South African Local Government Research Articles

Consultocracy in South African public service: A case of repositioned public administration curricula

Background: This article attempts to make a reasoned case for re-thinking and repositioning public administration education curriculum in South Africa considering the emerging ‘consultocratic’ regime in the public service. It appears that public managers are determined to outsource private knowledge and expertise with little efforts made to build their own internal capacity.Aim: To establish ways in which the higher education sector can help in preparing future public servants in South Africa.Setting: The article is an extract of the study that was conducted in 13 Limpopo-based municipalities, including provincial Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and South African local government association.Methods: Qualitative methods were used to obtain perspectives from officials and practitioners involved in local government in order to establish reasons why public institutions over-consult.Results: The main finding of this study shows that public institutions, municipalities in this case, over consult because of limited inhouse talent and skills shortage. Participants agreed that while municipalities take blame for ineffective recruitment strategies, higher education sector can play a bigger role in building future skilled graduates. A lack of critical thinking skills was said to be the main problem. With the backup from critical thinking theory, the study proved the need for revised Public Administration (PA) curricula.Conclusion: The repositioning of PA education is encouraged considering that the public sector governance approach is said to be inspired by the market – oriented ideology, the New Public Management, which favours outsourcing against the central role of government.Contribution: Inclusion of critical thinking as module in the PA discourse is recommended. Public sector is also urged to ease legislative red tapes to encourage innovation in the public service. This will guarantee skilled and readily available recruitment pool from which public sector can source talent from, but most significantly, a cultivation of tactical, critical, and strategic thinkers will positively challenge the prevailing consultocratic regime.

Nurturing Development Administration in South African Local Government

This paper aims to unpack the relationship between the development administration and local government in fostering socio-economic development. the paper argues that the effective implementation of the development administration sufficiently contributes to local government productivity in delivering government development-oriented services and programs. Development administration includes strengthening administrative capabilities. Development administration covers a wide range of techniques used by large organizations, most notably the government to implement plans and policies that are meant to assist them in achieving their developmental objectives. The main goal of development administration is to create a better social, political, and economic environment. The local government plays a crucial role in Africa's economic development trajectory.  the paper is conceptual in nature as relies heavily on secondary data and existing literature to address the answer to the inherent argument. from the literature, authors derived findings such as a lack of adequate political capability and politicization of development, corruption, lack of accountability, low priority of quality assurance, poor monitoring, and evaluation of socioeconomic policies, excessive political control, poor capacity development, nepotism, lack of community participation, resources constraints, inter alia. the study recommends that further research should be conducted in all municipalities within South Africa to detect the problem associated with development administration for effective enhancement of socio-economic development as well as reinforcing and easing the sustainable development in local government. since public administration is regarded as a social science discipline the study contributes to the field of public administration and development as it deals with assessing and resolving the social, political, and economic problems that affect day to day life of communities. Development administration also contributes to the National Development Plan as it enhances the social, political, and economic arena.  the study can also influence public officials to be equipped with more skills to meet the socio-economic needs of the communities.

Towards evidence-based human resource development for South African local government

Background: The effective management of human resources is crucial for the sustainability of municipalities. However, as evidenced by poor service delivery, municipalities are not measuring human resource development. There is no known assessment tool or system to measure the performance of human resource development in South African municipalities.Aim: This study investigated the human resource development challenges experienced in municipalities and recommends, among other things, an evidence-based assessment tool that will improve human resource development implementation.Setting: Participants included line managers, human resource development professionals, employees, and councillors from randomly sampled local, district and metropolitan municipalities in South Africa.Method: An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used. Quantitative data were collected using questionnaires from 111 respondents. Qualitative data were collected from respondents given an opportunity to elaborate on their responses to statements in the questionnaire.Results: The results of the study show that municipalities are not effectively implementing human resource development, which compromises service delivery and municipal performance. They also suggest that municipalities are not effectively implementing the adopted Integrated Municipal Framework for Human Resource Development.Conclusion: The study concludes that there is an urgent need for local government to prioritise the management of human resource development. An evidence-based assessment tool will ensure that human resource development governance gaps are addressed in municipalities.Contribution: This study adds to the debate on the management of human resource development in South African local government by providing a context-specific analysis of implementing and managing human resource development and by recommending improvement strategies.

