This study aims to achieve the following four research objectives: - To investigate the challenges that led to the KSDLM experiencing poor municipal service delivery, and its constraints to effective implementation of the IDP. - To develop and propose effective strategies for the continuous improvement of service delivery and good governance in KSDLM with specific reference to the town of Mthatha. - To reveal counterproductive variances between legislation and governance instruments crafted by the municipality which may, as a result of misinterpretation, result in distortions in carrying out the Constitutional mandate. - To work towards achieving conclusive findings to assist political office-bearers at national and provincial sphere to formulate legislation to promote the local government’s effectiveness and efficiency.

The rural areas of Amathole district municipality continue to experience difficulty in accessing water services. The people experience problems despite the fact that the Amathole district municipality, since 2003 has been made a water service authority in its municipal area, which consists of eight local municipalities, namely; Mnquma, Mbashe, Nkonkobe, Amahlathi, Great Kei, Ngqushwa, Nxuba, and Buffalo City. With the water service authority powers devolved from national government to the district municipalities the intention was to speed service delivery. This study investigates the causes of the delays in water service delivery experienced in rural areas of this district municipality. The Buffalo City local municipality is excluded in the study because Buffalo City has as well been given the responsibility of being the water service authority in its municipal area. This study used the questionnaires as data collection tool, and it was distributed to these respondents; chief officials, councilors, and citizens. Due to vastness of the target population sampling was used to reduce the bulkiness of the data. The questionnaire content is based on the phases of the systems theory to see if the policy making processes of the Amathole district municipality are carried out in accordance with the systems theory. The study has found that the citizens are not adequately involved in all the policy processes including the policy analysis and evaluation. This has been found to be a contributory factor in the ineffectiveness of the municipality water service delivery.The spheres of government that operate in silos compromised policy analysis and evaluation of the municipality, and disjuncture of the delivery programs of the spheres and state enterprises caused a huge service delivery challenges for this municipality. The study has confirmed that the Amathole district municipality is experiencing problems, delays, and challenges that make it to be ineffective as a water service authority.

The aim of the study was to assess the impact of traditional leaders and ward councillors‟ roles on service delivery in Mnquma Local Municipality. Not much research has been conducted in this field. The researcher wanted to ascertain the extent of conflict between traditional leaders and ward councillors in providing services to the communities and provide mechanisms to harness these. In this study relevant literature and legislative frameworks were reviewed. From the literature review, it was evident that service delivery is essential to the communities, and as such, municipalities have a critical role to play. The data collection instruments used, were questionnaires and interviews. In order to achieve the objectives, questionnaires were distributed to the participants and interviews were conducted. After analysing the data, the researcher formulated conclusions and from those conclusions, some recommendations were made.

The purpose of the research is to assess the financial viability of selected urban and rural municipalities in the Eastern Cape. Municipalities that are not financially viable and sustainable will always struggle to deliver basic services to communities. Without sound financial management systems, municipalities will be forced to discontinue their operations. Municipalities, particularly small and rural ones, are not self-sufficient and often rely on grants and transfers to satisfy their immediate short-term goal of providing basic services to satisfy the needs of their communities. Therefore, finance is regarded as an overriding and decisive factor for determining the viability of municipalities. The study seeks to investigate the financial viability of selected urban and rural municipalities in the Eastern Cape. Its key research questions are: Are municipalities able to provide sufficient funds to provide a range of services at an acceptable service level? To what extent do municipalities rely on external funding? Do municipalities have revenue collection capacity and revenue policies? The study asserts that most municipalities lack the required financial resources. They depend mainly on transfers from Provincial Government and equitable share and conditional grants from National Government. Section 152 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 8 of 1996, states, amongst other things, that Local Government should ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. The constitution further states that a municipality must strive, within its financial and administrative capacity, to achieve its objectives. The Municipal Finance Management Act, Act 56 of 2003, creates a framework for municipalities to borrow money and determine the conditions for short- and long-term borrowing. The Act assigns clear roles and responsibilities to the various role players involved in local government financial management. According to the Act, an annual budget for a municipality may only be funded from realistically anticipated revenues to be collected. As revenue projections in the budget must be realistic, the Municipal Property Rates Act, Act 6 of 2004, facilitates the collection of revenue in municipalities and establishes a uniform property rating system across South Africa. Property tax is the biggest element of local government tax revenue and is central to municipal finance. The Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000, amongst its objectives, provides for the manner in which municipal powers and functions are exercised as well as establishes a simple framework for the core processes of planning, performance management and resource mobilisation. The Act also provides a framework for public administration and human resource development. Finally, it also empowers the poor and ensures that municipalities put in place service tariffs and credit control policies that take their needs into account. The research contends that, whilst there is legislation and structures to assist and direct municipalities, it has been established that municipalities do not properly collect rates and taxes due to them to augment their revenue. The study has shown nevertheless that metropolitan municipalities have the capacity to collect revenue for municipal services. This is confirmed by their collection rate which ranges between 94 % and 97 %. There is also the culture of non-payment by communities for services rendered by the municipalities. Rural municipalities are exempted from property tax, while other rural municipalities who have an urban component, have to collect. There is also the question of unemployment and poverty. Consequently, municipalities are not self-sufficient and rely on grants and equitable share to survive. As a result of this lack of self-sufficiency, it is difficult to implement service delivery and also difficult to attract skilled personnel. The study has investigated why some municipalities fail to collect revenue and depend on national grants. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings of the quantitative paradigm have been presented in the form of graphs and charts. The major findings include: All municipalities have limited borrowing capacity; have not exceeded their budgets in terms of their spending; small municipalities have households as their main contributor of revenue collected; metropolitan municipalities get the big slice of their revenue from business; small and rural municipalities rely on grants and transfers and are therefore not financially viable; metropolitan municipalities are, to a great extent, financially viable but lack skills and capacity to utilize their resources for effective service delivery; and all municipalities under-spend their budgets. The study, after elaborating on the findings, makes recommendations on how municipalities should become financially viable.

