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The Government of the Republic of South Africa is committed to establishing a society grounded on democratic ideals, social fairness and fundamental human rights. For this to happen, any decisions to be taken by the government need to be justified, or that for decisions that have been taken, an explanation is made to the affected people if requeste...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... hermeneutics there is bias. Bias in this case means the fore understanding the interpreter has before any context or dialogue. This is not to mean anything negative, however, it might become negative is there is no dialogue (Gadamer, 1994). This approach by Gadamer is not subjective neither is it relativist, on the other hand it goes to mean pre-judgement. They are not substantiated by any other experiences. In cases of misunderstanding, when we understand the meaning of another, then we need to be aware of our own prejudices. We now proceed to take the interpreted data through the hermeneutic analysis as laid out above. Below are the findings that came out of the iterative process. Using web-based GSS resulted in lower costs by eliminating some expenses involved in appealing against adverse decisions in administrative action such as the postage fees and the travel costs. The web-based GSS also resulted in a lower time in the appeal process because the case participants did not have to wait in the lines to be attended to. Before using the web based GSS none of the participants had every known what was happening with their application until they received a letter from administrator. With the web based GSS, they now knew the progress and felt that if there was any problem they would know about it and respond to it appropriately. We noted that in both the townships, there was a dire lack of technology infrastructure and initiatives. This translates to two issues, the first is that when attempting to use a technology tool, one must be ready to offer training in using computers and then in the GSS tool particularly and the second to facilitate on behalf of the case participants on using the technology tool. Both the participants had never heard of the AJA. We then raised their awareness of the AJA to the case participants at which Grace told us that before we explained to her the right, she thought that pursuing for just administrative action was like “putting her finger in termites and hoping they will not bite.” For her, pursuing the adverse decision equated to putting her life and family in harms way. The case participants expressed gratitude about being chosen for the research and were as such more than willing to provide any information that was needed. Alex said, “please tell me if there is any more information you need.” Grace gave us her personal number insisting that she would like to be kept informed through the whole process. Both Alex and Grace accepted the offer to be helped the firs time we approached them. Grace misinterpreted the rejection letter. We conceive that the misinterpretation was due to the fact that the letter was in a language which she was not able to communicate in and / or she was not able to read. The rejection letters are designed to be sent out in any of the 11 official languages of South Africa. It is possible that the language preference was not communicated in the application. The rejection letters, because they do not have all the information that should accompany it as required by the AJA does not give the full picture to the affected person. This could probably be because system that prints the letters has not been programmed to add this information. Another important finding of the research was the development of the analysis framework that combines the hermeneutic approach and the action research method. This framework is shown in the figure below in figure 3. The analysis framework builds on the circular relationships of the hermeneutic circle and defines the understanding of the text by passing it through the action research lens. The new understanding is shaped by the new information that is acquired while passing through the action research lens. We refer to figure 1 showing the action research cycle and how it would be used to collect data. In the analysis framework we use the action research cycle to ground the understanding from the text before it passes to the context in figure 3. Codes were used for the different stages of the analysis within a grid in table 1. The understanding from the test is the interpreted data INT, the diagnosis is D, the action planning if AP, the action taking is AT, the evaluation code is EV while the specify learning stage is SL. It is this new understanding that is passed to the context in the framework. We take for example, the lack of computers in the townships INT1. When taken through an action research lens, new understanding is gained at each of the five stages of the action research cycle. At the diagnosis stage (D) we realise that even if the people had computers, they would not be able to use them because of the lack of computer training. When taken through action planning (AP), we grasp that awareness for the use of computers will need to be raised before computers can be introduced. At the action taking stage (AT) the people responsible would begin enacting the plans considered at the AP stage such as making proposals to address the problem (AT). Such action would then need to be evaluated (EV) against the current programs and a level of priority given to this project. By such we would specify (SL) that we now know that there are no computers in the townships because the government initiatives concerning computer usage in every municipality has not reached that particular area. This would be the new understanding that the administrator receives different from the simple understanding that would have come from the text. Similarly from