Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits School of Governance, 2017. / The aim of this study is to identify the main reasons for why there is poor leadership and poor service delivery in the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The study undertook a comprehensive review of related literature in order to enhance the knowledge gap within the concept of leadership and governance. This research adopted the qualitative research method as the research study deals with real-life social issues which involve the employees of Emalahleni Local Municipality and the residents of Emalahleni itself. Face-to-face interviews were conducted both in the Emalahleni Local Municipality and Emalahleni area to collect credible data for the study. In addition, the sample size considered for this study was ten participants who were interviewed for the study, five employees from the Emalahleni Local Municipality and five residents from the Emalahleni area. The findings derived from the data collected reveal that the Emalahleni Local Municipality is struggling to provide good services to its citizens due to the poor leadership within the municipality. In addition, the employees of Emalahleni are not performing well in their respective jobs due to insufficient training and the fact that not everyone working for the municipality is employed based on merit, which contributes to a lack of capacity and poor service delivery. The researcher makes recommendations which include appointing employees with the right skills and knowledge, developing and improving on the training programmes that already exist within the municipality, following the right leadership style to change and develop the municipality, and electing leaders who have the interests of the people at heart. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in 50% fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Public Policy. June, 2017 / The notion of good governance in municipalities has gained prominence in the discourse around the performance of local government which is at the coal face of service delivery. The study aimed to explore the governance practices prevalent in Westonaria Local Municipality by examining how the rule of law is maintained through the enforcement of policies and by-laws in the municipality; how the executive is held to account for performance by the Council and the extent to which the community is involved in the affairs of the municipality. The study sought to understand the governance challenges experienced in the municipality that contribute to poor audit outcomes and to propose recommendations for improvement. The study found that human and financial resource constraints affect municipal performance. Furthermore, the study established that effective oversight by council and enforcement of consequence management by management are necessary in fostering good governance in the municipality. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Development Management 6 April 2017 / Since the inception of the democratic era in South Africa, citizen engagement has been a contentious issue for the local government sphere. In hardly a decade of democracy, cracks began to manifest on the newly-ushered system of public participation in the country, which saw communities embarking on various acts of protests around the country. Sadly, the ugly actions of dissatisfaction by the citizenry have been the order of the day since the early days of democracy, and some have been labelled it ‘a cry for attention by the disgruntled citizens’. As evidence of the disconnection in the local discourse, the aforesaid factor was regarded as a starting point in this research. As such, numbers of, and various reasons for the violent protests were examined thoroughly to establish the truth behind same. Public conversations and discussions, albeit informal, were held wherever possible, and all these pointed to the crisis of democracy in the local government. The research explored the notion of meaningful citizen engagement as a panacea for alleviating service delivery backlogs in the local government. To avoid challenges of the cause-effect scenario in analysing the processes, measurements of meaningful citizen engagement in the local government, named ‘condition’, were developed in this research. Focusing on five different categories of municipalities, fifteen officials and ten councillors were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Further to that, two focus group discussions were held with ten community members and eight ward committee members each, using unstructured interview questions as focal themes. Apart from the interviews, four non-participant observations (IDP/Budget meetings) were conducted in order to get a sense of the current engagement processes. Furthermore, various public documents, both internal and external of the organisations, were analysed and utilised as part of the literature review. Data from the above sets of sources were explored and analysed using the basic interpretive qualitative design and phenomenological methods to make meaning of same. The research findings suggested that current mechanisms of engagement lacked depth, and are limited in terms of opening meaningful engagement spaces for the citizens. These findings pointed to the dire need to move away from the normal, passive public participation towards the engaging, deliberative notions wherein the citizens would have opportunities to influence the final outcomes of planning and budgeting. / MT2017

A dissertation submitted in the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, in the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Political Studies. Johannesburg 1997. / In 1988 the Soweto People's Delegation and the councils of Soweto, Diepmeadow and Dobsonville began to negotiate an end to the rent boycott and the crisis in the provision of services. Discussions between civic bodies and local government officials - which eventually resulted in the Soweto accord - were increasingly infonned by the slogan 'one city, one tax base'. In the wake of the accord, other parties to similarly established negotiations commonly based their approach on the 'one city' slogan. As a result, local government negotiations and the institutional arrangements that followed were increasingly infonned by this notion. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / AC2017

