Richard Calland

Thabo Mbeki's World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President

A mythology - both positive and negative - envelops Thabo Mbeki, the South African president who succeeded Nelson Mandela 1999. Key questions arise - Does he have an ideology? If so, what informs it, and how does it translate into practice?

The Impact and Effectiveness of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives: Freedom of Information

Analysis of the impact and effectiveness of Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation has been hampered by lack of systematic evidence and conceptual confusion about what kind of right it represents. This article discusses some of the main conceptual parameters of FOI theory, before reviewing the available evidence from a range of studies. It presents case studies of civil-society activism on FOI in India and South Africa to illustrate the extent to which access to information is having an impact, in particular on socio-economic conditions. After reviewing the range of approaches used, it concludes that the academic community and the FOI community of practice need to come together to devise robust and rigorous methodologies.

Participatory democracy meets the hard rock of energy policy: South Africa's National Integrated Resource Plan

South Africa faces a demanding period of policymaking in search of sustainable energy solutions, which are required if the country is to reduce future increase in its greenhouse gas emissions. The most recent platform for this process was the drafting of the Integrated Resource Plan 2 (IRP 2). The Constitutional provisions that require participation in law-making have been strengthened, placing an onus on government to facilitate public involvement. This article examines the extent to which constitutional and statutory duty to permit meaningful public participation was met in developing the IRP2. In South Africa there are many obstacles to effective engagement, attenuated by the complexities of the political context, social inequities, and imperatives of economic growth. The case demonstrates that where civil society organizations develop strategic and technical capacity, they can begin to overcome these obstacles and compete with incumbent corporate stakeholders whose vested interest lies in monopolizing more secretive and exclusionary decision processes, where government departments struggle to address the scale, urgency and inter-connected complexity of sustainable development. But the IRP 2 case study is also a cautionary tale that demonstrates the limits of what can be achieved through constructive dialogue if stakeholders have uneven access to decision-making processes and uneven capacity to have influence, especially in processes where a premium is placed on technical expertise and where that expert knowledge may be used to manipulate outcomes.

Introduction: Navigating the Transparency Landscape in Africa

This chapter is an African account of progress made and setbacks suffered, but also an account of challenges and obstacles that confront both policy-makers and practitioners, challenges that must be overcome if access to information (ATI) is to make a distinctive, positive contribution to the continents democratic and socio-economic future. Idemudias thematic case study describes an approach to ATI based on voluntary disclosure, inviting the re-thinking of a link between transparency and accountability by drawing from the experience of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Nigeria. Commissioned by the ATI Working Committee of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL), the chapters in this book wrestle with the implications for African countries of global developments in ATI, and contribute constructively to the debate by presenting in-depth analyses from African scholars and practitioners. Keywords: access to information (ATI); Africa; Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL);African scholars

Access to Information in Africa

As a new praxis emerges, in Access to Information in Africa for the first time African scholars and practitioners reflect on recent advances on the continent, as well as the obstacles that must still be overcome if greater public access to information is to make a distinctive contribution to Africas democratic and socio-economic future.

Sandile Ngcobo: A Short Study in Judicial Leadership

This is a personal tribute to the retired Chief Justice discussing his judicial leadership as he held the position of Chief Justice. It seeks to fill a gap and to ensure that this aspect of Justice Ngcobo’s professional record is not overlooked. This tribute does not attempt to delve into the academic literature related to judicial governance and leadership other than in passing, and nor does it draw on the even bigger scholarly pool on leadership in general. Instead, it offers a discursive, somewhat personal account of my perception of the leadership role that Ngcobo played, especially during his brief, but to my mind, seminal period as Chief Justice between 2009-2011.