the grid we noticed that the people lack awareness concerning the AJA as a result of the inability of government to reach the townships and raise the awareness of the AJA to the people there, INT 2. This awareness could be raised using the community development workers (CDW) that the government plans to rollout in one of its computer initiatives discussed later in the context and that the townships should to request that they receive a CDW before the initiative is in that area. The case participant also believed that our intervention would result in result in a positive result. This is also an issue of an over expectation of what computers are able to do. Awareness would need to be raised When the letter was interpreted wrongly, we understood it to mean that the CDW would also need to explain the people what the letter means and what to do about it. The CDW’s would need to be trained to correctly give the true meaning of the text and later on, ensure that the people understand what is being explained. This would also apply to the people who are illiterate. The government of South African has two particular initiatives called the Batho Pele and the Multi-Purpose Community Centre which will, in the future, positively influence the ability to use the web based GSS tools to enhance procedural fairness in administrative action. “Batho Pele” is a South African Government white paper on transforming the Public Service. It sets out a procedural structure and a functional approach to transforming Public Service Delivery (South Africa, 1997). Batho Pele, a Se-Sotho term meaning “People First”, is based on eight national standards of consulting users of service, setting service standards, increasing access, ensuring courtesy, providing more and better information, increasing openness and transparency, remedying mistakes and failures and getting the best possible value for money. These values bear a relationship with procedural fairness in just administrative action. Batho Pele tasks administrators at the national and provincial level with a fast response to the people of South Africa. In consulting citizens and providing more and better information with a view to transparency and openness, procedural fairness is fulfilled. The ideals of Batho Pele are designed to take government closer to the people and are available online on the Batho Pele Gateway portal (). The Batho Pele standards and governments involvement in development activities are envisaged to be delivered to the people through Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs). Multi-Purpose Community Centres are community service centres which are and will be based in each district and metropolitan council. At these centres each government department will be represented to provide all government services such as grants, social security pension, health, education, passports, identity documents and government products ( The MPCC concept was initially started in 1998 but slowly fell silent as the years progressed. By 2000 there was almost no mention of it. At the first launch of the MPCC information technology was not used extensively to support the structures. However, as at April 2004 government renewed its commitment to implement the concept using a hybrid of information and communication technology. At each MPCC there is a Batho Pele Gateway Portal office where people coming to the MPCC first report. It is at this office that the visit and inquiry are recorded ...
Context 2
... hermeneutics there is bias. Bias in this case means the fore understanding the interpreter has before any context or dialogue. This is not to mean anything negative, however, it might become negative is there is no dialogue (Gadamer, 1994). This approach by Gadamer is not subjective neither is it relativist, on the other hand it goes to mean pre-judgement. They are not substantiated by any other experiences. In cases of misunderstanding, when we understand the meaning of another, then we need to be aware of our own prejudices. We now proceed to take the interpreted data through the hermeneutic analysis as laid out above. Below are the findings that came out of the iterative process. Using web-based GSS resulted in lower costs by eliminating some expenses involved in appealing against adverse decisions in administrative action such as the postage fees and the travel costs. The web-based GSS also resulted in a lower time in the appeal process because the case participants did not have to wait in the lines to be attended to. Before using the web based GSS none of the participants had every known what was happening with their application until they received a letter from administrator. With the web based GSS, they now knew the progress and felt that if there was any problem they would know about it and respond to it appropriately. We noted that in both the townships, there was a dire lack of technology infrastructure and initiatives. This translates to two issues, the first is that when attempting to use a technology tool, one must be ready to offer training in using computers and then in the GSS tool particularly and the second to facilitate on behalf of the case participants on using the technology tool. Both the participants had never heard of the AJA. We then raised their awareness of the AJA to the case participants at which Grace told us that before we explained to her the right, she thought that pursuing for just administrative action was like “putting her finger in termites and hoping they will not bite.” For her, pursuing the adverse decision equated to putting her life and family in harms way. The case participants expressed gratitude about being chosen for the research and were as such more than willing to provide any information that was needed. Alex said, “please tell me if there is any more information you need.” Grace gave us her personal number insisting that she would like to be kept informed through the whole process. Both