<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>

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering en sy organisasies en instellings, net soos ander internasionale state, word gekonfronteer met uitdagings om hul bates te bestuur, soos onder andere data, inligting, kennis, mense en prosesse. Hierdie uitdagings tel onder die faktore wat dienslewering negatief beinvloed. Alhoewel die Departement van Behuising ongeveer twee miljoen en sewe honderd duisend huise gelewer het, sedert 1994 was daar nog steeds uitdagings. Gepaardgaande met swak dienslewering, het die Departement ook gesukkel om bates soos inligting, kennis, inligtingstegnologie en menslike hulpbronne te bestuur. Alhoewel dit uitgebreide beleggings gemaak het in inligting tegnologie, veral in die ondersteuningsdienste, het die departement nog nie die tegnologie ten volle benut nie. Die tesis poog om die positiewe aspekte te ontdek wat deur die toepassing van kennisbestuur binne die behuisingsektor oor al drie regeringsvlakke teweeggebring kan word. ‘n Vraelys is versprei onder beamptes wat die bestaande behuisingsinformasie-sisteme gebruik in die areas van behuisingsubsidie administrasie, monitering en evaluering en projekbestuur afdelings in die behuisingsektor. Gebaseer op die bevindinge van die vraelys word ‘n kennisbestuursmodel vir die behuisingsektor voorgestel wat dienslewering kan bevorder. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering en sy organisasies en instellings, net soos ander internasionale state, word gekonfronteer met uitdagings om hul bates te bestuur, soos onder andere data, inligting, kennis, mense en prosesse. Hierdie uitdagings tel onder die faktore wat dienslewering negatief beinvloed. Alhoewel die Departement van Behuising ongeveer twee miljoen en sewe honderd duisend huise gelewer het, sedert 1994 was daar nog steeds uitdagings. Gepaardgaande met swak dienslewering, het die Departement ook gesukkel om bates soos inligting, kennis, inligtingstegnologie en menslike hulpbronne te bestuur. Alhoewel dit uitgebreide beleggings gemaak het in inligting tegnologie, veral in die ondersteuningsdienste, het die departement nog nie die tegnologie ten volle benut nie. Die tesis poog om die positiewe aspekte te ontdek wat deur die toepassing van kennisbestuur binne die behuisingsektor oor al drie regeringsvlakke teweeggebring kan word. ‘n Vraelys is versprei onder beamptes wat die bestaande behuisingsinformasie-sisteme gebruik in die areas van behuisingsubsidie administrasie, monitering en evaluering en projekbestuur afdelings in die behuisingsektor. Gebaseer op die bevindinge van die vraelys word ‘n kennisbestuursmodel vir die behuisingsektor voorgestel wat dienslewering kan bevorder.

Poor service delivery in South Africa is a serious problem.The poor delivery of services by municipalities has left many communities dissatisfied and even led to service delivery protests. The delivery of services to municipalities is financed through municipal budgets and this study evaluated the quality of the municipal budgets of two municipalities with one budget being credible and the other not being credible. Selected municipal conditional grant spending as well as the findings of the Auditor General’s office against each municipality were assessed and compared with each other. The purpose of this study was to assess whether a municipality with a credible budget achieved more of its service delivery targets than one which had a budget which was not credible. The findings of this study were that the municipality with the credible budget performed better, in terms of conditional grant spending and against predetermined objectives, than the municipality with the budget which was not credible. Therefore, more concerted efforts should be made by all relevant spheres of government to improve the quality of municipal budgets as this will ultimately lead to improved service delivery.

This research conducts an examination of the efficacy of placing municipalities under administration with the overriding objective of determining the appropriate strategies that can be recommended for improving governance in municipalities. In a bid to achieve this overriding objective, the entire research process was guided by the research objectives and questions that examined; tools used to evaluate the success of provincial interventions, governance of Mnquma Municipality pre and post the intervention strategies which are used for improving municipal governance. Although the secondary research was accomplished through the review and analysis of the relevant literatures and theories, the qualitative research approach was used in the primary research process. The findings of the study indicate that achieving effective municipal governance in South Africa is far from being attained. In terms of the principles for effective governance, the study reveals that the effective implementations of good governance principles in municipalities is marred by factors that include; poor definitions of terms of reference of intervention processes, poor definition of what poor governance in municipalities, lack of evaluation tools for intervention and a process that is highly dependent on subjectivity which subjects it to undue external influence. In thediscussions, it was argued that this subsequently contribute poor working environment, non-improving municipal governance, lack of commitment and non-improving quality of service delivery. However, it was noted that there is still ineffective applications strategies which can be used for improving municipal governance in South Africa. While considering the primary and secondary findings of the study, it was recommended that despite all the contrasting views on the intervention, there was a lot of common ground on the strategies that could be used to improve municipal governance which should be implemented in municipalities.

