A managerial model for mergers in local government in the Free State Province
Abstract
A municipality must strive, within its capacity, to achieve the objectives regarding efficient and effective service delivery such as proper roads, refuse removal, access to electricity and water as set out in Section 152 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. For a municipality to achieve these objectives it must have proper management systems or tools such as waste management, communication management, human resource management, political and administrative management and financial management in place and also appoint managers with the necessary required and relevant qualifications, experience and skills .This will secure an efficient and well-functioning management team, which will be able to deliver services that will address people‘s needs. However, local government or municipalities, being the sphere of government close to the people are faced with numerous challenges in their quest to provide essential basic services such as water, refuse removal and electricity to local communities and in particular the poor and disadvantaged section of the population and thus result in violent protests over poor service delivery. Many municipalities, including the two selected poor performing municipalities in the Free State Province namely, the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, are unable to deliver basic services such as, refuse removal and access to electricity and water to the residents and reasons for the poor service delivery can be as a result of deficiency in the municipalities capacity or attributed to a lack of skills, experience and relevant qualifications. The primary objective of this research was to develop a managerial model for merged municipalities with reference to the two poor performing municipalities in the Free State Province, namely the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and the Matjhabeng Local municipality and a good performing municipality, namely the Gamagara Local Municipality in the Northern Cape Province. The secondary objectives of this research, were to determine how the concepts, amalgamation/merger and service delivery is defined within the context of local government/municipalities and discuss the possible underlying reasons why municipalities find it difficult to provide basic services to local communities, to describe the current statutory and regulatory framework relevant for efficient and effective service delivery in municipalities. Furthermore, to establish what existing managerial models, that describes and explain various aspects of management, used by the selected good performing municipality, can be used to address problems of poor service delivery in the two selected poor performing municipalities, to discuss the history and current status of the three selected municipalities after the merging process and establish the perceptions of the respondents after merging of the municipalities with regard to the levels of satisfaction with services delivered amongst the residents thereof and to conduct an empirical study to determine the validity and reliability of the measuring instrument that was used for this study This assessment was prompted by the service delivery protests in certain areas in the country, including the two selected poor performing municipalities in the Free State Province namely, the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, have been plagued by service delivery protests - and the origin of the increased momentum can be pinpointed, examples are political interference in the administration, corruption, cadre deployment, favouritism and nepotism, maladministration, poor performance by management, lack of proper skills and relevant qualifications, negative audit opinions and personal interest in tender procedures. These protests are undermining the progress and successes achieved thus far, even after more than eighteen years into the new local government system and these protests also questions the ability of Local Government in South Africa to effectively and efficiently provide for basic services.
The research to develop a managerial model for merged municipalities with reference to the two poor performing municipalities in the Free State Province, namely the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, including the one good performing municipality, namely the Gamagara Local Municipality in the Northern Cape Province, was conducted by means of two approaches, namely a literature study and an empirical study.
The following literature sources were consulted to ensure a broad and balanced review of sources of literature on the problem under review: Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, White Paper on Local Government and all relevant legislations relating to local government. In addition, the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), the Annual Reports and relevant documents of the three different selected municipalities in the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces, other documents published by the South African Government used to identify specific guidelines and prescriptions for Local Government and service delivery were used. Other literature sources that were also used for this research includes, journals; textbooks; magazines and newspapers, master‘s dissertations and doctoral thesis; Internet sources; workshop reports; plans of actions etc. The empirical research obtained the required information from the residents and management of the two selected poor performing municipalities in the Free State Province namely, the Metsimaholo Local Municipality and the Matjhabeng Local Municipality and also the residents and management of the good performing municipality namely, the Gamagara Local Municipality in the Northern Cape Province. The municipal offices in these municipal areas were visited personally by the researcher and the two trained assistants to distribute the questionnaire to the respondents.
The questionnaire was used to be completed by both management and residents at the three selected municipalities and it had four sections. The questionnaire had Section A - Biographical Information, Section B - History of the Municipality, Section C - Effective Service Delivery and Section D – Managerial model, which was only meant to be completed by management and not the residents of the selected municipalities. The results confirm that respondents who are managers at the municipalities who participated in this study experienced challenges with issues of service delivery before the merging of the municipalities – the majority of the statements calculated a mean above 3.0, an indication that the statements contained in Section B – History of the Municipality of the questionnaire are viewed by the respondents who are managers at the municipality as negative, indicating that respondents tended to disagree with the statements contained in this section. The respondents who are residents who participated in this study also indicate that they experiences challenges with issues of service delivery before the merging of the municipalities - the majority of the statements calculated a mean above 2.5 (almost 3.00), an indication that the statements contained in Section B – History of the Municipality of the questionnaire are viewed by the respondents who are residents also as negative, indicating that respondents tended to disagree with the statements contained in this section The results indicates that respondents who are managers at the municipalities in this study are satisfied as the services are delivered effectively after the merging of the municipalities – the majority of the statements calculated a mean below 2.5, meaning they agree with the statements in Section C – Effective Service Delivery.
Furthermore, the respondents who are residents in this study indicate that they experiences challenges with effective service delivery after the merging of the municipalities - the majority of the statements calculated a mean above 2.5. The mean of this Section C (Effective service delivery) in combination calculated at 2.73, is an indication that the statements contained in Section C - Effective Service Delivery of the questionnaire are viewed by the respondents who are residents as negative, indicating that respondents tended to disagree with the statements contained in Section C – Effective Service Delivery. From Section B – History of the Municipality and Section C – Effective Service Delivery, one factor from each section were identified as Factor B – History of the Municipality and Factor C – Effective Service Delivery. From the questionnaire that was distributed to the managers, there was a Section D, that dealt with issues of management and the questions were only applicable to be completed by managers and not residents. Out of Section D, four factors were identified as Factor D1 - Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Factor D2 - Professionalism, Factor D3 - Development and Factor D4 - Personal Development and Competency which formed the important pillars of the developed Structural Equation Model (SEM) or managerial model for merged municipalities in order to deliver effective and efficient services. These afore mentioned four factors identified have a direct impact on the efficient and effective delivery of services at municipalities.