Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2010

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / This study undertook to look into the management of service delivery by the Limpopo Department of Public Works. Over the past four years the researcher, through his interaction and work with departmental officials, identified various weaknesses with management. The study examines various literature relating to management and service delivery issues. A comprehensive review was made by the researcher of the available departmental documentation. The study method used was qualitative. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and provided to management. This study found that indeed there are issues with management in the Limpopo Department of Public Works. Key findings were that the maturity and experience of management is critical to the functionality of an institution and that institutions need to embrace change, particularly within a technical environment.

The South African government is obliged to render basic services for the people through local government municipalities. These basic services include among others the development of adequate roads, clean water and electricity. The responsibility of the delivery of these services was given to the municipality after the 1994 general elections, with the belief that it is the government that is closer to the people on the ground than the national and provincial governments. The issue of the provision of quality roads in rural areas of South African still remains a critical challenge. The issue addressed in this study is the provision of quality roads provided in Polokwane Municipality. The study focused on the implementation of roads infrastructure development project in rural areas of South Africa and the provision of roads in the rural areas of Polokwane Municipality in Capricorn District, with a special focus on the provision of roads in the rural villages of Thabakgone, Komaneng, Segopje and Ga-Molepo. The study used data collection instruments such as interviews, questionnaires and supporting documents, such as Polokwane Integrated Development Plan and relevant scientific articles to collect data in the four selected villages. The findings of the study revealed that the provision of roads infrastructure in the municipality is of substandard quality, and that the provision of quality roads in the areas is required.

The Constitution, 1996 requires that the public participate in policy making and planning in local government. To ensure compliance, legislation prescribes that local government needs to establish mechanisms, processes and procedures for public participation. However, neither the Constitution, 1996 nor legislation describes what public participation is, and how it should be implemented. Moreover, different people view public participation differently. There is thus a lack of definition and implementation of public participation in the policy making and planning processes of local government. To understand what public participation means, a conceptual analysis was conducted, resulting in the delivery of a working definition of public participation. The definition conveyed indicators of public participation, namely, the public, the levels of participation, the mechanisms for participation, the scope of participation and public influence in decision-making in participation. These indicators were studied qualitatively for description in a metropolitan municipality in South Africa in a single case study using multiple methods. The methods used were a survey questionnaire, a document study and analysis and an interview questionnaire. The findings indicate that the public who participated in the policy making and planning processes in the metropolitan municipality were mainly advantaged instead of disadvantaged people. They participated at the levels of informing, consulting, implementing, and reviewing. Public participation was not attained at the levels of educating, deciding and reporting back. The study established that the municipality employed various public participation mechanisms for informing and consulting the public. The scope of public participation was found to be reasonably broad. Though evidence suggests that the public participated in decisions pertaining to budget ward allocations, no evidence could be found that the public had an influence in decision-making in participation on the whole. It was found that public officials had the influence over public participation decision-making while politicians had the final say. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