Alex and Grace accepted the offer to be helped the firs time we approached them. Grace misinterpreted the rejection letter. We conceive that the misinterpretation was due to the fact that the letter was in a language which she was not able to communicate in and / or she was not able to read. The rejection letters are designed to be sent out in any of the 11 official languages of South Africa. It is possible that the language preference was not communicated in the application. The rejection letters, because they do not have all the information that should accompany it as required by the AJA does not give the full picture to the affected person. This could probably be because system that prints the letters has not been programmed to add this information. Another important finding of the research was the development of the analysis framework that combines the hermeneutic approach and the action research method. This framework is shown in the figure below in figure 3. The analysis framework builds on the circular relationships of the hermeneutic circle and defines the understanding of the text by passing it through the action research lens. The new understanding is shaped by the new information that is acquired while passing through the action research lens. We refer to figure 1 showing the action research cycle and how it would be used to collect data. In the analysis framework we use the action research cycle to ground the understanding from the text before it passes to the context in figure 3. Codes were used for the different stages of the analysis within a grid in table 1. The understanding from the test is the interpreted data INT, the diagnosis is D, the action planning if AP, the action taking is AT, the evaluation code is EV while the specify learning stage is SL. It is this new understanding that is passed to the context in the framework. We take for example, the lack of computers in the townships INT1. When taken through an action research lens, new understanding is gained at each of the five stages of the action research cycle. At the diagnosis stage (D) we realise that even if the people had computers, they would not be able to use them because of the lack of computer training. When taken through action planning (AP), we grasp that awareness for the use of computers will need to be raised before computers can be introduced. At the action taking stage (AT) the people responsible would begin enacting the plans considered at the AP stage such as making proposals to address the problem (AT). Such action would then need to be evaluated (EV) against the current programs and a level of priority given to this project. By such we would specify (SL) that we now know that there are no computers in the townships because the government initiatives concerning computer usage in every municipality has not reached that particular area. This would be the new understanding that the administrator receives different from the simple understanding that would have come from the text. Similarly from the grid we noticed that the people lack awareness concerning the AJA as a result of the inability of government to reach the townships and raise the awareness of the AJA to the people there, INT 2. This awareness could be raised using the community development workers (CDW) that the government plans to rollout in one of its computer initiatives discussed later in the context and that the townships should to request that they receive a CDW before the initiative is in that area. The case participant also believed that our intervention would result in result in a positive result. This is also an issue of an over expectation of what computers are able to do. Awareness would need to be raised When the letter was interpreted wrongly, we understood it to mean that the CDW would also need to explain the people what the letter means and what to do about it. The CDW’s would need to be trained to correctly give the true meaning of the text and later on, ensure that the people understand what is being explained. This would also apply to the people who are illiterate. The government of South African has two particular initiatives called the Batho Pele and the Multi-Purpose Community Centre which will, in the future, positively influence the ability to use the web based GSS tools to enhance procedural fairness in administrative action. “Batho Pele” is a South African Government white paper on transforming the Public Service. It sets out a procedural structure and a functional approach to transforming Public Service Delivery (South Africa, 1997). Batho Pele, a Se-Sotho term meaning “People First”, is based on eight national standards of consulting users of service, setting service standards, increasing access, ensuring courtesy, providing more and better information, increasing openness and transparency, remedying mistakes and failures and getting the best possible value for money. These values bear a relationship with procedural fairness in just administrative action. Batho Pele tasks administrators at the national and provincial level with a fast response to the people of South Africa. In consulting citizens and providing more and better information with a view to transparency and openness, procedural fairness is fulfilled. The ideals of Batho Pele are designed to take government closer to the people and are available online on the Batho Pele Gateway portal (). The Batho Pele standards and governments involvement in development activities are envisaged to be delivered to the people through Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs). Multi-Purpose Community Centres are community service centres which are and will be based in each district and metropolitan council. At these centres each government department will be represented to provide all government services such as grants, social security pension, health, education, passports, identity documents and government products ( The MPCC ...