Ethnic leadership in the age of disruption: implications for South African municipalities

Municipalities are mandated to follow the principles of democracy, accountability, and good governance. This is evident in the delivery of basic services. Municipalities are directly responsible for ensuring that communities have water, sanitation, and so on, and that community members have a voice that affects their existence. This is, however, not the case in most South African communities, where squalor and sordid conditions prevail. In 2021, it was reported that 64 municipalities were dysfunctional and that the dysfunction was attributed to “poor governance, weak institutional capacity, poor financial management, corruption, and political instability”. A Code of Conduct is available in the South African public sector, governing the behavior and work ethic of public officials, councillors, and the like. Yet corruption and maladministration at the local government level prevail. Therefore, the Local Government Ethical Leadership Initiative was launched in 2020 with the view of devising another code focused on ethical governance in South African local government by October 2023. The research question that this article addresses is centered on whether a new code of conduct is needed and whether the problem with the existing code does not lie with its enforcement or the ethnicity of the public officials in leadership positions and their view on how to conduct business. The article employed a qualitative research approach where secondary sources of information, constituting document analysis, premised around disruption and ethnic leadership as well as the legislative framework in relation to the Code of Conduct governing South African local government in particular and anti-corrupt behavior in general, were explored. Four provinces were purposefully selected to partake in the study. Extracts from the AG’s report formed the locus of the study. It was found that one cannot explicitly say that ethnicity plays a role in how municipalities are governed. However, governance in selected provinces was marred by poor governance practices and inadequate leadership. The Code of Conduct for Public Servants is generally not adhered to. Further research around ethnic leadership in the South African public sector is called for.

The Use of Social Media for Internal Communication within South African Local Government

Contemporary organisations have embraced a wide variety of social media platforms. Social media provide companies, institutions and government departments with the quickest way to communicate with employees. The platforms allow for instantaneous, two-way and cost-effective communication. This paper uses Grunig’s two-way symmetrical as a lens to understand the challenges associated with the use of social media for internal communication within local government in South Africa. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires, while qualitative data was gathered using interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Four categories of challenges emerged from the data analysed: lack of social media policies, compliance and adherence with the policy, and lack of organisational support. The absence of social media policy proved to be a significant factor that leads to the ineffective use of social media for internal communication. Municipalities with social media policies had few employees who knew about the policy, whereas the remainder failed to adhere to the policy. Lack of organisational support emerged as a challenge that hampers the use of social media for internal communication in local government. This paper contends that while the use of social media has increased significantly in municipalities, significant challenges associated with the management of social media need to be addressed if the Government Communication Policy is to be implemented effectively.
  
 Received: 02 March 2023 / Accepted: 14 May 2023 / Published: 5 July 2023

Local government project risk management maturity measurement model for leveraging effectiveness of local government project risk management

Project risk measurement is a critical driver of local government project implementation. It aids identification of the level of the effectiveness and maturity of project risk management to bolster the seamless process of local government project implementation. Unfortunately, empirical facts imply local government project risk measurement is not yet well developed to the extent of leveraging successful local government project implementation. As these explain why some local government projects are often marred by risks to only fail as others fail to get completed, this research evaluates the level of local government project risk measurement maturity in the South African local government. To accomplish that, the study used interpretivist research paradigm, exploratory research design and qualitative research method entailing the usage of content analysis. Content analysis was used to evaluate the existing information and data in the local government repositories about the process used for measuring and mitigating local government project risks as well as their associated limitations. Findings that were thematically analysed revealed the effectiveness of the process of risk identification and mitigation is often still marred by poor risk management culture, poor governance and lack of proactive initiatives to identify and mitigate all forms of risks. Failure to proactively identify and mitigate all risks was found to have caused late interventions that affect identification and mitigation of all risks in their early stages. Such risks were found to include poor governance, corruption and fraud that affect optimisation of the limited financial resources as well as supply chain risks, ecological and health and occupational risks. Given the fact that a model for measuring project risk measurement was also found to be a challenge, the study extracted and suggested the local government project risk management maturity measurement model (LoG-PRiMMM-Model) as one of the new insights and contribution of the study that can be replicated for leveraging project risk measurement and mitigation in the contemporary local government sphere