The aim of this quantitative study was to develop and validate a model to measure the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The literature review phase explored the concept of organisational effectiveness and the assessment thereof in both the Public and Private Sectors. The literature review indicated that there is a clear distinction between business performance (operational and financial performance) and the larger concept of organisational effectiveness, and also that the measurement of organisational effectiveness in the Public Sector differed from the measurement thereof in the Private Sector. The literature review also indicated that measures of Public Sector effectiveness could not be directly applied to measure the effectiveness of Private Sector organisations. From the literature review a proposed theoretical model for measuring the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa was proposed. This proposed model included organisational and behavioural variables contained in traditional approaches to organisational effectiveness, variables that were identified in previous organisational effectiveness studies, as well as variables contained in existing assessment models of organisational effectiveness. This model was then validated during the empirical phase by conducting a survey of an existing metropolitan municipality in South Africa (n = 6514) and exposing the results of the survey to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The confirmatory factor analysis conducted as part of SEM subsequently identified three main and 10 secondary statistically significant organisational and behavioural variables that could be used to measure the effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The three main variables identified were (1) Healthy Systems, (2) Goal Achievement and (3) Service Delivery, while the 10 secondary variables identified were (1) Diversity, (2) Training & Development, (3) Rewards & Recognition, (4) Management Practices, (5) Internal Functioning, (6) Work Environment, (7) Interpersonal Relations, (8) Workforce Equity, (9) Customer Satisfaction and (10) Vision & Mission. It was thus recommended that metropolitan municipalities in South Africa could use this validated model as an assessment framework to measure their current organisational effectiveness, to identify aspects which need to be rectified to improve effectiveness, and to compare and benchmark their municipality in order to learn from other metropolitan municipalities to improve their effectiveness. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / D. Admin. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The aim of this quantitative study was to develop and validate a model to measure the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The literature review phase explored the concept of organisational effectiveness and the assessment thereof in both the Public and Private Sectors. The literature review indicated that there is a clear distinction between business performance (operational and financial performance) and the larger concept of organisational effectiveness, and also that the measurement of organisational effectiveness in the Public Sector differed from the measurement thereof in the Private Sector. The literature review also indicated that measures of Public Sector effectiveness could not be directly applied to measure the effectiveness of Private Sector organisations. From the literature review a proposed theoretical model for measuring the organisational effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa was proposed. This proposed model included organisational and behavioural variables contained in traditional approaches to organisational effectiveness, variables that were identified in previous organisational effectiveness studies, as well as variables contained in existing assessment models of organisational effectiveness. This model was then validated during the empirical phase by conducting a survey of an existing metropolitan municipality in South Africa (n = 6514) and exposing the results of the survey to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The confirmatory factor analysis conducted as part of SEM subsequently identified three main and 10 secondary statistically significant organisational and behavioural variables that could be used to measure the effectiveness of a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. The three main variables identified were (1) Healthy Systems, (2) Goal Achievement and (3) Service Delivery, while the 10 secondary variables identified were (1) Diversity, (2) Training & Development, (3) Rewards & Recognition, (4) Management Practices, (5) Internal Functioning, (6) Work Environment, (7) Interpersonal Relations, (8) Workforce Equity, (9) Customer Satisfaction and (10) Vision & Mission. It was thus recommended that metropolitan municipalities in South Africa could use this validated model as an assessment framework to measure their current organisational effectiveness, to identify aspects which need to be rectified to improve effectiveness, and to compare and benchmark their municipality in order to learn from other metropolitan municipalities to improve their effectiveness. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Admin. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Text in Afrikaans / Suid-Afrika het as gevolg van apartheid vir etlike dekades oor 'n gedeeltelik legitieme plaaslike regeringstelsel beskik. Die probleem is dat die land se apartheidsregering afsonderlike stelsels vir blankes en swartes in aparte woongebiede in stand gehou het, welke beleid vir meeste Suid-Afrikaners onaanvaarbaar was. Swart plaaslike owerhede wat swart plaaslike regering moes bedryf, was nog polities nog ekonomies lewensvatbaar. Die rede hiervoor is dat hul enersyds deur die gemeenskap verwerp is en andersyds nie voldoende inkomstebronne gehad het om plaaslike owerheidsdienste finansieel onafhanklik te lewer nie. Stedelike swart gemeenskappe was aan 'n, vir hulle, onaanvaarbare apartheidsgestruktureerde swart plaaslike regeringstelsel onderworpe. Swart plaaslike owerhede was voorts as gevolg van hul ekonomiese nie-lewensvatbaarheid, gekniehalter in die lewering van plaaslike owerheidsdienste asook die daarstelling en instandhouding van kapitale ontwikkelingsprojekte. Stedelike swartes was dus blootgestel aan gebrekkige dienslewering in aparte, onderontwikkelde "slaapdorpe" waar hulle noodgedwonge moes woon. 'n Vraag waarna gevolglik gekyk word, fokus op die kenmerke van 'n ideeeltipiese model van plaaslike regering wat die gedeeltelik legitieme stelsel behoort te vervang. As gevolg van die onaanvaarbaarheid van die swart plaaslike regeringstelsel was swart plaaslike owerhede sedert die vroee tagtigerjare die teikens van aksioniste teen hierdie apartheidsproduk. Aksioniste het nie-gewelddadige aksie (NGA), geskoei op die Gandhiaanse filosofie en metodiek van Satyagraha, aangewend ten einde swart plaaslike owerhede te vernietig. NGA (wat dikwels ook tot gewelddadigheid gelei het), het tot gevolg gehad dat die owerheid later noodgedwonge 'n nuwe plaaslike regeringstelsel vir die totale Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing, met alle deelvennote moes beding. Onderhandelings het vervolgens meegebring dat 'n oorgangsproses na legitieme (demokratiese) plaaslike regering vir alle Suid-Afrikaners ingevolge die Oorgangswet op Plaaslike Regering, 1993 (Wet No. 209 van 1993) geaktiveer is. In hierdie proefskrif is gevolglik vasgestel: (1) welke invloed die politieke bedeling (apartheidsbedeling) op die ontwikkeling van stedelike swart gemeenskappe en die bedryf van swart plaaslike regering gehad het; (2) wat die aard en effek van NGA op die ontwikkeling van swart plaaslike regering was; en (3) hoe geldig die onderhandelde plaaslike regeringstelsel is, vergeleke met die ideeel-tipiese model wat geidentifiseer is. / As a result of apartheid South Africa possessed a partially legitimate local government system for several decades. The problem is that the country's apartheid government maintained separate systems for whites and blacks in separate residential areas, a policy that was unacceptable to the majority of South Africans. Black local authorities who had to maintain black local government were neither politically nor economically viable because they were rejected by the community and lacked sufficient sources of revenue to render financially independent local government services. Urban black communities were subject to what, for them, was an unacceptable apartheid-structured black local government system. Black local authorities were also prevented by their economic nonviability from delivering local government services effectively and from instituting and maintaining capital development projects. Urban blacks were therefore subjected to poor service delivery in separate, underdeveloped "dormitory towns" where they were forced to live. An issue to be considered in this regard concerns the characteristics of an ideal-typical model of local government that should replace this partially legitimate system. As a result of the unacceptability of the black local government system local authorities became the targets of activists who waged a campaign against this product of apartheid since the early eighties. Activists used non-violent action (NV A), based on the Gandhian principle of Satyagraha, to destroy black local authorities. As a result of NVA (which often led to violence) the central government was eventually forced to negotiate a new local government system for the whole of South African society with all stakeholders. Negotiations led to a process of transition to legitimate (democratic) local government for all South Africans as promulgated in the Local Government Transition Act, 1993 (Act No. 209 of I 993). Consequently the following has been established in this thesis: (1) the influence of the political dispensation (apartheid dispensation) on the development of urban black communities and the maintenance of black local government; (2) the nature and the effect of NV A on the development of black local government; and (3) how valid the negotiated local government system is, compared to the identified ideal-typical model. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ontwikkelingsadministrasie)