The diploma thesis deals with the statute of the Municipality of the capital city Prague, which is the central authority of public administration and municipal government in the city. The city of Prague is not only province, but also corporate town and the largest domicile in the Czech Republic. The thesis analyses legal boundaries of the capital city in relevant acts (Municipalities Act, Capital City Act) and depicts the historical development of its administration between 1918 - 2009. The authorities of the Municipality of capital city Prague, its inner structure, competencies and major task in the areas of public administration and municipal government are also described within the thesis. It summarizes the relationships between the Municipality and local council (political leadership of the city), central offices of the public administration and subordinate units. In the end, it also sums the internal legal norms (financial management, requirements on the officers etc.) up and provides the evaluation of the contemporary state.

Examining human interaction networks contributes to an understanding of factors that improve and constrain collaboration. This study examined multiple network levels of information exchanges within a public service model designed to strengthen community partnerships by connecting city services to the neighborhoods. The research setting was the Neighbourhood Integrated Service Teams (NIST) program in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. A literature review related information dimensions to the municipal structure, including social network theory, social network analysis, social capital, transactive memory theory, public goods theory, and the information environment of the public administration setting. The research method involved multiple instruments and included surveys of two bounded populations. First, the membership of the NIST program received a survey asking for identification of up to 20 people they contact for NIST-related work. Second, a network component of the NIST program, 23 community centre coordinators in the Parks and Recreation Department, completed a survey designed to identify their information exchanges relating to regular work responsibilities and the infusion of NIST issues. Additionally, 25 semi-structured interviews with the coordinators and other program members, collection of organization documents, field observation, and feedback sessions provided valuable insight into the complexity of the model. This research contributes to the application of social network theory and analysis in information environments and provides insight for public administrators into the operation of the model and reasons for the program's network effectiveness.

