Thesis (M.A. (Sociology)) --University of Limpopo, 2017. / The study sought to investigate the problem of dissatisfaction by residents of Malamulele in Thulamela Local Municipality (LM) with service delivery. The dissatisfaction of the residents manifested in violent protests in Malamulele and surrounding communities where citizens demanded to have their own municipality separate from Thulamela LM. Residents alleged that the Thulamela LM gives preference to Thohoyandou area and surrounding communities on issues of governance and service delivery while neglecting Malamulele. The problem under study was viewed from a social exclusion and relative deprivation points of view, which elucidate possible causes of dissatisfaction and resultant protests. The study adopted a qualitative research design where data was collected through interviews with sampled residents that were purposively selected took into consideration the manner in which the sample would assist in providing data towards achieving the aim and objectives of the study. Data was analysed using the thematic method of analysis where themes and categories emerged to assist in interpreting the data. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made. Some of the key findings were that Malamulele residents were dissatisfied with poor service delivery and poor governance by Thulamela LM, the violent protests were due to poor service delivery and tribalism and poor service delivery, Malamulele residents needed their own municipality, and that the relationship between the Venda-speaking people and Tsonga-speaking people is bad. Some of the key recommendations are leaders should engage communities to manage their hopes and expectations from government, exercising Constitutional rights should not result in devastating government property and violence, and citizens should be consulted in policy-making and other government activities that involve them. It is believed that these recommendations will go a long way to address similar problems and to enhance literature on the ongoing debate on governance and service delivery issues.

Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management school of governance. Research report for the partial fulfillment of the masters of management in public policy degree 31 March 2016 / Fiscal decentralization is defined as the degree of autonomy and responsibility given to subnational governments. Fiscal decentralization looks at the assignment of functions to different levels of government and the appropriate fiscal instruments for carrying out these functions. Fiscal decentralization implies a level of autonomy given to sub-national governments. Through decentralized budgeting, local governments are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that service delivery to communities is effective and efficient. Unfortunately the subnational spheres of government are more dependent on the national allocations as a result of a more centralized revenue collection system. The national budget is then shared vertically across the three spheres of government using the equitable share formula. The Local Government Equitable Share (LGES) is mainly allocated for the provision of basic services to local communities. The equitable share is also complemented with various conditional grants aimed at the reduction of infrastructure backlogs and other national priorities like water and electricity. However, the outcomes have been uneven across municipalities with some seen as excellent and others as dysfunctional. The South African Twenty Year Review Report indicates that challenges with the quality and functionality of municipal services in municipalities have led to backlogs and unevenness in the quality of service delivery which has contributed to deep-seated dissatisfaction in some communities, as evidenced by the steep rise in service delivery protests. This is an indication of how municipalities are not able to match the revenue they receive from the National Treasury and from collections made through rates and taxes with the amount of services expected from them. In a decentralized model of governance where national and provincial government are able to assign and delegate their responsibilities to local government, funding must then follow these functions. In doing do this will ensure that the responsibilities municipalities are tasked with are backed up by the sufficient budgets and other necessary resources from national or provincial governments. Unfortunately this is not the case in South Africa as seen in the multiplicity of ‘unfunded and underfunded mandates.” This clearly shows that the local government sphere has not been receiving sufficient revenue from the Fiscus to deal with the growing demand for services propagated by increased populations. This is a direct result of the failures of the fiscal framework that governs the allocation of funds to local government resulting in the smaller and rural municipalities being unable to deliver services to their communities. The Local Government Equitable Share formula also does not ensure equity among the citizens, hence most rural communities are still without basic services, including lack of sanitation and refuse collection in all the villages of the country. Even if the LGES was sufficient to ensure that basic services are catered for other functions of local government would not be covered and therefore compromising the principle of horizontal equity among the citizens of South Africa who are entitled to equal benefits, privileges and rights within the boundaries of the republic. / MT 2018

