A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015. / This study aimed at examining the extent to which the public participates in service delivery, looking specifically at the level and nature of participation in service delivery processes, and perceptions communities have with regards to the type of services rendered. The study was necessitated by continuous protests over service delivery at local government level noticed since 2006, and reports of very slow provision of services that did not meet the expectations of residents. Communities perceived the municipal officials to be self-serving and neglectful of their needs, while some municipalities were reported to be under investigation, and some were even put under provincial administration. Therefore the significance of this research cannot be overemphasised. The researcher acknowledges that there are numerous problems hindering service delivery at local government level, and this research study could not unpack all of them, but the delimitations of the study are stated in the dissertation. Contextualisation of the study was based on the existing legislative, theoretical and conceptual perspectives that apply in the domains of public participation and service delivery. Perspectives were drawn from various sources to test the level and effectiveness of public participation processes used by uMhlathuze Municipality in its service delivery. The nature of the study necessitated the use qualitative methods of data collection such as in-depth interviews and observation in order to: assess the level of community participation in decision-making regarding service delivery; examine community perceptions of the causal factors of good or poor service delivery; identify forms of service delivery that were provided and the beneficiaries of the services delivered. The findings of the study indicate that the participation of community members has been limited to being consulted and informed, but does not include involvement in decision-making about level of service provision nor creation of the beneficiary lists. Public is not involved in the creation of implementation plans, or monitoring and evaluation procedures. The findings of the study also reveal that the community perceived the political environment as a limiting factor in that it tended to have a big influence on the delivery of some the services. Although services such as water, electricity, sanitation (in a form of VIP toilets) and houses are provided to rural communities there are concerns regarding access and distribution of some of the resources, which are allegedly influenced by political alignment.
It is concluded that public participation at municipal level really only takes the form of informing and consultation of communities. The public is not involved in crafting the actual implementation plan, and monitoring and evaluation procedures. It is also concluded that service delivery is characterised by lack of clarity on the criteria used for creating the beneficiary list. However, although the community is not satisfied with the lack of clarity on such an important aspect of the delivery of services, the level of infrastructural development, nor with the delivery of services itself, their being continuously informed and consulted by the municipality reassure them of the municipality‟s commitment to service provision. Recommendations are made for uMhlathuze Municipality, including a theoretical framework of effective public participation in service delivery. There are also recommendations for further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1386 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Cele, Duduzile |
| Contributors | Ntombela, N.H. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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