Citations
... Despite heavy investments, public service delivery as a collaborative approach still remains a significant challenge in South Africa [8,9,12,13]. In most instances, both the government administrators and people do not know how to operationalise public service delivery especially because they lack the necessary skills [14] and because many people remain suspicious of the government [15]. Public service delivery hence remains the traditional one way communication channel from the government. ...
... The third activity in the workshops of 2005 and 2006, was where the background of the PAJA Act was given to help participants understand the purposes of the Act, and the requirements and instances in which the Act can be invoked (Table 4 Practical Session on PAJA Act followed the brief overview of the Act. In 2005 and 2006, real case scenarios from previous research in this area [15] were used to simulate interaction between a government administrator and a citizen who had been affected by administrative action. In 2007 (2008) a pre-formatted example used by the government in training its administrators on how to implement the PAJA was used. ...
Governments in developing countries (DC) are constantly under pressure to achieve participatory governance using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Although many articles have appeared that clearly underscore the potential of ICT to achieve participatory governance, e-governance, most are focused on how e-governance will lead to democratic reforms. It is hard to find articles that consider how e-governance makes administrative decision-making more efficient. Administrative decision-making refers to the continual process through which government administrators make fair, impartial and just decisions. This paper based on interpretive field research experiences from South Africa proposes an ICT facilitated decision-making approach between government administrators and DC communities for participatory e-governance. The findings make a contribution to government practice and to the Information Systems field of e-governance. For government practice, the theoretically informed approach indicates encouraging results for participatory feedback on existing government services and for strengthening communication channels and capabilities during the process of reaching mutually agreeable decisions with DC communities. For e-governance, the paper proposes an approach that considers the greater antecedents of the occasional democratic participation, the essential day-to-day necessity of administrative decision-making using ICT.
... The vast majority of South Africans have limited physical access to government services. For example, in rural areas the services can be as far as two days walk away (Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka 2005). It is in such areas that the most vulnerable members of society are and where the people are in most need of government services. ...
The greater number of government efforts to stimulate participative governance in communities using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) often fall short of expectations. In South Africa extending e-government to communities has been in the form of more and/or better equipped ICT-enabled community centres, called Thusong Service Centres. In this paper, based on action research experiences, we report outcomes of interpretive research into ICT-enabled approaches to participative governance in communities. Using the Diffusion of Innovations theory as an analytic lens, the findings reveal a subtlety that is not often mentioned in the call for participative e-governance; people from communities prefer to work in groups rather than individually. The collectiveness inclination is a common denominator of many developing countries where people choose to come together to leverage the few available resources. Individuals become apprehensive when made to work on their own using the ICT. The research reveals the necessity to re-design ICT to suit small groups as part of participative e-governance rather than the normative ICT design that suits individual work styles. Additionally, the research reveals that by working in groups, communities are more willing to accept the government initiatives that are being energised with the use of ICT. Methodologically, the research revealed the ethical issue that arises from action research in its raising of unrealistic expectations in a community.
... Despite the evident heavy investments in promoting Batho Pele nationwide, public service delivery as a collaborative approach still remains a significant challenge (Harris, 2006, Legoabe, 2004, Government of South Africa, 2006, Government of South Africa, 2007. In most instances, both the public servants and the citizens do not know how to operationalise Batho Pele; both groups do not know how to translate these principles into day to day practices primarily because they lack the skills to do so (Deputy President, 2007) and because many citizens remain suspicious of the government (Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2005). Public service delivery hence remains the traditional one way communication channel from the government to the public. ...
... South Africa has come out strongly in its development initiatives in a bid to rewrite its recent history reminiscent of institutionalised oppression and forced separation to a national heritage of empowered citizens working in close collaboration with the government. Recognising the mammoth task of changing the deeply seated suspicious attitudes towards government (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005), one of the primary government policies is to make public service delivery "people-centered" and "people-driven" (South Africa, 2006). The policy, which is called Batho Pele, is aimed at instigating a collaborative approach to public service delivery which places "people at the centre of planning and delivering services" (ibid) using among others, strategies which are driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ...