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits School of Governance, 2017 / Since 1994, the new democratically elected government has embarked on a series of massive initiatives, policies and programmes to improve municipal service delivery performance. Municipalities are, however, still incapable of fulfilling their designated service delivery mandate. The preliminary study of this research discovered that the current municipal monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, although they are legislated to serve as an early warning system (EWS), do not have essential components of an EWS and, as a result, cannot alert key players and stakeholders of developing problematic trends in municipal service delivery processes. The research examined the extent to which the current M&E system of the City of Johannesburg contains the components of an EWS. The purpose is to design and propose a model of M&E system that can serve as an EWS and enable municipalities to receive advance information about potential problems, and then to implement the necessary corrective interventions. Using a qualitative and a casestudy methodology, data were collected through observation, interviews, focus-group discussions (FGDs) and documentary study. Root cause, thematic analysis and data categorisation were used to analyse data. The findings indicate that early warning signals exist and are noticed by some officials and staff, but no mechanism or budget exists to enable them to use the knowledge (i.e., no EWS exists). An important original finding this study makes is that one of the root causes of municipal problems is the state of alienation municipal workers and managers across race and class experience, which results in silo mentality of workers, departments and sectors, and fragmentation throughout planning, functionalities, information and knowledge, as the effects of alienation on municipal performance have not been in the local government discourse. Conceptually, it argues that the M&E concept and framework need to be re-designed to encompass and build-in the concept of EWS, and, in turn, proposes a model of proactive M&E (pM&E), i.e., an M&E system integrated with EWS components, and therefore serves as an EWS. Moreover, it also suggests that concept and approach of the Weak Signals Theory (WST) is applicable in an M&E framework, but would be hard to use in “municipal” M&E systems, for three reasons: capacity constraint, political, and the multi-sectorial nature of the municipal system. ■ ii KEY WORDS Local government, Municipal service delivery processes, Municipal service delivery challenges, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), pM&E (proactive M&E), eM&E (M&E system integrated with EWS components and therefore serves as an EWS), Early Warning System (EWS), Weak Signal Theory, Alienation, Alienation in local government context / GR2018

Thesis (MComm (Education))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / In enquiring after the best means of financing basic local services in South Africa, the thesis begins by reviewing the arguments for fiscal decentralisation and the efficiency criteria for expenditure and revenue assignment. The role of local government within South Africa’s system of intergovernmental fiscal relations is then evaluated. A chapter is devoted to the efficient pricing of infrastructure for household services. However, it is emphasised that such pricing is unlikely to meet equity criteria for access and affordability. The equity aspect of providing basic local services is explored further from the perspective of South African Constitutional obligations and the current basic services policy framework. A concluding chapter discusses issues arising out of the work and provides some recommendations.

<p>This study focused on municipal service delivery campaigns before the advent of the integrated development planning framework. In particular, the focus was on the role played by the Masakhane campaign in improving service delivery and contributing to a better life for the community of the greater Middelburg in Mpumalanga Province. The municipality of the greater Middelburg won several awards in recognition of its achievements in the Masakhane campaign and serves as a model example for other municipalities.</p>

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / Municipal Planning in South Africa has evolved since the dawn of democracy. Before 1994, planning in the local sphere of government was characterised by segregation and disintegration of settlements and plans, respectively. After being welcomed back to the international community, particularly the United Nations, South Africa engaged in a process of reforming local government specifically - planning. As part of local government reforms, Integrated Development Plans (IDP)s were introduced in 2002 as the main tools for integrated planning in local, district and metropolitan municipalities. Integration requires that economic, social and environmental development initiatives are integrated in order to achieve “sustainable development”. During 1992, the United Nations Environmental Programme hosted a Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference developed and agreed upon specific principles of sustainable development which member states were to institutionalise as part of their development agenda and this culminated in the so-called “Agenda 21 Report”. The programme for further implementation of Agenda 21 and the commitments to the principles of sustainable development were re-affirmed at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. This study assesses the alignment of the Ehlanzeni District Municipality IDP with the principles of sustainable development as outlined in Annex 1 of Agenda 21. A questionnaire was designed and used to conduct semi-structured interviews with ten Planners from the District and the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. The findings indicate that the IDP of the EDM is not aligned with most of the principles of sustainable development that the assessment was based on. / MT2017

