Editorial 2003 (2)

With the adoption of South Africa's 1996 Constitution, local government was given a new status as a distinctive, interdependent and interrelated sphere of government. As the closest sphere of government to the people, an elaborate legal framework was constructed to give effect to its developmental role.

Although success is not assured, the bold experiment that South Africa has embarked on by placing faith in the developmental potential of local government has wide implications for the rest of Africa. The articles in this special collection, arising from a project on local government based on cooperative research among a number of universities, shed light on some of the important issues bound up with this endeavour.

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