Conflict and accommodation: The politics of rural local government in the post-apartheid South Africa

The point of departure in this dissertation is that traditional leadership remains an important political force within the modern African states. Its role and form of accommodation within the modern state has come into sharp focus in the context of democratizing states. Post-apartheid South Africa, just like many post-colonial African countries, faces a challenge of accommodating traditional authority particularly in its local government system. The focus of this study is on the politics of South African rural local government with particular attention on the relationship between the traditional leaders, elected local councilors and local civic leaders. The first chapters of the study provide a context by looking at the literature on this subject as well historical evolution of South African rural local government and reactions of traditional leaders to liberation politics into the current configuration of rural local government in post-apartheid democratic South Africa.;This comparative case study looks at factors and variables that are associated with conflict and cooperation between traditional leaders, elected local councilors and civic leaders. The questions that this study seeks to answer are the following: What is the composition, function and structure of rural local government in the post-apartheid South Africa? What sorts of relations have actually evolved between the traditional leaders and the emergent political elite of elected councilors? What are the factors that are associated with conflictual relations and cooperative or accommodative relations between the traditional leaders and the elected councilors and civic leaders?;Nine South African rural communities in three provinces, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, are surveyed. A range of demographic and attitudinal variables as well as leadership styles were assessed to examine if they had any association with one form of relationship or another. The findings in this study and analysis indicated that age, education, party affiliation, income, and employment status are demographic variables that have influence on or are associated with rural elite relations. More specifically, this study indicates that cooperation is associated with communities where traditional elites and elected councilors or civic leaders share most the aforementioned attributes and demographic features whereas conflict is associated with instances where they have less in common. Leadership style also proved to be an important factor in rural elite relations though more needs to be done to understand the specific manner this variable impacts on the relationship. Overall, this study reveals challenges of accommodating two distinct political systems within a modern democratic arrangement, but also demonstrates that this arrangement does not always end up in conflict.