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Property Development and Management) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / South Africa’s electricity demand, over exceeds its’ supply capability; this in-turn affects a myriad of developmental factors namely: economic growth, business growth prospects, property development, the environment, as well as society as a whole. The traditional (fossil fuel generated) centralized electricity production model, has proven to be insufficient in terms of production capability as well as infrastructure expansion. This has in-turn presented an opportunity for real estate (more specifically listed regional and super-regional retail real estate) to capture a niche gap in the electricity generation market, that of becoming: decentralized renewable electricity generating production plants, that can become self-sufficient and sustainable, while plugging excess electricity back into the national electricity grid; these would in-turn form a network of individual power plants, that can contribute towards the national electricity grid through a smart-grid system, regulated by Nersa and monitored by Eskom. Structured interviews with industry professionals were captured through audio-recordings; the conversations were then author transcribed through pattern emergence as an interpretation tool, analyzed, and the findings documented in this research report. The major findings illustrated that: there were sufficient incentives from the government that promoted electricity generating real estate; feed-in tariffs were being explored within certain municipalities; within the listed property sector, portfolio greenness was becoming more and more important in commercial property development as well as portfolio sustainability; and technological price-parity had been reached within South Africa (meaning that the justification for utilizing the conventional electricity extractive development strategy, rather than the renewable electricity generating strategy, could no-longer be used as an excuse, due to both methods working out to relatively the same costs overall). Key recommendations where that: the self-sufficiency and electricity generation drive should come mainly from tenants, who could then place pressure on the landlords, who would then begin developing in a generation focused way rather than a cost-saving and low cost method; municipalities needed to look at other revenue generating schemes, as an intervention such as this one would see a possible loss of revenue due to a smart-grid system; and developers needed to begin thinking outside of the box, and creating wealth not only in monetary terms, but also in sustainability terms. It was concluded that, as much as this intervention could work in the long-run, it would face a few immediate challenges in the short to medium run, namely: grid connection approval, IPP (Independent power producer) approval, the challenges of shopping mall design with a huge dependence on HVAC / mechanical ventilation which uses tremendous amounts of electricity, as well as the electricity consumption of a regional & super regional retail centre almost being on par with the potential electricity that could be produced. With all that having been mentioned, this intervention would be a five to ten year development strategy that could be worked towards, and would create a new benchmark for listed commercial regional & super-regional retail developments within Gauteng. / MT2018

Thesis (MPA.) --University of Limpopo, 2006 / Refer to document

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2001 / Refer to the document

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / The study has been prompted by the initiative of the Local Government of South Africa in introducing the Integrated Development Plan in local municipalities in 1998 as an interim integrated plan. Local Municipalities in South Africa have to use “integrated development planning” as a method of planning for future developments in their areas. Apartheid planning left South Africa with cities and towns that have racially divided business and residential areas; are badly planned to cater for the poor; have long travelling distances to work and poor access to business and other services; have great differences in levels of service delivery between rich and poor areas; have sprawling informal settlements and spread-out residential areas that make cheap service delivery difficult. Rural areas were left underdeveloped and largely unserviced. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the IDP on service delivery in Emfuleni Local Municipality. The objectives of this study were: to evaluate the effectiveness of the IDP on service delivery and its implementation; to assess the capacity of the municipality to meet the IDP objectives and targets; to investigate the perceptions of the Emfuleni Local Municipality ward and Proportional Representative (PR) Councillors on their mandate and service delivery; and to identify and recommend strategies to enhance the effectiveness of the IDP on service delivery. The study was qualitative in design and collected data using interviews. The study found out that the public participation process, the Integrated Development Plan, service delivery protests and state of service delivery in Emfuleni has clearly shown that the Emfuleni Integrated Development Plan does not have significant impact on service delivery. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made: that there should an alignment of projects with community needs, establishment of a monitoring and evaluation unit, strengthen the intergovernmental relations system and regular feedback, communication and interaction with communities. These systems and structures will ensure that there is regular and coherent participation and involvement of the community as far as possible.