This study investigated the planning, implementation and monitoring of sustainability principles in Buffalo City Municipality (BCM), in the Eastern Cape Province. It also analysed how reporting on sustainability principles was done at this municipality. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study that used analyses of documents, questionnaires and interviews to gather data. All respondents were involved with BCM, some as municipal officials in key positions in the different directorates and others as councillors. The study was contextualised within the area of sustainable development at local government level. The focus was on how the mandate of sustainable local development at local government level was met in BCM. The focus was on the planning, implementation and monitoring of stipulations of Local Agenda 21 and sustainability principles. The study focused on the provision of basic services; inter-generational equity; integration of economic, social and environmental aspects; community involvement; institutional capacity building; partnerships, and global links. The study established that Buffalo City Municipality incorporated sustainability in its vision. There was a lack of common understanding of the meaning of sustainability. Sustainability principles featured prominently at the integrated development planning phase but were less explicitly mentioned in the implementation, monitoring and reporting phases. Sustainability principles were subsumed in the developmental goals of the municipality. The study also highlighted the need for a strategy to have an institution-wide implementation of sustainability principles which would incorporate raising awareness about sustainability and its value.

In terms of the South African Government Structure, Local Government is entrusted with the service delivery mandate. Furthermore, Local Government, being the closest sphere of government to the people, is expected to enhance service delivery to the communities within its jurisdiction. Local Government has for the past four years, undergone numerous transformation processes, ranging from Local Authorities, to Transitional Local Councils and to Municipalities. Having mentioned that, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, in particular, has recently acquired metropolitan status, which requires another transformation protocol. At the same time this automatically raises the bar on the service delivery expectations by the communities. In general, Local Government has been extensively supported by the National and Provincial Governments to deliver superior services to communities. This has happened through numerous pieces of legislations such as the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000, the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, act 108 of 1996. In 1997, the South African Government introduced a White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service. This was to re-emphasis on the performance enhancing role of both the political and administrative leadership in the implementation of service delivery mandates. The need was identified that communities require an assurance that their needs are taken care of by the leadership of the municipalities. It is therefore the role of leadership to ensure effective implementation of service delivery initiatives and to promote a culture of performance among the administrative officials of the municipality. The aim of this study is to critically investigate the role of leadership: A case study of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), with the view that BCMM is considered one of the high capacity municipalities within the Eastern Cape Province. During the literature review, it became evident that different people and scholars, dating back in the early 90’s, view leadership in different forms. In sourcing the information for this research, structured interviews were conducted with five Directors, five Executive Mayoral Councillors and five Ward Councillors. The interviews were an extensive consultation process which resulted in over 30 hours of engagement with research participants, with an average of 2 hours per structured interview. A four week period was allocated and effectively utilised for this exercise. The research provides recommendations for further research on other related components of the subject such as the intended role as compared to the current role fulfilled by both administrative and political leadership, and suggested solutions to the current problems in Municipalities, in order to ensure their sustainability within Local Government. The research findings identified the need for the leadership to take the leading role in service delivery initiatives in order to address the service delivery challenges in local government. Political leadership need to enhance the public participation process to ensure the community is on board regarding the progress of their respective projects and planning processes.