Devant la question des changements climatiques, l’accent a souvent été mis sur les efforts visant à diminuer les émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Cependant, avec la découverte que certaines transformations profondes de nos environnements sont déjà irréversibles, la notion d’adaptation a gagné en intérêt depuis le tournant du 21e siècle. D’ailleurs, alors que les municipalités, en tant que gouvernement de proximité, sont de plus en plus considérés comme des acteurs importants dans cette volonté d’adaptation, le programme Climat-Municipalité a permis à quatre entités municipales québécoises de produire un plan d’adaptation aux changements climatiques (PACC) entre 2009 et 2016. La question se pose alors : comment l’adaptation aux changements climatiques est-elle interprétée dans le contexte municipal québécois ? Et de manière plus spécifique, comment l’adaptation est-elle interprétée en tant que processus et comment l’adaptation est-elle interprétée en tant qu’action ? Après tout, l’un des grands défis de l’adaptation s’exprime dans ce passage difficile entre la prise de conscience devant les enjeux climatiques et l’opérationnalisation de ce constat, que ce soit dans la mise en œuvre concrète ou, même, dans la simple compréhension sensible des problématiques auxquels la société est confrontée. Devant un phénomène globale affectant une planète où peu d’écosystèmes échappent à l’influence humaine, l’urgence climatique représente ainsi un défi technique, psychologique et sociopolitique unique. Comme notre analyse des PACC de Trois-Rivières, de Sherbrooke et de Laval l’indiquent, ces PACC représentent de remarquables premiers pas dans la bonne direction, mais ils restent insuffisants. Leur ambition, leur mécanisme et leur portée sont, pour l’instant, trop limités pour assurer la pérennité des territoires et des populations ; leur vision généralement à court terme et réactive contribue à se préparer aux défis déjà connus aujourd’hui, mais n’assure probablement pas à nos sociétés la capacité de faire face aux chocs de demain. / For a long time, when facing the daunting challenge of climate changes, the emphasis has been put on the efforts to mitigate greenhouses gases emissions. Yet, when it became clear that our ecosystems were subjects to some deep transformations that were irreversible, the notion of “adaptation” slowly gain traction at the turn of the 21st century. Thus, while the municipalities, as government of proximity, are considered as increasingly important actors in this adaptation scheme, the program Climat-Municipalité offered the opportunity to four municipal entities in Quebec to produce a Climate Change Adaptation Plan (CCAP) between 2009 and 2016. The question is then raised: how is climate change adaptation interpreted at the local level in Quebec? And, to be more specific, how is the Adaptation interpreted as a process and how is Adaptation interpreted as an action? After all, one the greatest challenge of Adaptation is that difficult transition from awareness of climate issues to the operationalization of this realization, whether through concrete implementation or even through a simply better and complex understanding of the hardships faced by our society. Indeed, this global phenomenon of climate change, that can be felt throughout this planet where few ecosystems escape human influence, is at the same time a technical, psychological and sociopolitical challenge. As our analysis of the CCAP of Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Laval shows, those plans represent great “first steps” in the right direction, but they are still insufficient. Their ambition, their inner mechanics and their reach are, at least for now, too limited to guarantee the stability and sustainability of territories and populations. Their mostly short-term and reactive vision helps prepare for today’s challenges but doesn’t ensure our societies the capacity to face tomorrow’s shocks.

MPM / Olive Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies

PhD (Administration) / Department of Public and Development Administration / The focus of this study is on the role of the integrated development plan in community development. This study focuses on Limpopo province, but for the purpose of this study the research was conducted in Capricorn district municipality which is comprised of the following five (5) local municipalities: Blouberg, Aganang, Molemole, Polokwane and Lepelle-Nkumpi. The District Municipality is expected by the government and communities to play an active role towards community development as a central feature on local government development. The district municipality must be involved in the development of its communities in partnership with local municipalities, communities and other structures which can play an active role in community development. The integrated development plan is a process through which a municipality can establish a developmental plan for the short, medium and long term. In terms of the Local Government Municipal Structures Act No 117 of 1998 all municipalities have a responsibility and accountability to develop their communities which will have an impact on the daily lives of South Africans. In view of this mandate, Capricorn District Municipality must develop its vision, mission and objectives to meet community needs and improve the quality of life of all people. Developmental local government is local government committed to work with citizens and groups within the community in order to find sustainable ways to meet people’s social, economic and material needs. South Africa and in particular Capricorn District Municipality has a back-log of services that have not been provided to the previously disadvantaged communities. The integrated development plan is intended to redress all the past economic imbalances. Municipalities must focus their efforts and resources on community development especially on communities and groups which have been previously marginalised or excluded from economic and community development, such as women, disabled people, and very poor people by the apartheid government. Challenges of the integrated development plan which are experienced by the community are poor service delivery, poor implementation of the integrated development plan, corruption in district municipal projects and poor financial management. ii The researcher intends to follow a mixed method approach in which both qualitative and to a lesser degree quantitative approaches will be used. The reason for using a mixed method is because the study can be integrated in such a way that qualitative and quantitative methods will retain their originality. In this study, a qualitative approach is applicable because it allows openness to ideas, opinions, feelings, experiences and perceptions which may be expressed by research participants to the researcher. The researcher will for the purpose of this study be more interested on the qualitative study as it will be able to give results from the respondents. The researcher will use a Likert scale questionnaire in order to source out information regarding the role of the integrated development plan in community development. The researcher will use non-probability sampling and its subtype purposive sampling method in order to obtain results from participants. Although there are different types of sampling, the researcher intends to use non probability sampling which is by and large more successful than quota sampling. In this process, purposive sampling will

MAdmin / Department of Public and Development Administration / See the attached abstract below