Evaluating the credibility of the integrated development plan as a service delivery instrument in Randfontein local municipality

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research study was undertaken to explore one of the most significant plans in local government and is aimed at guiding future development within municipal areas. It seeks to evaluate the credibility of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) as a service delivery tool in Randfontein Municipality. Randfontein Local Municipality was selected, amongst other reasons, due to the finding by the Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) that it lacked crucial information relating to performance. The IDP spans five years and is an appealing super-plan for any municipality. An evaluation of this plan's effectiveness as a service delivery instrument is therefore important.Various legislation oblige local government to prepare and undertake IDP, which should be a collaborative planning process aimed at guiding municipalities to eradicate service delivery backlogs while encouraging socio-economic development. The process also seeks to preserve and conserve the environment and address spatial disparities for the development of, and delivering on, agreed priorities which are translated into projects with clearly defined outputs and targets over a five year planning cycle.In this study, the municipal IDP can be viewed as a five year service delivery commitment to the community by those elected and entrusted with ensuring that the IDP becomes a reality. It is integrated in such a way that it should be a reflection of government's wider plans such as the district municipality's plans and the relevant provincial and national government's plans. This plan should be informed by the communities which municipalities serve and must be backed by the necessary funding.The IDP has become a focus of South Africa's post-apartheid municipal planning and is also seen as a key instrument in an evolving framework of intergovernmental planning and coordination within the South African government, as mentioned by the Department of Housing during their DBSA Conference on Integrated Development Planning, (2008). The IDP is a phenomenal practice which was, and still is, aimed at addressing the consequences of planning done during apartheid, such as deliberate divided development as well as the marginalisation of so-called historically underprivileged communities.However, given the recent frequent and sometimes aggressive service delivery protests across South Africa, attention should now be focussed on tools used by government to ensure service delivery takes place. Existing information was explored during a literature review to contextualise service delivery while also discussing the elements of a credible IDP. The legislative framework for local government and its reforms budget was discussed and linked to the IDP. The credibility of the IDP was evaluated using the available IDP evaluation framework of the National Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA). Using this framework, challenges to the credibility and implementation of the Randfontein IDP were revealed. The municipality is struggling to use IDP as a tool to facilitate integrated and coordinated delivery, as the IDP identifies a large number of projects to be implemented by other spheres of government without indicating the sources of funding for these or their linkages with other programmes. The credibility of the IDP was measured by the following three performance indicators:- financial viability;- good governance; and- institutional arrangements.Certain recommendations were made to assist in improving the IDP as a credible service delivery tool, upon which decisions can be made to address service delivery requirements within the Randfontein area.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University