Assessment of Civic Participation in South African Local Government

Assessment of Civic Participation in South African Local Government

Status quo of gender inequality in South African Municipalities

Gender disparity is a significant issue that is clearly present in South African municipalities. Municipalities play an important role in providing services to individuals based on their needs and expectations because they are the level of government closest to the people. Gender inequality poses a barrier within municipalities due to discrimination, a lack of gender mainstreaming, a lack of gender policies, and a lack of women's empowerment, limiting women's capacity to contribute to civic life and municipal duties that guide the nation's growth. Inequality between the sexes makes it more difficult for women to support themselves, creating socioeconomic problems in their communities and additional issues for the government to address to ensure effective, efficient, economical, fair, and inclusive governance. This article aims to highlight areas of concern that the government could address through policies by focusing on gender disparities in South African local government from a policy standpoint. Using a qualitative desktop analysis, the article collects information under various themes. The goal is to advise local governments on ensuring gender equality in all decision-making structures and procedures. It is impossible to overstate the importance of involving local governments in the fight against gender inequality. As a result, a gap in research on gender equality in municipal government must be filled. This article seeks to contribute to this direction by examining several aspects of gender inequality at the local government level in South Africa.

Representation, Diversity, and Organizational Performance: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration in the Context of South African Local Government

Representative bureaucracy and workforce diversity have become central topics in the field of public administration. Although representation and diversity are distinct concepts, public administration researchers often conflate them. This study seeks to provide analytical clarity by outlining and comparing the various conceptual definitions of representation and diversity. We also explain the causal logic of how representation and diversity influence organizational performance. Finally, with South African local government as the research setting, we examine the empirical relationship between these two concepts and explore how different forms of representation and diversity are related to organizational performance.

Using distributed ledger technology for digital forensic investigation purposes on tendering projects

The South African Local Government (SALG) uses the tendering system to procure goods and services. Some of these tendering projects are aimed at promoting socio-economic and industrial policies. Hence, the tendering system used by SALG should be fair, transparent, competitive, cost-effective, equitable, and free from corruption. However, the mismanagement of the tendering system might lead to interruption of operations, late service delivery, rising costs, and most importantly, fraud and corruption. The use of paperwork to share project information might lead to the mismanagement of the tendering project because it might contribute towards illicit altering of project information during the process. The purpose of this study is to develop a Blockchain prototype that might be used to securely share project information with all the parties interested in the tendering project. It is recommended that the adoption of the proposed solution will enable various organisations to have access to real-time data, allowing them to have access to the entire project history regardless of their geographical location. Access to real-time data would promote real-time auditing and digital forensic investigations because both auditors and investigators will have access to credible digital evidence or project information of their interest in real-time.

Implementing Lifestyle Audits in Local Government to Bolster the Anti-Corruption Project in South Africa

Municipalities play a significant role in the political, social, and economic aspects of society. Consequently,, understanding municipal corruption is critical to comprehending the nature of social disorganisation in society and the state. This study aims to investigate the key structural and policy requirements for implementing lifestyle audits as an anticorruption framework in South African local government.. The article employs a qualitative research approach, which includes the use of secondary data. This article found that adopting lifestyle audits as an anti-corruption tool requires several policies and legislations that are pertinent for the South African local government level. These include the Public Service Act of 1994 (Act 103 of 1994), the Code of Conduct for the Public Service. Therefore, it is necessary to implement interventions that expose and root out these corrupt public officials before they empty the treasury by plundering and bankrupting the municipalities. For this reason, this article proposes the implementation of lifestyle audits as a proactive anti-fraud and anti-corruption mechanism for municipalities to preserve their money, finances, and resources.

