Assessing prospects for adequate service delivery in a rural South African municipality : a case stuy of Engcobo Municipality

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research analyses traditional public sector delivery impediments and the resultantreforms which have emanated from these impediments, how the reforms have beenimplemented in the developed and developing countries and the challenges facing rurallocal government structures, which must implement alternative service deliverymechanisms at the grassroots level in South Africa.The research further explores external and internal issues affecting public servicedelivery in general, and then concludes by exploring the local government and ruraldevelopment realities in South Africa. The developmental divide between developed anddeveloping countries is increasing for various reasons, among them, the publicmanagement reforms that have enhanced performance in developed countries, butcannot do the same in developing countries due to the overwhelming constraints.Developing countries experience constraints which include vague definitions of whatperformance entails in a developing context, unresponsive organisational cultures,unclear performance indicators, a resilient ethos of governance, unfavourableorganisational factors, incorrect use of resources and unsuccessful policy initiatives.A literature review has shown that ideological contradictions, lack of a common vision andpolicy process constraints are also hampering South African public sector service deliveryprocesses. Although local government legislation and reforms have freed municipalitiesfrom many impediments to improve delivery, the huge service backlog, infrastructureneglect, lack of integration with other spheres of government, lack of capacity, the impactof HIV/AIDS and the culture of non-payment are still eroding that ability, especially in ruralareas. In addition, rural areas have even greater levels of underdevelopment, povertyand service backlogs and consequently municipal structures in deep rural areas carryless legitimacy.The ethnographic research chapter focuses on a rural municipality in South Africa,Engcobo, and on how effectively it will be able to deliver the required municipal servicesin the absence of resources and amid a culture of non-payment for services, a hugeunemployment rate and escalating HIV/AIDS in the area. Local economic developmentwill be hard to realise because the municipality faces the constraints of finance, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, lack of institutional skills and inadequate infrastructure to fosterand drive developmental local government.The premise, that such a municipality cannot deliver the expanded local governmentdesignated services while it faces the above internal constraints and external ones thatemanate from the traditional public sector context, the global economic set up and theSouth Africa national government constraints, is qualified in this research. Amid themagnitude of the service backlogs, delivering the basic services in Engcobo Municipalitywill require sustainable funds and skills currently lacking. Engcobo Municipality does nothave the required capacity to deliver the designated services for local government andneither will this capacity be built up in the short term.A number of recommendations for improving on the prospects are nevertheless made.These recommendations focus on institutional development and capacity building,improving financial viability, harnessing profit in service delivery, public participation,partnership arrangements, dealing with HIV/AIDS, infrastructure development as well aswaste and environmental management.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University