Acronyms and Abbreviations
Chapter 3: Service Delivery Planning in Ndwedwe Local Municipality: Legislative and Policy Context
3.5. Service delivery challenges in South Africa
62 Section 2 of the LGMFA requires municipalities to sustain sound and sustainable fiscal and safeguard public funds by establishing policies and processes, as well as additional desires, to ensure accountability, transparency, and vibrant lines of duty in municipal and municipal entity fiscal and financial affairs. The Act also outlines the financial management and municipal budgeting obligations of local mayors and authorities. In terms of participation, the act specifies that a local council shall consult the community after the yearly budget has been deferred to council (Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003). The Ndwedwe Municipality maintains an investment register that details the funding sources that are linked to the investment register. This guarantees that the project will be completed or whether the project has a budget allocation. The investment register shows if Ndwedwe municipality is pooling funds for interest reasons or using the cash for the grant’s original purpose.
3.4.6. Local Government Municipal Demarcation Act (No. 27 of 1998)
The act lays out the principles and methodology for determination of municipal boundaries by an independent authority board. The board is composed of 11 members. In terms of the Act, the board is responsible for the determining or designing Ward boundaries and termination of Ward boundaries if required to do so. This is done across all South Africa’s municipalities (Van der Waldt, 2014:58).
3.4.7. Local Government Municipal Property Rates Act (No. 6 of 2004) (LGMPRA)
The purpose of the act is to establish rules for municipalities in determining how tariffs are set and charged in their respective areas. The Act’s principal objective is to make property valuation procedures fairer and more equitable. As a result of this procedure, impoverished property owners might be considered. In terms of participation, the Act mandated that all stakeholders be included in municipal property rate decisions of 2004 (LGMPRA, 2004).
63 Protests have erupted around the country because of the slow pace and lack of quality services, Local government is thought to be the most important location for improved delivery of services, and it is at the heart of the new South Africa’s transformational initiative. As a result, the local municipality is a sphere of government that that is closer with its communities and responds to their needs (Mokwena, 2014:2). Indeed, South Africa’s local government has gone through a variety of transition stages since the first democratic local elections designed to assist efficient and effective service delivery. Even though, there are still issues with service delivery (Muller, 2016). The main source of rage has been the dysfunctional administrative structures of local governments (Mokwena 2014:2). Several service delivery protests have arisen to some of the local municipalities as a symbol of showing that the affected communities are not happy with the services provided by the municipalities.
Reddy (2016:4) Local government dysfunction has manifested itself in a variety of ways in South Africa, including poor managerial skills and cadre deployment will to make sound appointments, failing to enact a municipal budget, difficulty to acquire certified audits, and failure to interact with and meet the concerns of local communities are all examples of inaction on critical matters.
Kimenyi (2013) also argues that many local municipalities have poor service delivery, which leads to effects such as frequent and sometimes ferocious protests by the citizens demanding improved services (Ncube, 2014). National Treasury (2011) characterise local government’s service delivery protest difficulties to a lack in public trust in many local municipalities, public dissatisfaction with inadequate governance and corruption leads to deprived provision of services.
One of the strategies to establish municipal public trust is for municipal councils to develop systems for interacting with community organisations and identifying service needs and priorities (Ndebele 2017:342). Rural populations have poorer incomes and fewer job possibilities, fewer educational and training options, and less access to public transportation and health care. Even though there is poverty in the city, there is a better possibility of receiving support in the form of basic services as compared to rural areas (Ndebele, 2017:342).
3.5.1. Financial constraint
To ensure the provision of services efficiently at local municipalities, enabling environment, sufficient funds, must be accessible to carry out its allocated responsibilities (Odalomu, 2015:17). Local municipalities failed to budget or utilise funds for the distribution of services such as human settlement, and other infrastructure services. Reddy (2016:4) argues that because of the demarcation procedure, several municipalities have lost their economic foundation and are no longer financially sustainable.
They rely on funding from other government agencies.
64 3.5.2. Corruption
In South Africa, corruption has been acknowledged as a severe problem. High levels of corruption among local government officials have been connected to the incapacity of local governments for the distribution of services to the citizens at the grassroots. Corruption, according to COGTA (Limpopo Province), is the cause of high unemployment, poor provision of service delivery, and insufficient resources. Manyaka (2013) claims that most South African municipalities are establishing a reputation for poor service delivery, inefficiency, and incompetence, as well as significant levels of corruption, even though several attempts have been implemented to improve service delivery. Tender irregularities are caused by desecrations of the MFMA and SCM, which fuel corruption, erode trust in municipal leadership, and jeopardise service delivery (Manyaka, 2013).
3.5.3. Poverty and unemployment inhibiting the development
In South Africa, youth unemployment is high; some have qualifications but are not working, and others do not have a good job (Cloete, 2015). As a result, poverty is a main course of protest by the citizens, as most of the individuals are obliged to pay for essential utilities even when they cannot afford them (COGTA Limpopo Province). Political appointments, a lack of capacity, and a lack of accountability are three major systematic challenges that Ndevu and Muller (2018:187) have highlighted as impeding service delivery
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3.5.4. Political appointments
Political interference by political parties in decision-making and political appointments has wreaked havoc on public servants’ morale and citizens’ faith in the local administration. Part of the intention for the deficiency of accurate enactment is that principal organisations lack the political spirit to make the tough judgements mandated to attain major performance progress in arenas such as rendering of services, recasting the disputes as maladministration and ineffectiveness issues instead (Koma, 2016:128).
According to COGTA (2014), tensions between political and administrative meddling, as well as a lack of ability to comply with the expectations of local government in terms of service supply, are some of the causes that lead to municipalities’ distress, insufficient power separation between political parties, insufficient accountability mechanisms, support structures, local, and failure to abide by the municipal policies and law (COGTA, 2014).
65 Nonexistence of information, poor communication strategy among politicians, administrators, societies, are some of the challenges that add to the difficulty faced by government at local level (Ndevu & Muller, 2018:181).
3.5.5. Lack of capacity in local government
According to the Auditor General’s Report (2014/15:5), a lack of capacity or skills in local government has an impact on how local governments operate and, as a result, their ability to carry out their mandate.
It was also stated that critical post openings and key officials without the necessary qualifications and skills made it impossible to produce credible financial statements and performance reports. According to the AG Report, 49% of towns do not have a registered engineer, and nearly half of technical services managers lack degrees or certifications.
Bizana (2013:34) Many municipalities are understaffed due to a shortage of the necessary skills, which has serious implications for service delivery. Municipal underspending is a direct result of a lack of appropriately skilled people who understand project planning and management Bizana (2013:34).