Adapting enterprise risk management principles to local government in a developing country

This article seeks to analyze the role enterprise risk management (ERM) theory plays in consequence management (CM) in the South African local government context. We advance the argument that CM, which is regarded as the synchronization of initiatives undertaken to respond and lessen the impacts of a security-related occurrence, has not been fully exploited in the local government set-up. The South African local government has been haunted by service rendering challenges due to a lack of leadership ethics among other maladministration practices (Kroukamp & Cloete, 2018). As such, they have faced some challenges in the adoption of effective, efficient, and economic actions that ensure potential risks and attacks are identified before inflicting damage to the welfare of the citizens. The study adopts a qualitative literature analysis to generate its findings. Findings reveal that the core principles of ERM, like assessment of risks and culture, threat strategic planning and objective setting, risk in implementation, risk information, interaction, reporting, and monitoring ERM performance, have the potential to enhance CM in the context of local government. ERM framework can help municipalities to understand their organizational culture and climate, and the successful implementation and management of organizational change since it provides organizations with effective governance measures such as oversight, structure, and culture that are needed to establish the goals of the organization, the means to pursue them and the ability to understand any associated risks.

The Advancement of Sustainable Development Goal 16: An analysis of Performance Management Systems in South African Local Government

The Advancement of Sustainable Development Goal 16: An analysis of Performance Management Systems in South African Local Government

THE MEANING OF SERVICE DELIVERY PROTEST: A CASE STUDY OF SOUTH AFRICAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The purpose of this article is to investigate the causes of service delivery protests in South African local government. The study utilized secondary data for the purposes of data collection. Local government in South Africa has witnessed lots of service delivery protest throughout the country and the cry is for effective and efficient public service delivery to the local communities throughout the country. It is vital to highlight that most of these protests are taking place as a result of corruption and bad management in South African local government. The general population is aware of this since media coverage of comparable incidents in South Africa is often quite public. The majority of South Africans are unemployed and they have to endure insurmountable poverty and deplorable living circumstances. As a consequence, the number of violent demonstrations in South Africa has increased.

Who should we pay more? Exploring the influence of pay for elected officials and bureaucrats on organizational performance in South African local government

AbstractDespite the recurrent focus on pay as an incentive and the myriad reforms of public sector compensation, researchers have generated surprisingly little evidence of the link between pay level and organizational performance. We propose a theoretical model of how pay leads to improvements in organizational performance by enhancing recruitment, motivation, and retention. Given scarce resources and constraints on the ability to financially reward public officials, we engage the top‐down, bottom‐up debate in policy implementation to theorize about whether pay for elected officials or bureaucrats matters more for performance. Our analysis of panel data from South African municipalities reveals increasing pay for bureaucrats—but not for elected officials—can improve delivery of labor‐intensive public services. However, the results also suggest higher pay may embolden bureaucrats to break rules regarding public spending, thereby weakening accountability.

A purposeful multi-stakeholder learning dialogue (PMSLD) approach to mitigate high-conflict collective bargaining

Strikes and labour issues have caused havoc both locally and globally over the last decade. Social dialogue in the form of collective bargaining has not been successful in addressing these issues as labour conflict persists, highlighting the need for improved multi-stakeholder engagement. This paper explores stakeholder engagement from the perspective of collective bargaining in the context of the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC). Using an interpretivist paradigm, the research used exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative research to uncover a misalignment between what the SALGBC envisions stakeholder engagement to be and how it is experienced by the relevant parties. Stakeholders in the SALGBC perceive the employer's engagement as conducted in bad faith, coercive, lacking consultation, and accepting industrial action as engagement. To address these, a purposeful multi-stakeholder learning dialogue (PMSLD) is proposed, that blends dialogic communication and dialogic orientation with stakeholders who are receptive, reciprocal and valued for their social roles.  

Can the district development model deliver development in South African local governments?