... Regardless, for the vast majority of South Africans who live in rural communities, access to government services can be as many as two days away on foot (H. Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). Ironically, it is these people who have the greatest need for government services. ...
... However, by April 2004 the government had renewed its commitment to implementing the MPCC concept adopting ICT as a critical success factor and strategic driver. ICT at the MPCC is integrated in two ways; firstly through a Batho Pele Gateway Portal office where individuals coming to the MPCC must first report; and secondly through a cyber café like extension where computing facilities are commercially made available to the community for training and personal purposes (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). ...
South Africa is attempting to rewrite its history as a national heritage of empowered citizens working in close collaboration with the government. Recognising the inherent capabilities in fast-tracking development, ICT is regarded as a critical success factor in delivering development innovations in rural communities. However, the ICT innovations do not include the collaboration element. This paper reports on the effect of an e-collaboration approach in a simulated environment to raise awareness of an act of government within rural communities. The research followed an interpretive paradigm with the researchers as participant observers. The collected data was analysed using elements of the diffusion of innovations theory as a theoretical lens to reveal that e-collaboration can lead to the buy in of government development innovations.
... This paper argued that groups of people can be prepared to justify their decisions to some extent through training in a systems thinking approach to decision making and using Toulmin et al's (1979) schema of reasoning. The paper served as a conceptual basis for the field studies Enhancing procedural fairness in administrative action of the Administrative Justice Act of South Africa using web-based Group Support Systems (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). In this paper, we focused on the potential of using web-based Group Support Systems (GSS) to enhance procedural fairness in administrative action of the PAJA. ...
The first aim of this short paper is to demonstrate that despite the many constraints facing ICT4D researchers in developing countries, it is possible to conceptualise, design and execute an ICT use study that is well grounded in both theory and practice. This we do by presenting a high level description of the web-based collaboration and thinkLets research project. The main findings of this longitudinal study thus far is a mechanism or an approach that could be used to scale up the study using a repeatable and predictable process that has the potential to be transferred to participating communities and government departments to run on their own, following the principles of collaboration engineering. The second aim is to show that networks of audiences get created along research pathways which build research, development and innovation credibility that others seek to leverage in various areas of potential ICT use to facilitate service delivery in South Africa.
... The research setting is composed of two research projects initiated in 2003. The two projects are centered on emancipating people on their awareness of the Promotion of Administration Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA) in South Africa through the use of collaborative technology (Phahlamohlaka et al., 2008, Twinomurinzi, 2007, Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2005, Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2006. The next section describes the research projects, hereafter referred to as the PAJA Projects, as the research setting. ...
10th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries: Assessing the Contribution of ICT to Development Goals, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 26-28 May 2009 The road of development through Information and Communication technology (ICT4D) is lined with deep potholes and dead ends since little is done to “accumulate either knowledge or practical guidance” (Heeks and Bailur, 2007, p. 243). This paper concerns how ICT can lead to development and, in particular, how ICT can facilitate government policy implementation in a development context; development being the emancipation and/or freedom of people from different forms of domination such as poverty, disease and oppression. Based on a three year ethnographic immersion in an emancipatory oriented longitudinal research project four theories stood out in their ability to offer some answers; the Capabilities Approach, Actor-Network Theory, the Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action. Each of the named theories gave resourceful explanatory insights on how ICT can lead to development but each fell short at some point. By adopting an ethnographic approach where various theories explain different parts of the problem but not the whole of it, a theoretical framework was derived from the four theories. The framework was able to more cohesively explain how ICT can lead to development. This paper reports on the process of deriving the theoretical framework and uses the framework to analyse one research setting as a case study. The practical and theoretical contributions of the framework are respectively in its critical interpretivist explanatory power of ICT4D projects as well as in its provision of guidelines on how to conduct ICT4D research.