The experience drawn from development programmes, has shown that the translation of policy and theory into workable action programmes, is an art form that is little understood and seldom practised successfully, Within the development context, Sbapiero (1984) argues that “no where is the gap between theory and useful action more apparent than in the fielu of economic development” (Shapiero,1984;14). Past top-down exogenous economic development strategies have failed to achieve their objectives, and communities have traditionally lacked the means by which to initiate development. Structural changes in the global arena have also made it difficult for governments to protect their local markets because of competition in the global arena. This means that economic growth in each local area can follow only from the development of a new capacity to respond to global economic changes. Recently, more bottom-up endogenous approaches, to economic development, have been formulated. LED is viewed as a mechanism which could help fill the void which exists, through the effective mobilisation o f community resources. LED could thus enable the poor and structurally unemployed to participate in the economy, by focusing on Human Resource Development, Entrepreneuralism which is geared towards Community Development. New legislation and policy changes have led to more pragmatic and supportive environments which foster LED, LED is in effect a local response which ideally relies on local initiatives, and the communities taking ownership of the development process. This dissertation cannot be comprehensive, Instead it suggests a general framework to problem solving in the field of LED. The Thusanang Training Centre is thus promoted as a synthetic instrument with which to provide a general economic development mechanism at the local level. Training Centres represent areas with interesting and innovative initiatives, that may serve as indicators of ‘good practice* for LED within communities. However when a commitment is made to engage h LED strategies, organisations need to consider the ramifications of their actions on the entire community.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Law, Commerce and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in 50% fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) March, 2017 / Literature, which has been drawn for this research, defines talent development as a prime responsibility for leaders in an organisation to help achieve organisational goals and gain a competitive advantage. Further, talent development should be regarded as a collective approach which will encompass the other two parts of talent management, which is talent attraction and talent retention. Also, the integration of processes like change management, organisational culture and performance management has been outlined as beneficial factors to both employees and the company at large. While much has been written about talent management and talent development in particular, this study outlines what leadership can contribute towards a talent enriched organisation for future sustainability. Job satisfaction, visionary leadership and performance management are the three themes which emerged from this research. These themes require organisations to pay attention to them in order to achieve good results. What is also addressed is whether the focus of developing employees should be on the strengths or weaknesses of employees at individual level. However, the point not to be missed when dealing with the development of individuals in the workplace is to focus on TED (Total Employee Development). This helps the organisation to ensure that its workforce is equipped in all areas which is essential to achieve success and excellence. While organisations begin to accelerate talent development matters, they need to further focus on developing teams and this should be guided by the following principles: 1) to continue with the development of talented and experienced individuals to keep up with the changes in their respective fields; 2) paying attention to employees who are absolutely new and inexperienced in the field to help them develop interest in their work. The SRPD model (Specification, Raw Material, Production process and Distribution) has been drawn in as one of the tools which can be applied for the attainment of the desired 100% talent in the workplace rather than anything less which will be inadequate. / MT2017

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2016. / This study reports on water service delivery and it is a research that was undertaken in the Greater Giyani Municipality situated in Mopani District of Limpopo Province of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). The main aim of the study is to present the community’s perception on water service delivery challenges facing municipalities in the RSA and to make recommendations towards the development of both the community and the municipality. The motivation for this research was an upsurge in water delivery protests throughout South Africa and some of these protests have resulted in an unfortunate killing of citizens in the country during 2012, 2013 and 2014. In order to accomplish the aim of the study, several objectives were addressed. In the first part of the study, a literature review and identification of the context within which water is rendered in Greater Giyani Municipality is explained. The thesis then presents findings from the survey and an evaluation of the community perceptions of the quality of water service delivery. Following the survey report are the findings from the interviews held with municipal managers. From these combined findings recommendations are made towards water service delivery improvement. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used in the study. A questionnaire collected data from eighty five (85) participants (households) of Kremetart Township. Following the community survey, interviews were held with eight (8) municipal officials within the Greater Giyani Municipality. Respondents from the community (households) were randomly sampled, while municipal officials were purposefully sampled to represent those responsible for water service delivery. The questionnaire distributed to community members comprised of both closed and open ended questions with completion duration of 30 minutes. Semi-Structured interviews were used to derive an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon from the municipal officials. Major findings arising from the community survey are that clean water, sanitation, aging pipelines, lack of infrastructure and free basic services were the main service delivery challenges. However, from the municipal officials, issues of maladministration appeared more prevalent. The issue of maladministration emanates from the confusion of duties and functions between councillors and the council officials. Also of concern from the officials are issues of community engagement. The last area of concern raised by both the community and the municipal officials is payment for services. Whilst the municipal issues are centred on old infrastructure, the communities’ issues weigh more on payment of inadequate and unreliable services. The study makes several recommendations to the municipality, which if addressed, may improve service delivery and lead to positive perceptions by the community and towards significant development of the town. In order to overcome the challenge of service delivery, municipalities may consider prioritising capacity building, ensure that staff are recruited and employed on the basis of merit and also ensure that public participation is not hindered, especially functionality of ward committee structures.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Integrated Development Plan (IDP) are required for municipalities to function effectively. Local municipalities in South Africa use IDPs as a method to plan for the present and future development in their respective areas.The primary objectives of this study was to assess factors that facilitate or hinder successful implementation of the prioritised programmes or projects in the Integrated Development Plan of the Molemole Local Municipality. The study used qualitative approach to collect data from municipal officials, municipal council and community representatives. The study revealed that the community were not aware of the programmes or projects identified in the IDP and that there is lack of capacity to effectively implement the IDP and, communication between municipal employees and the community is not perceived to be adequate.The study recommends that the municipality should conduct training, improve communication methods and conduct awareness on IDP processes.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to document

Thesis (MBA) -- University of Limpopo, 2010 / The research focuses on the effectiveness of Polokwane Local Municipality to provide basic infrastructure services, adherence to project management principles and the involvement of communities in project implementation. Provision of basic infrastructure project has always been a challenge to local government. Polokwane Municipality as part of local government is mandated to fulfil constitutional obligations to ensure that provision of sustainable, effective and efficient municipal services to the communities, while promoting social and economical development. Quantitative research methodology was used in this research; the primary source was the questionnaire while the secondary sources include books, journals, dissertations and reports. The population in the study include community members, ward committee members or councillors, managers and technicians of the Polokwane municipal area. The findings revealed that the municipality is performing well in project scope management. Other project knowledge area such as project time management, project quality management, project human resource and project communication management requires more attention as they are not performing well. Project cost management is perceived to be performing well from the community and councillors side while officials see it differently. The research recommends that the municipality should ensure that the community members are involved during the project implementation. It further recommend that the municipality should implement cost recovery, develop policies to deal with quality management, train officials, instil project ownership to the communities and do proper project planning analysis before project implementation.