Evaluating the effectiveness of a Performance Management System to enhance sustainable development : a case study of Boikhutsong

Abstract

The Constitution (1996) of South Africa grants everyone the right to housing and services such as water, healthcare and education, but South Africa faces serious challenges in ensuring the provision of services to especially rural communities to enable sustainable development. Where development has been poor, citizens have protested, particularly those residing in rural settlements. In 2013, the frustration of the community of Boikhutsong led to violent and illegal protests during which residents barricaded the road between Ventersdorp and Rustenburg. Despite the employment of mitigation measures, there have been numerous illegal protests in rural areas about the absence of sustained development. International organisations such as the OECD recommend the application of indicators to monitor sustainable development. In South Africa, the Municipal Systems Act (2000) and the White Paper on Local Government (1998) advocate the use of an Organisational Performance Management System with indicators to ensure the development of sustainable human settlements by local governments. Boikhutsong falls within the domain of the Ventersdorp Local Municipality and this research project studies whether the Performance Management System used by the Municipality is effective in ensuring sustainable development of Boikhutsong. Employing a mixed method research methodology, a qualitative approach was used to investigate the knowledge and awareness of Ventersdorp municipal officials concerning the case study area (Boikhutsong) and their use of a Performance Management System to ensure sustainable development in Boikhutsong. Further to this, quantitative methods were engaged in order to examine the municipality’s performance in service delivery by appropriately weighting data collected from existing sources. The challenges for Boikhutsong as identified by municipal officials include the provision of water, electricity, sanitation, transportation and good governance. This correlates well with the national community survey conducted by Stats SA in 2016. However, there are insufficient reliable and verifiable data related to these challenges in the Ventersdorp Municipal documents. Results of the quantitative study indicate that Boikhutsong lags behind all other areas included in the comparative analysis. This suggests that the Performance Management System of the Ventersdorp Local Municipality cannot be regarded as an effective tool in ensuring sustainable development within its rural areas. The results of this study indicate that improvements are needed in the performance management systems of some local governments. It is recommended that good governance and strong public participation be included in Municipal Performance Management Systems to render them more effective tools in ensuring sustainable development within rural areas.