Name: Uyanda Majikijela

Student number: 226162117

Module name: Introduction to Public Administration for Development
Module code: SPA121
Assignment topic: Discuss the role of accountability and control in relation to development of service
delivery in South Africa
Assignment due date: 17 march 2022
Lectures Name: Miss Murendeni Praise Ramaru

Table of contents Heading and sub-heading

Page 1 Cover pages and introduction
Page 2 The state of local government
and service delivery:
REFLECTION on existing
challenges
Page 3 Principles for service delivery
Elective representatives
Pages 4 The Transformation of services
Page 5 Conclusion
Page 6 List of references
Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

The South African legislation on local government emphasizes that municipalities have a new
pivotal role in of democratising society and fulfilling a developmental role within a new
dispensation. This implies that municipalities must have policies and institutional frameworks
that support and sustain the development of local people. Such plans be geared towards
achieving and progressive realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
fundamental rights of the people. Moreover, local government must promote good
governance

Developmental local government is intended to have a major impact on the daily lives of South
Africans and should seek a new focus on improving the standard of living and quality of life of
the people. Thus, in short, Developmental local government means strong leadership and
clear vision for local government. This requires municipality officials to discharge their
responsibilities with prudence and in an efficient, transparent, and accountable manner thus
promoting good governance. Good governance entails the existence of efficient and
accountable institutions and systems and entrenched rules that promote development and
ensure that people are free to participate in, and be heard on, decisions and implementation
thereof that directly affect their lives. For democracy to materialise at the municipal level,
citizens have to be given some role in these processes. This will lead to more accountability
and responsiveness, and therefore the level of democracy will improve.

It should be noted that the fundamental goal of a democratic system is citizen satisfaction.
Therefore, the effectiveness of good local governance needs to be judged by the capacity of
local government structures to provide integrated development approach to social and
economic development issues and to supply essential services congruent with the desires of
local communities. In this regard, municipalities should be able to identify and prioritise local
needs, determine adequate levels of services, allocate necessary resources to the public.

THE STATE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND SERVICE DELIVERY:REFLECTION ON THE EXISTING

CHALLENGES

South Africa has taken a significant and positive stride towards the promise of developmental
local government. However, most municipalities are still plagued by significant challenges.

The enduring facts of poverty, inequality and underdeveloped underscore the need for
government to address issues of social and economic development. The imperative for
development in local government are articulated in the legislative governing local government.
This includes the Bill of rights and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Bill of Rights provides the communities with fundamental rights to access social services. In
same token the MDGs are emphatic that local government should work towards the realisation
of basic socio-economic rights that contribute to human development. The argument advanced
is that the contemporary focus on attainment of the MDGs constitutes a major shift in
development thinking because it places improvement of the human conditions at the centre of
world progress
In this regards local government has an obligation to work towards the realisation of these
goals
(a) Developing a global partnership for development
(b) Ensuring environmental sustainability
(c) Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other disease
(d) Improving maternal health
(e) Reducing child mortality
(f) Promoting gender equality and empower women
(g) Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
(h) Achieving universal primary education

(See chapter 3 of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 106 of 1996
Kiyaga-Nsubuga, Local Democracy, Good Governance and Delivering the MDGs in
Africa,2007)

PRINCIPLES FOR SAFE DELIVERY AND THE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

In choosing principles for safe delivery, municipalities should be guided by the following
principles. These criteria can also be used to improve existing service delivery options

 Accessibility of services
 Affordable of services
 Quality of products and services
 Accountability for services
 Integrated development and services
 Sustainability of services
 Value-for-value
 Ensuring and promoting competitiveness of local commerce and industry
 Promoting democracy

ELECTIVE REPRESENTATIVES

“IT is the duty of councillors to act in the best interests of the municipality and its
residents.”

