More on Service Delivery
Increasing citizen participation in the affairs of the local authority
The main strategies to improve service delivery were found to be increasing citizen participation in the affairs of the local authority and partnership with the community in service delivery, flexible response to service user complaints, offering value for money and ensuring that service users pay their bills on time.
Corruption, maladministration, administrative corruption, nepotism, and poor accountability have reached unprecedented levels within the African continent. Consequently, this has impeded the successful and adequate provision of public services and by extension, hampered socio‐economic development and good governance.
South Africans are experiencing poor service delivery from their local municipality. Ratepayers are becoming increasingly frustrated that their living conditions are being neglected coupled with the fact that many municipalities are facing the prospect being placed under administration.
Negative audit outcomes, poor revenue collection, failure to pay service providers and financial mismanagement are cited as reasons for municipalities being placed under administration.
Ratepayer Associations
Ratepayer associations are threatening legal action in many municipalities. In some instances, this may lead to municipal services being taken over by residents. Residents are at the end of their tether an cannot be expected to pay for services that they are not receiving.
Poor service delivery is not the only an inconvenience to residents at a local level coupled with regular electricity outages caused by sabotage to electrical infrastructure is severely impacting on the local economy.
Residents also have to contend with potholes that are not repaired timeously and increasing general infrastructure failure due to roads departments failing to ensure preventative maintenance.
Effective service delivery and accountability
Should officials elect to promote a political agenda and not comply with the prevailing law, the solution going forward is to enforce rigorous consequence management. City, Provincial and Officials employed by Organs of State who fail in the execution of their duties need to understand that the status quo can not be permitted to continue any longer.
Consequence Management
Officials who fail to perform their duties in accordance with their letter of appointment should face the fate of being dismissed from their job.
Research Outcomes
Research findings showed that the major causes of poor service delivery are Councillor interference and political manipulation, corruption and lack of accountability and transparency, inadequate citizen participation, poor human resource policy, failure to manage change, lack of employee capacity, poor planning, and poor monitoring and evaluation.
Strategies to improve service delivery
The main strategies to improve service delivery were found to be increasing citizen participation in the affairs of the local authority and partnership with the community in service delivery, flexible response to service user complaints, offering value for money and ensuring that service users pay their bills on time, strategic public service planning, sound human resource policy that includes capacity building and employee motivation, managing change, dealing with corruption and improving accountability, segregation of duties between Councillors and management of the local authorities, and partnering with other players and outsourcing services.
Source – Strategies to improve service delivery in local authorities
Also see
Promoting good governance in Africa: The role of the civil society as a watchdog