South Africa's biggest challenge remains the high rate of unemployment especially among the country's youth. Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) have been shown to be instrumental in many third world economies as a sustainable means not only to address unemployment but also to contribute significantly to economic growth. Despite government's good intentions and support, the South African SMME sector is not growing as expected and this is impacting negatively on unemployment creation in the country. Good business development services (BDS) is necessary to support SMMEs and specifically the Market Development Approach to the provision of BDS, where subsidies are replaced by private payment for services. Makana municipal area provided scope for analysing the constraints to the implementation of such business development services. Analysing the scope and magnitude of the constraints in this setting would contribute to understanding the constraints also in other parts of the country and help officials in local economic development make better informed decisions regarding support to SMMEs. Authors like Rogerson (2011), UNDP (2004), Miehlbradt and McVay, (2003), the Committee of Donor Agencies for SME Development (Blue book) (2001) and Bear et al., (2001) Gibson (2001), propose that the key to sustainable BDS is the implementation of the Market Development approach which focusses on for-profit activities in the provision of BDS to SMMEs. The aim of this study was to examine perceptions of key stakeholders towards SMME support and development, to identify the constraints to the implementation of a Market Development approach to the provision of business development services to SMMEs in the Makana area and to make recommendations to the Makana LED office of possible intervention strategies to address identified constraints. Purposive sampling was used to identify key stakeholders in SMME support in the Makana area in the categories of, big institutional buyers, public and private BDS providers as well the municipal LED office. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each stakeholder using questions shown in appendixes A to D. Perceptions of all key stakeholders were very positive with good intentions to support SMMEs. However, this was not consistent with procurement practice at the big institutional buyers. Constraints are summarized in the following five themes: Theme 1. Inconsistent practice in dealing with SMMEs across the organisation. Theme 2. Absence of a cooperative body or Chamber of Commerce. Theme 3. Fragmented Business Development Services. Theme 4. A lack of a culture of cost recovery. Theme 5. Limited awareness of BDS in the Makana area. A number of recommendations were suggested. Big institutional buyers like Rhodes University and Makana municipality need to take a longer term view and move the focus from employment creation to enterprise support which is a more sustainable and empowering source of employment (ILO, 2009). The Grahamstown Chamber of Commerce should become more representative and big institutional buyers also need to be convinced of the value of private BDS. Stakeholders should work together to combine resources to offer a comprehensive one-stop BDS for the Makana area (Chetty, 2009) and this comprehensive BDS should be provided according to the Market Development approach focusing on those services that lend themselves better to this approach whilst using subsidies only for those services with a low potential for cost recovery (UNDP, 2004).

De-industrialisation and rising unemployment amongst the world's developed countries' manual labourers as well as continued economic stagnation in developing countries has resulted in many localities experiencing mounting economic hardships and uncertain futures. As a direct result, the time has come that localities are being called upon to take charge of their own futures using local resources for local solutions. Local development has appeared in various guises in different countries. Many agents in the developed North favour pro-business interventions that emphasise enterprise development, responsible local government, and investment in skills training. Stakeholders in developing nations however tend to favour bottom-up approaches focusing on participation in self-reliant activities, providing basic needs, and facilitating micro-enterprises. In addition to the actual nature of applied interventions, qualities such as commitment, innovation, co-operation, social capital and entrepreneurship are equally essential for over-all success. South Africa has recently devolved more autonomy to its localities to enable them to conduct local development as a way of coping with local socio-economic difficulties and is applying both pro-growth and pro-poor approaches. The Noordhoek Valley in the City of Cape Town is a locality where a community driven project seeks to promote both economic growth and poverty alleviation. The establishment of a skills training institution has equipped local residents with the skills to find jobs and become entrepreneurs. To date, over 1000 residents have received training and have earned over R5 million for the community. Although locality-based development is relatively new in South Africa, the activities and results achieved in the Noordhoek Valley indicate that with the appropriate approach and mentality local development and skills development are indeed possible.

This study concerns the analysis of policy, and the statutory and regulatory impact of spatial planning on the land reform programme with emphasis on the land reform settlement plan (LSRP) of the Amathole District Municipality (ADM). There is a brief historical overview of the effect of the policy of spatial segregation in both rural and urban areas of the ADM. This study demonstrates, inter alia, the challenges faced by the ADM in both consolidating and physically integrating communities that were hitherto divided across racial lines. The critical question is whether the ADM has the ability to produce a Spatial Development Framework (SDF), which will be responsive to the needs of the region and serve as a catalyst in reversing the physical distortions caused by the land-planning legislation of the apartheid past. The greatest challenge lies in meeting the developmental aspirations of the Development Facilitation Act, 1995, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000 and the National Spatial Development Perspective, 2003. Chapter 1 deals with the purpose, research problem and the method of research, as well as the definition of terms used in this research and literature review. Chapter 2 deals with the evolution of central themes of spatial planning and land reform, spatial development plans and integrated development plans (IDPs), the alignment of Amathole SDF and Eastern Cape Spatial Development Plan and the co-ordination of spatial frameworks. Chapter 3 deals with the composition of the ADM and the evolution of the LRSP, as well as land-tenure reform programmes impacting on the Amathole Municipality region. This chapter analyses the settlement plan against spatial planning legislation, the issue of institutional arrangements and mechanisms of consolidated local planning processes. Chapter 5 deals with the thorny issue of participation of traditional leaders in municipal planning and the government’s land-reform programme. Despite the existence of legislation in this regard, implementation seems to pose some difficulties. This chapter also deals with the co-operative governance framework. Chapter 6 is a concluding chapter dealing with the gaps discovered in the Amathole Municipality in the light of existing legislation. Reference to cases is made to demonstrate the challenges confronting the ADM. One notable aspect is the issue of urban-rural dichotomy and how the two worlds are positioned in their competition for the use of space. It is evident from this research that the post-1994 policy and legislative framework and implementation machinery lacks capacity to change the current form of the apartheid city-planning paradigm, something which impacts immensely on the sustainability of the current human-settlement development programmes. Population dynamics in terms of migration are hugely driven by search for employment opportunities and better services. The efficiency and ability of the municipal spatial evelopment frameworks in directing and dictating the identification of development nodes in its juristic boundary informed by the overarching national policy and legislative framework is key in building a better South Africa.

