Implementation of a Public Service Delivery Platform to Improve the Service Delivery of Indigent Registers in South African Municipalities

Abstract

Poverty alleviation and the rendering of basic services to households who cannot afford to pay for essential services are rated highly on the priority lists of the South African government. Municipalities are required to play an important role in ensuring that the poor and indigent communities have a decent standard of living and access to Free Basic Services (FBS). To this end, indigent registers have been seen as means through which to identify and target those unable to provide for their own basic needs for receipt of certain allocations of FBS, as well as for other targeted interventions. For many years, South African municipalities have been doing this process manually resulting to poor service delivery as they cannot verify eligible indigent beneficiaries. In this paper we report on a system that was developed to automate indigent management processes and to empower the indigents. The aim of this system is to assist municipalities in the implementation of robust administration of indigent population and improve service delivery. This system has been already deployed in one of the major municipalities in South Africa and is planned to be deployed and replicated in other municipalities of the country in its aim to improve the service delivery of the indigent registers.