The role of the councillor and the official in the decision-making process of the municipality

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Local government is a sphere of government which consists of municipalities andits executive and legislative authority is vested in the respective municipalcouncils. The council is responsible for exercising its powers and functions onbehalf of the community it represents and it makes decisions in that regard.A municipality as an organisation which is comprised of two main components:on the one hand, the council as a body of elected representatives and, on the other,officials who have been employed by the council. Whilst it is generally acceptedthat it is the function of the council to determine policy and of the officials toexecute the determined policy, it is accepted that in .practice there is a degree ofinterfacing between these two functions. It is further accepted that, although thereis a clear distinction between the roles of councillor and official, it is possible thatthere may be a degree of misconception about their respective roles.The purpose of this study was to determine whether councillors and officials havemisconceptions about their roles in the decision-making processes of themunicipality and whether such misconceptions have a negative impact on servicedelivery.The research was initiated by a study of decision making in general, followed by astudy of decision making in local government in order to establish a basis for thefield of study. Oostenberg Municipality was then analysed, with specific referenceto its decision-making systems as well as its macro-organisational structure. Aquestionnaire was sent to the top structure of the council as well as the top management structure of the municipality; the views of these respondents wereused to determine whether there were any misconceptions about their roles.The study found that the councillor study group presented a 30.56% degree ofmisconception about their role as councillors in the decision-making process ofthe municipality, and in the case of the top management structure there was a29.86% degree of misconception. The study further established that this degree ofmisconception impacted negatively on service delivery.In VIew of the above, it is recommended that councillors be subjected toappropriate training, that the political party caucuses be accommodated in theformal decision-making process of the municipality, and that members of the topmanagement structure be subjected to dedicated training on their role in thedecision-making processes of the municipality. It is also recommended that thetop management structure of the municipality should be in possession ofappropriate academic qualifications.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University