Our Offering
A professional team with collective years of knowledge, competences and skills in municipal affairs who embraces public-private partnership is a recipe for success
Our Expert Team
The Good Samaritan team of experts have substantial knowledge in the arena of municipal administration, development planning and municipal law.
Our collective experience has identified numerous deficits that are hampering service delivery in South Africa and unlawful irregular fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Roll of Municipalities
Municipalities are the most basic units of government, and they are tasked with providing basic services and fostering development in the regions they control. Local government in South Africa is largely understood in terms of service delivery and the South African constitution (Act No. 108 of 1996) assigns municipalities the role to mobilise economic resources towards the improvement of the lives of all citizens.
Basic services are the fundamental building blocks of improved quality of life, and adequate supplies of safe water and adequate sanitation are necessary for life, well-being and human dignity. The accessibility of basic services is closely related to social inclusion and social capital, and the failure of municipalities to deliver services can have a detrimental impact on social and economic development (IDASA, 2010).
Maladministration
Municipalities can no longer be permitted to abuse their clients and rate payers deserve service delivery across the board and we all need to hold municipalities to account.
Partnership with Rate Payer Associations
By Good Samaritan forming partnerships with Rate Payer Associations and interest groups throughout South Africa this will provide greater leverage to all participating Rate Payers associations in addressing ongoing service delivery issues and maladministration that is plaguing our country.
Public-private partnerships, in particular, have the potential for service delivery, but serious problems can arise if they’re not properly structured and monitored. Basic principles of accountability, built around a central theme of strong internal control and good governance, are severely lacking in municipalities.
Collaborative service delivery includes economic benefits, better public service relationship building with NPO/NGO to retard administrative decay that is negatively impacting the efficient running of municipalities. Service delivery in developing countries has for long been very challenging irrespective of the efforts put in to improve it.
Knowledge and Skills
Many employees in local government appear to lack adequate knowledge and skills to perform their roles and responsibilities. Administrative decay took root in several provincial/local government administrations and is severely impacting on the efficient administration of municipalities.
The Constitution of South Africa envisages a robust local government system, which can provide democratic and accountable government for local communities; ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner; promote social and economic development; promote a safe and healthy living environment; and encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.
Auditor General
The Auditor-general (AG) has reported year on year an overall deterioration in the audit results of South Africa’s municipalities.
There is a lack of decisive leadership to address the lack of accountability by ensuring consequences against those who flouted basic processes that hampered effective municipal governance.
Accountability
The importance of accountability in the management of municipal affairs, starting with appropriate planning focused on the needs of citizens, and instituting appropriate internal control and supervision that will ensure proper financial and performance management.
There is an inherent lack of leadership by municipal managers and executive staff to improve key internal controls and to address risk areas. These include key officials lacking appropriate competencies and inadequate consequences for poor performance and transgressions.