Councillors are the representatives of the people and owe their primary loyalty to
those who voted for them. This may be in their personal capacity and/ or because
of their political affiliation if they are ward Councillors, and/ or as members of a
particular party if they are elected from their party lists. Whatever the case, it is the
 duty of Councillors to act at all time in the best interests of the residents and the
whole municipality as a whole

Once elected, ward councillors must realise that they represent all the individual and
stakeholders in their wards, no matter what their background or political views. This
includes businesses, community organisations, religious organisations, schools, youth
groups and associations representing the elderly
The responsibilities of Councillors are described in the local Government municipality
Structures Act (often referred to simply as the Structures Act), which also contains a
Code of Conduct. The main role of Councillors is to ensure that the objectives set out in
the (Section 152 of the Constitution) are achieved. The council is also obliged to review
annually the needs of the community, its priorities, how it goes about meeting these
needs, and it’s overall performance in achieving its targets. It also has to develop
mechanisms for consulting communities and community organisations to find out what
the priorities and needs of residents are. In short, the responsibility for good
governance, participatory democracy and effective implementation of programmes lies
with the elected councillors

THE TRANSFORMATION OF SERVICE

(Section 11.1. Of the White Paper on the Transformation of the public service, 1995)
states that meeting basic needs through improved services can help to provide
infrastructure support to open up human potential and previously suppressed economy in
both urban and rural areas, leading in turn to community empowerment and increased
outputs in all sectors of the economy
To redress past imbalances in service provision and to promote social equity, service
delivery will focus on meeting basic needs of the estimated 40 percent of South African
citizens living below the poverty line, as well as on other groups, such as the disabled,
who have previously been disadvantaged in terms of service delivery. Central to the
improvement of service delivery is the improvement of productivity within the public
service. To promote continuous improvement in the quantity, quality and equity of
service provision, departmental service delivery strategies should thus identify (White
Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service, 1995: Section 11.6)
(a) Service standards, defined outputs and targets and performance indicators
benchmarked against comparable international standards;
(b) A mission statement for service delivery, together with service Guarantees;
(c) The services to be provided, to which groups and at which service charges in line
with RDP priorities, the principle of redirecting resources to areas and groups
previously under-resourced;
(d) Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and structures, designed to measure progress
and introduce corrective action when appropriate;
(e) Plans for staffing, human resource development and organisational capacity building,
tailored to service needs;
(f) The redirection of human and other resources from administrative task to service
provision, particularly for previously disadvantaged groups and areas;
(g) Financial plans that link budgets directly to service needs and personnel plans;
(h) Potential partnership with the private sector, non-governmental and community
organisations to provide more effective forms of service delivery;
(i) The development, particularly through training, of a culture of customer care and of
approaches to service delivery that are sensitive to issues of race, gender and
disability; and
(j) Plans for the introduction of continuous quality improvement techniques.

CONCLUSION

In order for administrators to begin with developing an efficient administrative

system, they must have explicit objectives and administrative functions that are
separated from policy-making activities of political party, especially of the
government ruling party. For service delivery to be effective in all local spheres of
the government, officials should understand their powers, distinctive responsibilities
and acknowledge that they have different roles. They have to work together in order
to be effective and do their jobs as they are supposed to. Politicians should not abuse
their powers, more especially when I comes to recruitment. However, if all local
municipality officials were employed by the merit principle, service delivery in south
Africa would improve.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Stiefel, M. & Wolfe, M. 1994. A voice for the excluded: popular participation in
development; Utopia or Necessity. London: ZED books

Mogale in Mhone, G. And Edigheji, O. (2004) Governance in the new South

Africa:the challenge of globalisation. South Africa: University of Cape Town press

Brynard (1996:44) in Kakumba and Nsingo, Journal of public Administration, Vol 43

number 2 June 2008

African National Congress (ANC). 2000. ANC local government elections manifesto
2000
Bell, Terry. 2001. Government will have to come up with an alternative to
privatisation. Business report, 4 May.

Bond, Patrick. 2000. More government confusion on privatisation. Mail & Guardian,
13 October

Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG). 2000. White Paper on

Municipal Service Partnership. A strategy to ensure Universal access to municipal
services during this African century. April

South African government. (2017). Government system. Retrieved from

https://www.gov.za/about-government/government-system/local-government

Constitution. (1996). Chapter 7: local government. Constitution of the Republic of

South Africa. Pretoria, South Africa: Juta Law

Bratton, M. (2012). Citizen perceptions of local government responsiveness in sub-

Saharan Africa. World development, 40(3), 516-527