was interesting to find that the City had actually been involved in this process but that it was political involvement rather than officials being involved. Twelve articles were located on www.joburg.org.za produced during the period from May 2004 to September 2008. It was interesting to note that the Mayor of the CoJ was part of an overseas delegation to ‘study’

global city regions dating back to July 2005, yet this official was unaware of this development, which directly impacts on their daily work.

Page | 132 Figure 5.4: The Decision Making Process of the Adoption/Rejection of Policy/Documents in the City of Johannesburg.

It is interesting to note the contrast in terms of political ‘interference’, if one could call it that.

No sense of political manipulation was given in the decision making process here, as was presented with the provincial government scenario. However, from the earlier information presented above, it is evident that a new concept was being explored by politicians without the input of officials.

CONSULTANTS

The consultants interviewed had different opinions of the City of Johannesburg’s decision-making styles and project management, which influenced the outcome of projects undertaken by appointed consultants. The decision-making or adoption process in Figure 5.4 applies to this sector’s work in relation to the City’s commissioned documents the author was interested uncover whether Consultants had the ability to introduce new concepts through work commissioned by the City.

Formulation of Spatial Policy/Document by Development Planning and Facilitation Department – overseen by Assistant Director(s) and Director

1 The study is usually undertaken by a Specialist or Senior

Specialist within the Department with the assistance of an Officer in some cases.

The study could also be undertaken by an appointed consultant which is project managed by a Specialist or Senior Specialist in the Department.

The process is rigorously regulated and checked against the necessary public participation processes advocated by the CoJ.

Policy/Document is ‘briefed’ to the Executive Director and Member of Mayoral Committee for Development Planning and Urban Management

2

The briefing is usually done by the Specialist, Senior Specialist or Assistant Director involved or even the Director of Development Planning and Facilitation.

The Policy/Document is presented to the Mayoral Committee for approval.

3

Once the Policy/Document is approved by the Mayoral Committee, it is presented to the Section 79 Committee who oversees the decisions taken by the Mayoral Committee.

4

The Policy/Document is presented to the full Council of the City of Johannesburg for approval.

5

Should the Section 79 not be in agreement with the decision of the Mayoral Committee, a report is produced by this Committee to state its grievances which is then presented to full Council for a final decision.

Page | 133 The consultants were asked whether or not they had the ability or scope to change or introduce concepts to the work they were doing. The consultants’ experience was different in this regard. Interviewee G stated that they had the scope to introduce and influence the thinking of the project manager handling the process and project from the City of Johannesburg’s side and Interviewee H conveyed that the officials of the City of Johannesburg are very fixed in their thinking and final product expectation. In these instances the project managers were different City officials, but they worked under the same Assistant Director and section within Development Planning and Facilitation.

In trying to understand this the author spoke to a City official, who said that taking a stronger lead in the City’s projects versus leaving the consultants to do their own work and merely guiding where seen appropriate, is partly personality dependant,. It is also dependant on how the project is structured and whether the City officials have a clear idea of what they need or what they want to come from projects. This situation will usually result in some preconceived ideas being placed on the table for consultants to work with. This was one of the comments made by Interviewee H, who had worked in the situation where fixed ideas and thinking were in place before the work was commissioned.

The author also asked how the consultants went about doing their projects and deciding on which concepts to strongly advocate in their project areas and policy documents. It was quite interesting to notice the different approaches.

Consultant 1’s approach was looking at principles advocated from a national level down to the local level and then only looking at structuring elements. In clarifying this point, he stated that the overall principles were to look at what the long term objectives are, as contained in the National Spatial Development Framework, legislation and policy frameworks, after which, the structuring elements, such as nodes and corridors will be investigated. The structuring elements would be analysed in terms of what the principles’ needs were, after which, a strong focus would fall on Transit Oriented Development, a fairly recent concept around which other concepts work, such as nodes, corridors and densification. Other considerations mentioned were the environment, competitive versus comparative advantage and also land use budgets. When asked what was meant by Land Use Budgets, it was explained that this referred to calculating available land for the different types of development and looking at how much land would actually be needed to accomplish the various proposals to ensure their success.

Interviewee H had a different approach to this and started by analysing an area’s status quo and analysing the various policy documents, which related to an area directly. From this, direct interventions would be examined, to enhance an area through the usage of urban structuring elements, which were categorised as nodes, corridors and urban development boundaries. The philosophy was to make an area functional, to view it holistically and look at it in relation to its surrounding areas and broader functionality. The process would be one of evaluating various scenarios and making recommendations on the desired outcome of an area. In most cases, the City Officials would have an input in stating what the desired outcome should be and also in defining and deciding on the preferred scenario. Limited

Page | 134 reference was made in this interview to other spheres of government’s documents or strategies and a localised approach is employed in the consulting work.