The traditional mandate of local government is to deliver sustainable services to communities. The evolution of local government has since put more emphasis on evidence based planning in the form of IDP and sound financial management. The relationship between the IDP and Budget is that, a) the IDP contains community needs, objectives and strategies on how these will be responded or dealt with by the municipality, and b) the budget is the financial plan to execute strategies that need to be employed. The purpose of the study was to examine challenges in integrated development plan and the budget alignment of Amathole District Municipality. The study moved from the premise that municipalities are different and ADM has been in the fore front in terms of producing IDP and Budget. The study therefore is based on the assumption that the Amathole District Municipality has challenges in the IDP and Budget alignment. The study proposed to give a background of the scholarly literature of the IDP and Budget of local government. The empirical survey and research methodology used in the study is described and explained in-depths and followed by data collection in the form of the questionnaire. The research findings of the empirical survey are then analysed and reported in statistical form.

This research conducts a Critical Assessment of the Provincial Intervention Outcomes in Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province (2012-2014) with the overriding objectives to identify factors which cause unsuccessful Provincial intervention on local government affairs and measure the extent to which these factors played a role in the intervention in Makana Local Municipality and assess the outcomes of Provincial intervention in Makana Local Municipality. The entire research process was guided by the above research objectives and questions that strive to assess the outcomes of Provincial intervention in Makana. The study involved a qualitative research approach: conducting interviews and reviewing the Provincial Strategic Plans 2014, Financial Recover Plans 2014, Makana Annual Financial Statement 2015, Makana Budget Analysis 2014 and the Auditor Generals 2014/15 annual report on Makana. The study identified and defined challenges (factors) that contribute to poor outcomes in Provincial interventions and further identified success factors of Provincial intervention. The extent to which these factors played a role in Makana were then measured, and finally, the outcomes of Provincial intervention in Makana Local Municipality were assessed. The findings of the study indicate that the intervention in Makana Local Municipality has produced stability in the municipality and resulted in a degree of successful outcomes. However, there are priority areas that the municipality still needs to work on in order to make certain that the Makana Local Municipality is fully functional in all the areas that have been identified as priority areas of intervention. The study establish that there are many factors that may lead to Provincial interventions failing in Local government, such as lack of monitoring and evaluation during intervention, lack of commitment by the Province, political interferences and lack of budget or funds to implement the strategic plans. These factors can be prevented in order to assure that Provincial intervention in Local government is successful. The study reveals that proper intervention plans, effective implementations of the strategic plans, coordination and communication between municipal Council, Province and municipal officials, monitoring and evaluation during and after intervention can assist the Province to detect whether the interventions are to be successful. Lastly, the study makes recommendations for both Provincial and Local government.

E-government which refers to electronic Government is the process of transformation of relationships of government with its constituents ie the citizens, the businesses and between its own organs, through the use of the tools of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). E-government services are the outcome of e-governance that come as automated services delivered through ICTs particularly Internet based applications that provide access to and delivery of information or services to the public, businesses, other agencies and governmental departments. This study seeks to examine the factors affecting citizens ability to access e-government services in Nkonkobe Municipality in the province of Eastern Cape and come with recommendations of how to address the issue. E-government services should be developed on platforms with the consideration of devices that people can have access to. The study showed that in as much as one can have cell phone that has access to internet , some website services such as home affairs enquiry applications are not accessible on a phone with a general web browser that has no Java Script capacity but has acces to internet. Therefore developing Short Message Service (SMS) based services or Unstructured Supplementary Serviuce Data (USSD) code that is available on all Globile System for Mobile (GSM) cell phones can increase accessibility of most services at a cheaper cost. The study concludes that although e-government is the future for our country and in this era of technology, much still has to be done in areas like Nkonkobe Municipality in Eastern Cape, as the citizens have no or lack appropriate tools to access the internet, and sometimes citizens are not aware of e-government services available. The research indicates that most citizens have cell phones despite the differences in handset capabilities, which therefore means that applications developed for e-government services can be ported foe accessibility to ordinary GSM cell phone including those without internet access.