With the advent of democracy in South Africa, local government was targeted for transformation to be more representative of and responsive to local communities’ needs. Boundaries were extended such that all areas in the country fell within a municipality. In addition to providing essential services such as water and sanitation, municipalities must promote social and economic development. They must also prepare an Integrated Development Plan that informs the municipality’s activities, budget and should ensure focussed and coordinated delivery of services.
 However, local government has been plagued with severe problems such as a lack of capacity and resources, poor governance and limited intergovernmental and intra-municipal coordination. President Ramaphosa (Current term 2018–2023) in his 2019 budget speech announced a District Development Model (DDM) intended to spatialise and coordinate government interventions and support municipalities in response to these issues. This paper describes the challenges facing local government and outlines the DDM concept and its rationale in the context of these challenges. We consider the potential of this model to improve the performance of local government, improve spatial governance and promote social and economic development. We conclude that the DDM may not be sucessful as it does not address the core problems of local government. A candid review of the current concept of local government, its powers, responsibilities, capacities and relationships is required.

Challenges and best practices for e-municipalities

Background: Electronic-municipality (e-municipality) is a reflection of e-government service in the local sphere of government, described as a way of producing useful information for citizens. Electronic-municipalities play a significant role in delivering effective and efficient services to citizens.Aim: To analyse the role of electronic municipal systems in improving the general welfare of citizens by means of service delivery. This article clarified the concepts of e-municipality by reviewing relevant literatures and further outlined critical factors that are affecting the implementation and adoption e-municipality intensively.Setting: The article focused on both international and South African local government best practices of electronic municipal systems. International best practices from developed countries, outline lessons that the South African local government can learn.Methods: The article used mainly the secondary data analysis, gathered from various sources such as articles, document analysis, government documents, amongst others. The analysis is based on various secondary sources linked to the aim of this article.Results: Key findings of the study showed that most municipalities particularly in developing countries experience challenges in adopting and implementing e-municipality. The concept of e-municipality has been derived from both global and local contexts.Conclusion: It concludes that just like any innovation, there are challenges related to the successful implementation of e-municipality, such as the digital divide issue, trust issues and technical, economical and social issues. Recommendations include that the local government should invest more in Information Communication Technologies infrastructure for e-municipality development.Contribution: The results of this research provides best practices for local government in transitioning to e-municipality, the best practice guidelines provide inputs for decision-making in local government.

Misogynistic Influences of Female Managers in Local Governments: A Social Construction or Lived Experience

There is a disdain for women in leadership positions in South African local government, and this can be attributed to manifold factors. Some of these factors may include distrust of women’s capacity or capability and leadership styles, flexibility and consultation in decision-making, issues of values and ethos, demography and social class, and political considerations in South African local government system. The objective of this article is to (1) explore gender roles in South African local government systems, (2) assess distrust of women in leadership positions in South African local government, and (3) explore how the male boss syndrome suppresses the creativity and efficiency of women in leadership positions in South African local governments. Data for this study were derived from female managements in several municipalities in the Northwest Province of South Africa. The findings demonstrate that innovation and a creative mindset are overlooked by male leaders in local government, simply because they emanate from a woman. Further, while women are hailed and acknowledged for their successes in business, science, technology, and innovation, and even have been considered for the presidency, at government levels, the sentiments are different, in that males in the sector consider the local parlance as a settlement for the liberation struggle. In conclusion, the transformation of gender relations may not be dramatic, but disruptions can quicken the process.

Digital Public Administration and Inclusive Governance at the South African Local Government, in Depth Analysis of E-Government and Service Delivery in Musina Local Municipality

This empirical paper seeks to address the challenges related to digital public administration and e governance at the South African Local government during the time of Covid 19 pandemic which affected the global village. The world is moving from manual way of doing things to technological ways of delivering services which is digital public administration. However, in the process of implementing digital public administration, there are consequences which the society at large is likely to experience more especially the poor people in the rural villages of South Africa. Digital transformation of public administrations is a way of trying to fasten the service delivery, and make the services cheaper and better, and save time. E-government improves efficiency and increases user-friendliness and accessibility. It also helps promote ethical practices and reduce the risks of corruption in the public sector. Effective e government is so critical in public administration today because majority of the people are using technology to access some of the services, although the poor are still struggling.
  
 Received: 12 January 2022 / Accepted: 10 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022