The advent of multi-party democracy in 1994 spearheaded different reforms in the Malawi public sector. One prominent reform is administrative reform. The new government that was ushered into power instituted a policy on civil service reform and institutional development. The reforms that were introduced aimed at improving performance and enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of services. Accordingly, a Public Service Act was promulgated that constituted the clarification of the role of the civil service; equal access to public employment; merit based recruitment and promotion; and increased accountability and transparency in the policies and practices of the public service. This study therefore seeks to examine administrative reforms in Malawi and assess their impact on service delivery. The research further endeavours to explore factors which block the successful implementation of reform programmes, and seeks to come up with areas of improvement which would ensure successful implementation of reform programmes in future. The scope of this research is limited to the current civil service reform programmes and is mainly based on primary and secondary sources of information. The study uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. However, findings reveal that reforms had a negative impact on service delivery since no significant change in the delivery of services was registered. The Malawi civil service continues to suffer from unprofessionalism, inefficiency, corruption and a host of other problems. The study shows the gap between rhetoric and reality of civil service reform programmes in Malawi.

The aim of this study is to discover the board effectiveness through an examination of insider board practices in Chinese State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs). It is based on twenty one in depth interviews with company executive and non-executive directors and supervisors in three publicly listed companies. It involves the investigation of the variables of board structure, function, processes and effectiveness. Interpretive inquiry is conducted to ascertain whether board directors and supervisors understand the meaning of corporate governance in achieving board effectiveness and to what extent they comprehend their role in implementing the codes and principles of corporate governance in day-to-day business activities. The study assesses qualitative data gathered from the interviews using content analysis and presents a model with propositions for its testing in later research. The results show that the notion of corporate governance has been widely accepted by Chinese boards. Universal principles of corporate governance are applicable in Chinese SOEs but social context prevents companies from implementing effective governance systems. Relative to the assumptions of agency theory, institutional theory and resource dependency theory, the practical challenges associate with the board processes and dynamics are not well recognised both theoretically and practically. Although the boards enact formal structures required for corporate governance, the board members' real behaviour is often far from satisfactory in order to promote shareholder accountability. These findings suggest that it is essential to understand what constitutes a good corporate governance system from the perceptions of board practitioners. The results therefore contribute to theory by highlighting the significance of primary qualitative research upon key governance variables. Extant research focuses too narrowly upon formality and by-passes process related activities, emphasising that there is a disparity between the perceived and real effectiveness of boards. The study addresses the gap between research and practice by providing an opportunity to investigate invisible board behaviours and contributes academic research to the practices of corporate governance reform. Practically, the findings provide a diagnostic framework which would benefit all Chinese companies in making further improvements to corporate governance.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / 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. / South Africa

Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of LImpopo, 2017. / The new democratic government of South Africa came into power in 1994 and it inherited a dysfunctional municipalities. In fact it inherited a country with high levels of poverty, growing levels of inequality and also social dysfunctionality. The local government sphere was established in South Africa with the main aim of addressing inequality, segregation, inequity, discrimination in the provision of municipal services and eradication poverty within communities. However, ever since the establishment of local government sphere in South Africa, the sphere of local government is fraught with many challenges which make it impossible for municipalities to render proper municipal services to the members of the public. This is evident from the protests which were observed in the country ever since the year 2008 were communities demanded better services from their municipalities. This mini-dissertation therefore discusses the application of the principles of corporate governance in delivering and improving municipal service in South Africa. It further discusses the legislative framework and the institution of government which are responsible for the effective implementation of corporate governance in the local government sphere. Pursuant to that it also explains the concept of Corporate Governance within the local government. Furthermore, it discusses the parameters of the challenges that are faced by the municipalities which are ranging from fraud, nepotism, corruption and poor financial management which result in poor service delivery.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / Municipalities support social and economic development through infrastructure investment and help to alleviate poverty by providing free basic services to the poor households. The primary funding mechanisms to support municipal service delivery to the poor is the MIG allocated to the municipalities in the form of conditional grant. The MIG programme was specifically established to assist the poor to gain access to infrastructure and can only be used for infrastructure towards basic services. This study investigates the impact of Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) on basic service delivery in Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality which is in Limpopo Province. The findings and recommendations are mainly and only applicable to this specific municipality although there may be areas of possible extrapolation. This study employed primarily a qualitative research as a methodological approach to address the specific research questions. The interview schedule and semi-structured questionnaire were used together with the examination of existing documents. A total of 28 municipal officials and community representatives were involved in this study. Data was analysis using qualitative content analysis method and descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that: Firstly, the finding highlights that the municipality makes all efforts to comply with the requirements of MIG. (a) The spending trend of the municipality shows effective utilization of MIG. However, records show that the municipality has a tendency of spending after three months (October) after commencement of the financial year (It should be noted that the municipal financial year starts from July to June of the next calendar year). The result also reveals that at the project level there might be some over spending tendencies. (b) It is also evident that the municipality has the capacity and the mechanisms to manage MIG implementation; nonetheless, there is a sign that there is inadequate capacity of technical administrative skills and project management skills which are essential for MIG administration. (c) Mechanisms to monitor MIG implementation are indicated by site visits, site meetings and monthly service provider meetings. (d) The municipality demonstrates iv accountability in terms of the administration of MIG by submission of monthly reports, annual reports; implementation plans; cash-flow budget to the national office through provincial office; and by submitting financial statements to Treasury. (e) There is an average understanding of knowledge of MIG and of decisions about projects budgets by community representatives. Secondly, although the finding reveals that the municipality is rendering basic services to its residents using the MIG, some officials indicated that there is a backlog in roads infrastructure and that the municipality needs more funding to address the backlog. The community representatives were recorded saying that the communities are not satisfied with the services rendered by the municipality. It was also evident that the municipality is struggling to address the backlog because of the mushrooming of new settlements and the limited MIG funds. Finally, the finding shows that MIG programme has contributed to improving basic service delivery in Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality. Respondents from municipal office specified that MIG is the main source of funding for delivery of basic service to its communities. The community representatives revealed that they have benefited from different types of projects delivered by the municipality in their wards such as: water, sanitation, electricity, high mast lights, roads and storm water, community halls, crèches, sports facilities, parks, low level bridges and schools. It was also stated by community representatives that the infrastructural projects implemented are not properly maintained. In addition, the finding shows that most respondents are still not well-informed about MIG. That is the reason that they have inadequate information about the projects at local level. Keywords: Infrastructure; Grant; Service; Impact; Municipality

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

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