Abstract
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the successes and failures confronting the Greater Giyani Municipality in terms of service delivery through the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) implemented in Muyexe community, Limpopo Province (South Africa). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) defines service delivery as the provision of sustainable services by the municipality to communities. Post-apartheid South African municipalities are still confronted with service delivery backlogs, 20 years in to the democratic dispensation. The recipients of municipal services continue to be frustrated by the poor quality and the frequency in which services are delivered to them by the municipality. This provision of goods and services denotes that particular functions must be performed by the municipality. CRDP has emerged from the first two pilot engagements in Riemvasmaak in the Northern Cape, and Muyexe in Giyani in Limpopo Province as part of presidential designated projects. This paper is an empirical study that followed both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The data collection instruments used for this study are open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and a number of site visits. The paper argues that the CRDP has inadequately satisfied the intended objectives in the Muyexe Pilot Project. Intended beneficiaries of the programme from the Muyexe community exposed many of the failures of the programme by frustrations about the programme implemented in their community. In concluding this article provide recommendations on how future similar programmes implemented elsewhere at South African municipalities can satisfy the objectives they are originally intended for. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p132
Highlights
Post-apartheid South Africa is confronted with major challenges in ensuring that municipalities provide optimum and specialised services to their citizens
It is against this background that this paper reports on successes and failures confronting the Greater Giyani municipality to effectively deliver services through the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP)
The majority of the respondents (73%) indicated that the CRDP has not brought any significant change in terms of service delivery, 21% of the respondents are of the view that CRDP has made some strides in addressing the socio-economic wellbeing and the level of service delivery. 6% of the respondents were not sure of whether changes visible in the village were part of the CRDP or not
Summary
Post-apartheid South Africa is confronted with major challenges in ensuring that municipalities provide optimum and specialised services to their citizens. Service delivery challenges that exist within South African municipalities are rooted upon the failure to implement socioeconomic programmes in local government (Vatala, 2005; Patterson, 2008; Mbazira, 2013). The Greater Giyani municipality faces challenges in accomplishing the strategic objectives of the CRDP implemented at Muyexe village in 2009. The inability to implement the strategic objectives of the CRDP presages that service delivery in South Africa, 20 years in to democracy is meticulously hampered.
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