Wendel (1994, p. 91) defined perceived organizational support (POS) as “organization support in terms of all things that relate to assistance and relationships amongst working peers and colleagues, which involve the feeling of need between superiors and subordinates . Rothbard (2001, p. 656) in defining job engagement (JE) listed two components which he thought were critical for its effectiveness on organizational functioning: (i) attention and (ii) absorption, with the former referring to “cognitive ability and the amount of time one spends thinking about the role”, while the latter “means being engrossed in a role and means the intensity of one’s focus on a role”. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) was first introduced by Organ in the 1980s and he defined the concept of organizational citizenship behavior “as discretionary behaviors by individuals (employees) that do not form part of formal requirements of a job, but are necessary and promote effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988)”. The objective of study was to explore the relationship between perceived organizational support and job engagement and their effect organizational citizenship behavior. Other relationships that were tested were first, the direct relationship between POS JE. Secondly, the combined effect of POS and JE on OCB. The study was conducted amongst nurses at Victoria hospital, in Alice within the Nkonkobe district municipality. The results showed a significant relationship between JE and OCB, whilst the relationship between POS and OCB was not accepted. The results for the other two hypotheses that were tested; (i) relationship between POS and JE, (ii) combined effect of POS and JE on OCB also showed that they were not accepted. The consistency scores for these variables were of international level (n=106). The Pearson correlation coefficients were used for hypothesis testing.

The participation of communities and community organizations in Municipal governance is set in terms of the law as a mechanism to deepen democracy. Municipalities are required to develop a culture of governance that complements representative democracy with community participation. However the participation of communities in local governance has not translated to the strengthening of governance and the deepening of democracy as municipalities have not done enough to involve communities in municipal affaires. Lack of human resources, and financial capacity have been cited as some of the reasons that beset municipalities and undermine citizen participation. Municipalities have taken steps to encourage community participation and these include establishment of structures to enable participation, however without the guidance and financial support of the municipalities these structures are not able to perform their functions. In spite of all the efforts made by municipalities to encourage participation, a culture of community participation has not yet taken root in local government. While the legislative framework provides for communities to participate, practice shows that the implementation of legislation is complex and requires dedicated capacities within the councils to be effective. This can be achieved when municipalities develop their own community participation policies which address their special circumstances, which must be reviewed on a regular basis. Unless communities are empowered with knowledge on the available participation mechanisms, the dream of a culture of participation will remain just that, a dream. Thus civic education coupled with capacity building of officials will assist in ensuring the development of a culture of participation. Council must also develop mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of community participation processes and procedures, to avoid a one size fits all approach. It is imperative that councils as the legislative arm of municipalities must lead the process and not leave everything to the executive arm.

Metropolitan Municipalities are faced with myriad complex challenges that affect their effectiveness and efficiency in fulfilling their legislated responsibilities of rendering/providing services to their respective communities and customers. The lack of effective leadership consistency in top and senior management of most Metropolitan Municipalities result to failure and inability for municipalities to achieve their strategic objectives including the realisation of performance. Moreover, the absence of effective leadership consistency manifest in many forms such as inadequate oversight, noncompliance to legislations, failure to meet performance targets, numerous service delivery protests, projects stoppage and disruption, ineffective leadership and unfavourable audit opinions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of consistency on effective leadership and its influence in achieving the organisational objectives and the realisation of organisational performance in the Metropolitan Municipalities using City of Tshwane as a case. Furthermore, to develop a framework prescribing how effective leadership consistency should be formed and used to realise performance and achieve strategic objectives in local government. A sequential exploratory mixed method approach was applied in this study. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods complemented each other’s strengths, and further overcame weaknesses and limitations in collecting the data. A self-administered Questionnaire was used to collect 177 data with a response rate of 88.5% for the Quantitative data, while face-to-face interviews was used to collect the Qualitative part from 15 respondents. Quantitative techniques namely, Descriptive Statistics was used to analyse the frequency and percentage response of the participants while Inferential Statistics simple t-test was used to assess the difference in participant’s responses. Furthermore, Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to measure the level of association between variables of the study; and Forward Stepwise Regression was applied to assess the relationship between the variables of study. The study found that consistency of leadership in the organisation is positively correlated with effective leadership; consistency of effective leadership in the organisation correlates to the achievement of the strategic objectives; and consistency of effective leadership in the organisation correlates to the realisation of performance. Moreover, a framework has been developed prescribing how effective leadership consistency should be used to effect or bring about organisational performance. The research study recommended that consistency of effective leadership at the top and senior management is essential and absolutely necessary, and it should be wellmaintained for the realisation of success of the municipalities. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L.

