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This article explores public attitudes relating to the extent to which municipalities live up to the Batho Pele ("People First") principles in providing household services. The principles represent the inner core of the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery (Notice No. 1459 of 1997) and serve as the framework for a service delivery ethic in the public sector consistent with the nation’s constitutional ideals of an efficient, economic and effective use of public resources in a manner that is development-oriented and responsive to peoples’ needs. It goes on to offer a preliminary examination of some of the geographic, socio-economic and service delivery correlates of such assessments. It then proceeds to investigate the impact that perceived good or poor performance has on political values and behaviour by focusing on three fundamental sets of outcome variables, namely institutional trust; conventional and unconventional forms of political participation; and satisfaction with democracy and future expectations. The concluding section offers some reflections of the importance of the findings for public policy.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
Community Expectations and Perceptions of Municipal Service Delivery: A Case Study in a South African Municipality2014 •
Africa’s Public Service Delivery and Performance Review
Exploring Challenges of Municipal Service Delivery in South Africa (1994 - 2013)2014 •
This article aims to explore municipal service delivery challenges in South Africa between 1994 and 2013 in order to stimulate debate in addressing problems and challenges confronting municipalities. A fundamental question to be asked stems from the challenges of municipal service delivery. Why, in spite of the existence of regulatory and institutional frameworks, are municipalities still struggling to satisfy basic community needs such as water and electricity amongst others? All of government’s official documents and contemporary literature reviewed, including the summative record of historical facts and narrative data, are evidence of the qualitative research design employed in this study. It is clearly articulated in this article that the existence of a local municipality with poor service delivery is, amongst others, a direct consequence or manifestation of municipal capacity constraints, financial viability problems, service delivery protests, convoluted political process, cor...
This article measures the expectations of citizens against local government’s legislative mandate to deliver services to citizens within the context of the Molemole and Blouberg Municipalities in Limpopo. In doing so, it aims to contribute the discourse on governance from the perspective of the governed. The qualitative study utilized purposive sampling and collected data using unstructured questionnaires; individual and focus group interviews, observation and participatory tools. The key findings are that citizens in the study area are in dire need of the following services: water, electricity, sanitation and sewerage, road maintenance services, housing, refuse removal and health services in that order; and that citizens were unclear about the functions of national, provincial and local government in relation to housing, health and other services. They felt that a local municipality has the responsibility to tar and maintain roads within its jurisdiction, including district roads and even to provide housing and health services. They also felt that, while local government is touted as the sphere that brings government closer to the people, it has not been accorded the necessary powers and functions to provide basic services to communities at a satisfactory level. As a result, since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, communities have lost faith in the ability of local municipalities to improve their welfare.
Over the past few years, municipalities have been faced with challenges of providing equitable public service delivery throughout the country, and as such inefficiency has inevitably led to protests over unsatisfactory service delivery. This became apparent during the public service delivery protests that have taken place between 2013/2014 which has put question marks as to whether local government can discharge its objectives effectively, efficiently and economically as required by the Constitution. The latest data from Municipal IQ's Hotspot Monitor (2014), which monitors the occurrence of service delivery protests across South Africa, shows that there had been major protests in the year 2014 than any previous years since service delivery protests started in 2004. Public participation is a key tool in the effective, efficient and economic delivery of services in municipalities across South Africa. The purpose of this paper is to establish, through a literature review, the significance of public participation in improving public service delivery in the South African local government. A literature review will further be conducted to contextualise public participation in the context of a developing local government in South Africa as well as highlight on the significance of public participation in the provision of public services in SA, specifically in addressing public service delivery protests. The paper will also argue using the relevant literature that it is through effective and efficient public participation that the delivery of services can be better enhanced including guiding the implementation of developmental plans in municipalities. Challenges associated with public participation in relation to service delivery will be explored with a conclusion provided.
2012 •
Local government in South Africa is no longer exclusively a function of national or provincial government; it is now regarded as a sphere rather than a tier of government. Section 152 of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996 stipulates the objectives of the local sphere of government, among which is ensuring the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. Poor or lack of service delivery by local authorities has received much media attention of late. Monitoring customerfocused service delivery could therefore be a critically important means to effect quality service delivery in local government. At its core this approach emphasises the treatment of municipal service users and the citizenry as customers. This article contends that conceptually customer-focused quality service delivery may potentially lever local government authorities out of the poor service delivery rut that has come to render some municipal authorities ineffective and inefficient and hence dysfun...
South African Journal of …
Local municipalities and progress with the delivery of basic services in South Africa2010 •
2019 •
Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2019.
International Journal of Innovative Technologies in Social Science
The Relationship Between Policy, Governance and Service Delivery in Local Government in South AfricaIn South Africa, the demands expected of local government appear to be beyond the capacity of many municipalities across the country, and the problem can be traced back to governance and service delivery capabilities. Municipalities face a variety of obstacles, yet they are all obligated by law and the public to be responsive and accountable to the public. The study of urban governance in South Africa is based on a multi-level analytical framework and an interpretivist paradigm, using a qualitative research methodology. Poor leadership at both the political and administrative levels has resulted in a lack of monitoring and responsibility, which has been abused for self-interest. This has resulted in a lack of capability to carry out the local government’s mandate. Municipalities are characterised by disproportionate power distribution in decision-making. This does not allow for meaningful interaction or consultation with decision-makers, who are responsive to the needs and aspiratio...
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2023 •
Arv: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore
“She Did Not Want a Husband, and Least of All This One”: Marriage and Gendered Power Relations in Icelandic Folk Legends2023 •
2016 •
Hispanofila
Cómo Ocultar la Verdad Sin Mentir": Cercas's El Impostor and the Doctrine of Equivocation2017 •
Computers & Mathematics with Applications
A note on the construction of a positive oscillatory matrix with a prescribed spectrum2001 •
2002 •
Investigación Bibliotecológica: archivonomía, bibliotecología e información
El perfil del usuario de información1993 •