Abstract
Purpose: An element of poor service delivery concerns the quality of management on the maintenance of services like water, electricity, roads, schools and clinics. This is a relevant and topical issue for research because of the current situation regarding these provisions in South Africa. This research took place in a Municipality situated in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is the responsibility of municipalities to ensure that they fulfil their constitutional obligations in the delivery of maintainable, operative and well-organised municipal services through the maintenance of infrastructure. As this country has been subjected to a large number of service delivery complaints, this has led to the motivation of this study. The purpose of this study is to analyse maintenance on municipal infrastructure and service delivery in a local municipality, in particular focusing on the water supply. This research study is aimed at analysing how local municipality conducts its maintenance of municipal infrastructure, seeking to understand the challenge of maintenance on service provided to the communities. Design/Methodology/Approach: To achieve the success of this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted. A survey questionnaire and structured interview questions were conducted with communities and employees in a municipality in Limpopo Province. Findings: The results of the study revealed that residents are facing water difficulties due to a lack of maintenance and absence of water supply. People are fetching water from the rivers in the nearby community, water which unfortunately is not purified. Furthermore, people have experienced this poor maintenance and service delivery for years, negatively impacting on the community’s standard of living. Originality/Value: The original contribution of this work was to analyse the types of maintenance being used in local municipalities and how it will benefit the communities. To the best of the authors’ understanding, there are no studies that have been conducted in South Africa regarding the impact of maintenance on municipal infrastructure, and this paper aims to fill this gap.
Highlights
The South African Constitution stipulates that municipalities have the mandate to ensure an uninterrupted supply of basic services such as water, electricity, roads, schools and clinics to all its communities
This research study is aimed at analysing how local municipality conducts its maintenance of municipal infrastructure, seeking to understand the challenge of maintenance on service provided to the communities
Muyengwa authors’ understanding, there are no studies that have been conducted in South Africa regarding the impact of maintenance on municipal infrastructure, and this paper aims to fill this gap
Summary
The South African Constitution stipulates that municipalities have the mandate to ensure an uninterrupted supply of basic services such as water, electricity, roads, schools and clinics to all its communities. The idea behind the study was to analyse the methods used by a particular municipality for the maintenance of municipal infrastructure, the service provided to the community, and based on the findings, to propose improvement strategies. The few households who can afford, depend on water provided by private suppliers who operate under unhygienic conditions, or pay a ridiculous amount of money to boring/drilling companies to obtain drinkable water. This is difficult for the poor majority of people who are pensioners and unemployed who solely depend on insufficient government pension funds for their basic living needs
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