The research seeks to assess the effectiveness of the provincial intervention in accordance with section 139 of the Constitution, 1996 in dysfunctional municipalities in the Eastern Cape as a viable instrument vis-à-vis the implementation of the continuous support in terms of section 154 of the same Constitution. Both sections are legislative obligations on the part of the national and provincial spheres of government. The two sections are legal instruments of monitoring and support and their implementation in municipalities by the then Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (now known as Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) in the Eastern Cape is the focus of the study. However, the two instruments are not achieving their objectives as more municipalities continue remaining dysfunctional despite provincial interventions. The government set out a broad vision of developmental local government. This is essentially a vision that calls on municipalities to find means of confronting the legacy of underdevelopment and poverty in their local areas. Whereas section 154 seeks to ensure support and strengthen capacity of municipalities, section 139 presupposes intervention in areas where a municipality has failed to perform. The latter section is usually invoked when everything else has failed by way of the continuous support provided by section 154. The study examined critical aspects on the implementation of the two instruments by DLGTA, particularly at Sundays River Valley Local Municipality. It looked at the challenges that necessitate the provincial government to intervene in dysfunctional municipalities as well as at implementation challenges. It also looked at the impact of the provincial intervention and checked on the section that is likely to make an impact between the two. In so doing, the municipal functionaries; Mayor/Speaker, Section 56 Managers, departmental officials of DLGTA and stakeholders representing citizens of Sundays River Valley were interviewed. The results of the study reflect challenges in the implementation of the two instruments by the DLGTA and it would be advisable for the DLGTA to consider the findings and recommendations in an attempt to contribute in overcoming the section 139 challenges.

Since 2000, local municipalities have been through a process of transformation which amalgamated a number of smaller local municipalities into larger municipalities. The amalgamation of a number of municipalities brings together an array of people, and therefore a myriad of organisational cultures are combined. The organisational culture of an organisation has an effect on the organisational commitment of its employees. A fit between the organisational culture and the employees will increase the organisational commitment of those employees and contribute towards improved service delivery. A survey conducted in South Africa indicated that the local municipalities have been delivering poor standards of service to the community; therefore there is a need to increase the service delivery within local municipalities. The importance of looking at the organisational commitment of a local municipality is because if there is commitment within the organisation, then employees will identify with their organisation and its goals, and will deliver the service more effectively and efficiently. Therefore, increasing the service delivery of local municipalities can be achieved through diagnosing the organisational commitment and organisational culture of employees within the selected municipality. The primary objective of this research was therefore to diagnose the relationship between organisational culture and the organisational commitment of employees at the selected municipality. In order to achieve this objective, a survey was conducted to canvas the opinions of respondents (N = 148) from the selected local municipality regarding their perceptions of the existing organisational culture, their preferences regarding the organisational culture within the selected municipality, and finally the organisational commitment. The main findings of this research conducted at a selected municipality can be summarised as follows: The dominant existing organisational culture is the power culture, while the dominant preferred organisational culture is the support culture; There is an organisational culture gap between the existing and preferred organisational cultures at the selected municipality; The dominant organisational commitment within the selected municipality is normative commitment; The findings pertaining to the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment of employees within the selected municipality can be stated as follows: The existing organisational cultures have significant effects on the organisational commitment of employees; The preferred organisational cultures do not have significant effects on the organisational commitment of employees; and The organisational culture gap does not have a significant effect on the organisational commitment of employees; The findings pertaining to the relationship between the biographical variables and the existing and preferred organisational culture, organisational commitment and the organisational culture gap can be stated as follows: There is no significant relationship between biographical variables and the existing organisational culture; There are significant relationships between the biographical variables, namely the departments in which respondents work, and the education level of respondents, and the preferred organisational culture; There are significant relationships between the biographical variables and organisational commitment; and The average organisational culture gap scores of the organisational culture scales for the biographical variables are significantly different. It can be concluded that organisational culture has a significant effect on the organisational commitment of employees within the selected municipality and therefore can affect the service delivery of the selected municipality.

In 1994, the new democratic South African government realised the magnitude of its service delivery problem and the urgency with which it needed to solve it. Emphasis was placed on better life for all. The local government, with regard to ensuring better life all, has since adopted the Batho-Pele principles and incorporated them into customer care to deliver a better life for all. However, recent service delivery reports in the Daily Dispatch and its sister publication Go & Express as well as service delivery protests across the country (including BCM) indicate all is not well. Many hypothesises have been raised as to why municipalities continue to under-perform. However, beyond these hypothesises is customer care management, and its constituents of customer service, complaint management and call centre activities. Customer care in the public sector has long been seen as the work of front-line staff. Others believe it is irrelevant in the public service due to the non-competitive nature of public service. Batho-Pele principles, since its inception in the public sector in South Africa, have been drummed up to put people first. Weary citizens see it differently and this has not escaped Buffalo City Municipality (BCM). BCM, one of the pioneers in the South African local government to have initiated customer care, admits there is institutional inefficiency. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of customer care management at BCM. In doing so; the study has narrowed the study to: describing the practice of customer care and customer care management in the public sector ( BCM included), establishing the components that constitute an integrated customer care management programme at BCM, investigating and describing the conceptual understanding of customer care and customer care management at BCM, and exploring and describing the role vision and values statements play in rendering a successful customer care programme at local government level with BCM as the focal point.