PhD (African Studies) / Centre for African Studies / The Thulamela Local Municipality is currently experiencing a plethora of public service delivery challenges. This often leads to court litigation and disputes with the institution of musanda. These public service delivery challenges, conflicts and court disputes in many cases leave the communities within the municipality deprived of basic services as a result of slow or a complete lack of service delivery. musanda is a Venda word that refers to the place where the thovhele (king), khosikhulu (paramountcies), khosi (chiefs), gota (headman), mukoma (petty headman), vhakoma (queen mother), vhatanuni (wives), vhakololo (princes/princesses), khadzi and makhadzi (royal aunts), ndumi (king/chiefs’ brother) and the rest of this royal structure resides. As such it also refers to the institution of royal governance. The proposed study aims to analyse the place of musanda as an institution within public service delivery and within the whole process of decentralization of services in the Thulamela Municipality. The study focuses mainly on the current public service delivery system of the government and the role of the institution of the musanda in that process. The basic service delivery system that receives direct attention falls under the Government Cluster, which covers Social Protection, and Community and Human Development. These divisions deal with Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation, Human Settlements, Rural Development and Land Reform, Basic Education and Sports and Recreation. These are the services that are supposed to be rendered by municipalities. The analysis aims to determine musanda’s position in the whole process of providing the public services indicated above.

PhD (Public Adminiistration) / Department of Public and Development Administration / This study examines the notion of public participation as a tool to enhance service delivery in the Capricorn District Municipality. Public participation is a milestone of democracy and local governance. Local government – which is closest to the people – provides an ideal forum for the flourishing of participatory democracy. The centrality of public participation in the development of policies and programmes or action plans has been widely recognised by both government and the private sector. However, involving the public in the development of any policy, programme or action plan is a daunting task. Indeed, if not well-managed, public involvement often leads to protests, litigation, criticisms, and delays in service delivery to the people. Thus, the extent to which public participation can be a tool for the enhancement of service delivery in Limpopo – especially in the Capricorn District Municipality – is the focus of this study. This study is guided by the following questions: What are the key concepts that relate to public participation as a tool to enhance service delivery? What impact does the Constitution of South Africa, Act 08 of 1996, and other government legal frameworks have on public participation as a tool to enhance service delivery in South Africa, particularly in the Capricorn District Municipality? What modes and models of public participation are used to enhance service delivery in the Capricorn District Municipality? What are the main factors that influence public participation as a tool to enhance service delivery in the Capricorn District Municipality? The study adopts both qualitative and quantitative research approaches whereby the use of primary and secondary sources was augmented by interviews with local government actors. Moreover, questionnaires were administered by the researcher and his assistant researchers. A purposive sampling method was used. The researcher ensured that all relevant elements of 5 research ethics were observed. The data generated by the questionnaires and interviews were analysed and interpreted using the latest statistical tools. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were used. Data collected using questionnaires were analysed by means of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The information was presented in the form of tabulations, frequencies, and percentages. Data collected through interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of this study reflect that public participation mainly serves the purpose of meeting the statutory requirements for the development of best value initiatives and gaining information from citizens. The majority of the respondents were of the view that the Ward Committee system is fully functional in their municipalities. All Capricorn District municipalities have officers responsible for public participation; however, not all of them are accessible to the public. It was revealed that the public participation budget in Lepelle-Nkumpi and Mollemole is insufficient. The other main constrains identified are the serious lack of personal and working tools and resources. The study also found that not all documents were translated into the languages spoken in the Capricorn District and that there is a lack of feedback mechanisms on the issues raised by members of public during the IDP and Budget Fora.These findings were discussed in relation to the study’s objectives and research questions.