Text in Afrikaans / Suid-Afrika het as gevolg van apartheid vir etlike dekades oor 'n gedeeltelik legitieme plaaslike regeringstelsel beskik. Die probleem is dat die land se apartheidsregering afsonderlike stelsels vir blankes en swartes in aparte woongebiede in stand gehou het, welke beleid vir meeste Suid-Afrikaners onaanvaarbaar was. Swart plaaslike owerhede wat swart plaaslike regering moes bedryf, was nog polities nog ekonomies lewensvatbaar. Die rede hiervoor is dat hul enersyds deur die gemeenskap verwerp is en andersyds nie voldoende inkomstebronne gehad het om plaaslike owerheidsdienste finansieel onafhanklik te lewer nie. Stedelike swart gemeenskappe was aan 'n, vir hulle, onaanvaarbare apartheidsgestruktureerde swart plaaslike regeringstelsel onderworpe. Swart plaaslike owerhede was voorts as gevolg van hul ekonomiese nie-lewensvatbaarheid, gekniehalter in die lewering van plaaslike owerheidsdienste asook die daarstelling en instandhouding van kapitale ontwikkelingsprojekte. Stedelike swartes was dus blootgestel aan gebrekkige dienslewering in aparte, onderontwikkelde "slaapdorpe" waar hulle noodgedwonge moes woon. 'n Vraag waarna gevolglik gekyk word, fokus op die kenmerke van 'n ideeeltipiese model van plaaslike regering wat die gedeeltelik legitieme stelsel behoort te vervang. As gevolg van die onaanvaarbaarheid van die swart plaaslike regeringstelsel was swart plaaslike owerhede sedert die vroee tagtigerjare die teikens van aksioniste teen hierdie apartheidsproduk. Aksioniste het nie-gewelddadige aksie (NGA), geskoei op die Gandhiaanse filosofie en metodiek van Satyagraha, aangewend ten einde swart plaaslike owerhede te vernietig. NGA (wat dikwels ook tot gewelddadigheid gelei het), het tot gevolg gehad dat die owerheid later noodgedwonge 'n nuwe plaaslike regeringstelsel vir die totale Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing, met alle deelvennote moes beding. Onderhandelings het vervolgens meegebring dat 'n oorgangsproses na legitieme (demokratiese) plaaslike regering vir alle Suid-Afrikaners ingevolge die Oorgangswet op Plaaslike Regering, 1993 (Wet No. 209 van 1993) geaktiveer is. In hierdie proefskrif is gevolglik vasgestel: (1) welke invloed die politieke bedeling (apartheidsbedeling) op die ontwikkeling van stedelike swart gemeenskappe en die bedryf van swart plaaslike regering gehad het; (2) wat die aard en effek van NGA op die ontwikkeling van swart plaaslike regering was; en (3) hoe geldig die onderhandelde plaaslike regeringstelsel is, vergeleke met die ideeel-tipiese model wat geidentifiseer is. / As a result of apartheid South Africa possessed a partially legitimate local government system for several decades. The problem is that the country's apartheid government maintained separate systems for whites and blacks in separate residential areas, a policy that was unacceptable to the majority of South Africans. Black local authorities who had to maintain black local government were neither politically nor economically viable because they were rejected by the community and lacked sufficient sources of revenue to render financially independent local government services. Urban black communities were subject to what, for them, was an unacceptable apartheid-structured black local government system. Black local authorities were also prevented by their economic nonviability from delivering local government services effectively and from instituting and maintaining capital development projects. Urban blacks were therefore subjected to poor service delivery in separate, underdeveloped "dormitory towns" where they were forced to live. An issue to be considered in this regard concerns the characteristics of an ideal-typical model of local government that should replace this partially legitimate system. As a result of the unacceptability of the black local government system local authorities became the targets of activists who waged a campaign against this product of apartheid since the early eighties. Activists used non-violent action (NV A), based on the Gandhian principle of Satyagraha, to destroy black local authorities. As a result of NVA (which often led to violence) the central government was eventually forced to negotiate a new local government system for the whole of South African society with all stakeholders. Negotiations led to a process of transition to legitimate (democratic) local government for all South Africans as promulgated in the Local Government Transition Act, 1993 (Act No. 209 of I 993). Consequently the following has been established in this thesis: (1) the influence of the political dispensation (apartheid dispensation) on the development of urban black communities and the maintenance of black local government; (2) the nature and the effect of NV A on the development of black local government; and (3) how valid the negotiated local government system is, compared to the identified ideal-typical model. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ontwikkelingsadministrasie)