African Journal of Public Affairs

Postal services around the world is gradually becoming a victim of internal organisational crime. Statistics indicate that there is an increase of 21% on a yearly basis in criminal activities within postal services. In particular, different forms of postalrelated criminal activities have shown to be a persistent problem, including in South Africa, with seemingly little success in combating it. To curtail this trend, the South African Post Office (SAPO) has to implement strategies which will anticipate crime as part of a comprehensive risk management intervention.

This article is based on a study that was conducted in the South African Post Office, North East Region which is located in the Limpopo province. The primary objective of this study was to recommend measures which may be explored to ameliorate the problem from a public administration point of view. From the study, it is concluded that administrative and physical crime may mutual trust among staff, impact on morale, productivity levels and performance, the absence of which may lead to deficient service delivery and reduced public confidence. The article recommends that SAPO should implement mitigating crime prevention strategies especially in areas where critical postal transactions are performed.

The article concludes by providing specific suggestions to make the South African Post Office a crime free institution, yet emphasises the need to elongate the study into a more comprehensive, longitudinal research project.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the implications of the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB)’s involvement in capacity assessment as well as public and stakeholder participation regarding municipal demarcation processes. In terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), the MDB has the autonomous mandate to determine municipal boundaries. In doing so, the Board must consider the capacity of a district or local municipality concerned in order to perform its functions and exercise its powers when determining or re-determining boundaries. This article is theoretical and qualitative in nature as it gathers information by means of a literature review and policy interpretation. The article argues that, while the Board is entrusted with the authority to fulfil its legislative mandate, ideally there has been a fallout in certain decisions. It is often argued that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) manipulates the scope and functioning of the MDB to befit its political aspirations through the merger of certain municipalities throughout the country. This is often evident when the affected municipal communities express dissent against the major determinations and re-determinations across the country, conveying dissatisfaction with the decisions made by the Board. The article concludes that, any review of boundary determination or re-determination must consider the concerns of the municipal community beforehand in order to avoid violent protests. To avoid challenges associated with demarcations, the public ought to be actively involved in all the processes that affect the development of their own territorial spaces.

The experience of retired employees (Pensioners) in Nigerian civil service before the adoption of a contributory pension scheme (CPS) has been described as rather imagine than experience. There had been reported cases of operation and administration of pension funds being endemically corrupt and full of unethical practices. This led to incessant pension payment denial to the retirees. This study examines the adoption of contributory pension scheme and its influence on employees’ commitment in Nigerian civil service. The study drew its sample among the employees of Lagos State Public servants using simple random sampling (SRS) technique. The data were collected from the respondents via Likert scale questionnaire and data were subjected to statistical analyses using Statistical Packages for Social. This study recommends that public service should consider strategic human resource management best practices in managing the millennial and all hands must be on deck to ensure that 2014 Pension Reform Act provisions are followed to the letter for violators to ensure that CPS is seen as a safety net for the retirees.