Philip Van Ryneveld who has been involved in the constitution making studies of South Africa in the middle 1990's advice Turkey to ensure localization and to create strong city government in the meeting of TEPAV.

ANKARA - Philip Van Ryneveld who became an advisor on decentralization to the African National Congress (ANC) during the constitutional negotiations distinguished with the ethnicity and decentralization issues said that he is optimistic about South Africa's federation system in spite of the current weaknesses and advised Turkey create more localized model mindful of the cities.

TEPAV held a meeting on December 3, 2010 as a part of the constitution studies in which the South Africa's constitution making process was evaluated. In the meeting Philip Van Ryneveld who is known with his studies about regional government in South Africa delivered a speech titled "Ethnicity, Provincial Government and The Management of Cities: The South African Story". In his presentation Ryneveld gave information about the constitution process in the late 1980's to 1995 that was shaped by the political dynamics of the time in South Africa and the administrative structure formed after this process.

Ryneveld expressed that after the conflicts between the Africans who account almost for 80% of the population and the minority of country who is the white, the decentralization system was accepted in the new constitution in the middle of 1990's. Stating that the country with more than 10 official languages separated 4 provinces Ryneveld said the constitution is constructed around provincial, national and local spheres. Talking about the responsibility of each sphere Ryneveld maintained that conventional national functions including defense, justice, police and finance are national government issues. Ryneveld also underlined that mainly implementation of social services to individuals including health, education and welfare are provincial, and like traffic services, water, electricity etc services to communities and properties are local government's responsibilities. Concerning the fiscal side of the system in South Africa, Ryneveld said that most of the taxes are collected by national government but also in the local area electricity, water and property taxes are collected.

Commenting on the current progress South Africa made with respect to administration experience, Ryneveld pointed at the deep impact of the system in overcoming race discrimination, in ensuring a harmony with respect to linguistic diversity and in facilitating substantial redistribution of national tax base. On the other hand, Ryneveld also stated that with the increasing political focus on provinces where provincial premiers have higher status than metropolitan mayors decentralization was weakened. As Ryneveld pointed out other weaknesses of the current system were complex decision making processes, confusion of responsibilities, often bitter rivalry between districts and local government, and administrative failures at all levels through worsening in corruption.

Cities are the heath of your industry and economy, create strong city governments

During his speech Ryneveld also commented on Turkey's economy and administrative system. Touching upon the rising industrialization in Turkey, Ryneveld underlined that cities are the heart of Turkey's economy and that it is of importance to create strong administrative bodies at cities, which will become an important structure with respect to industrialization in the future. Ryneveld stressed that a well-run economy is easiest way to manage ethnic differences and thus Turkey could make maneuvers benefiting from strengths in local administrations such as the strong position of mayors. The meeting continued with the questions and remarks of the audience.