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Faculty of Management Sciences

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Local government

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    The influence of human resource development on employee performance and service delivery at a local municipality in the Eastern Cape
    (2022-04) Nama, Khuselwa; Lourens, Melanie Elizabeth; Daweti, Baphiwe
    The study examined the influence of human resource development on employee performance and service delivery. Employees who receive valuable training and development have the potential to improve performance and provide quality service delivery. Community demands for essential services from public sector employees seem to have increased over time. To address community demands, municipalities depend on skilled employees to deliver desired performance. Public sector employees require ongoing and relevant development by means of which to supply quality essential services to the public. In South Africa, the development of public sector employees appears neglected which may lead to the inadequate provision of essential services exemplified by clean water. Located in a positivist philosophical lens, the study adopted a quantitative crosssectional research paradigm, using a survey design. The research site for conducting the survey was Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Based on a target population of 265 (N=265), a stratified random sample of 155 (n=155) respondents was drawn. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data and 115 questionnaires were returned. Data was analysed using statistical procedures and measurements such as correlation tests and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that human resource development had a positive influence on employee performance and service delivery. The study recommends the provision of training and development interventions to capacitate public sector employees. Future studies can probe the awareness of human resource development within the public sector.
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    A rural perspective on the practice and challenges of community participation in post-apartheid South Africa insights from rural Beaufort-West Municipality
    (International Institute for Science, Technology and Education, 2021-04) Davids, Gregory; Prince, T.; Makiva, Msuthukazi; Fagbadebo, Omololu M.
    Post-apartheid South African (SA) government devised legalized platforms for citizen participation to channel their voice towards public policy formulation, implementation, outcome, and its impact. Instead of using these platforms, dissatisfied communities with service delivery resort to social protests and unrest. Indeed, citizens’ voice and participation in government decision-making through social protests, is among the critical elements to democracy and good governance. The study sought to investigate the practice and challenges there are, with regards to community participation at the local level within selected rural communities, in South Africa. The study relied on qualitative research methodology to gather primary data. Extant literature was consulted to collect secondary data so that the phenomenon is greatly understood. The results showed that community participation is practiced as a once-off event instead of being viewed as a process that is comprised of interrelated activities. The study concludes that effective community participation requires continual engagement across the entire policy planning, decision making, and implementation stages. Furthermore, as each public policy phase has its challenges, flexible strategies are required to facilitate community engagement and participation. This, for instance, will increase the degree of decision-making consensus, while by default reduce the level of community dissatisfaction with service delivery, which currently South Africa experiences, through social unrest.
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    Monitoring and evaluation and its impact on the performance of the Sizakala Customer Services department employees at eThekwini Municipality
    (2021) Dlamini, Nonkululeko Nonjabulo; Mabila, Ndiphethe Olive
    The need to meet the organization’s objectives, to meet the set targets, to detect problems at an early stage is the reason Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) should be executed in the organizations. The objectives of this study were to determine the understanding of M&E on the Sizakala Customer Services department employees and its practice in the municipality, to ascertain the impact of M&E on the performance of the employees in the Sizakala department, to determine how M&E contributes to the attainment of the objectives in the department and lastly, to identify challenges and to make recommendations to overcome the challenges facing M&E within the department. The study is demarcated at the Sizakala Customer Care department under the Sizakala Customer Services unit at the eThekwini municipality. The Sizakala department aims to help the community to obtain equal access to the services rendered by the municipality and other spheres of government. The program forms part of the eThekwini Municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP). The program is to show the municipality’s obligation in keeping up with service delivery and an improved quality of life for all eThekwini citizens. There are (35) Sizakala Customer Service centres. The aim of the Sizakala centres is to bring services closer to all residents. Self-administered questionnaires were given to the total number of 41 participants at the Sizakala departments across the North, South, West and Central offices of the eThekwini Municipality, inclusive of Principal clerks and semi-structured interviews were rendered to cumulate data from 2 Monitoring practitioners, 2 Evaluation practitioners and 1 Sizakala manager. Probability sampling was employed in this study and the stratified sampling technique was used to conduct the research. A total of 31 questionnaires were returned from the participants which yielded a response rate of 76%. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 was used to do the quantitative analysis of data and the qualitative data was converted into the Excel spreadsheet to do the analysis. The study unfolded that the greater number of the respondents have an understanding of M&E and the majority are positive that employee M&E findings are fully implemented at Sizakala department. M&E helps employees to improve on their performance at Sizakala department. The study also unfolded that there are obstacles facing M&E at Sizakala department, which includes not having enough funding for M&E at Sizakala department. Subsequently, the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) unit has not conducted any evaluation for the Sizakala unit and is lacking experienced M&E staff and does not conduct walk-ins to monitor the unit. There is no internal M&E department at Sizakala Customer Services unit. The PME unit is an external unit that is responsible for M&E in the eThekwini municipality collectively. The researcher recommended that the Sizakala department needs to get more funding and resources for the M&E initiatives. The Sizakala department needs to establish its internal M&E department. In conclusion, this study can be seen as a contribution to the M&E philosophy.
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    Effective communication as a catalyst for employee performance within selected Municipalities at KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa
    (2021-11-12) Sineke, Ntombizandile Victoria; Potwana, Nobubele
    Communication is the adhesive that binds people irrespective of their backgrounds. It is the skill of passing information from one person to another. However, effective communication deals with understating emotions and intentions behind the information. Therefore, managers in leadership positions need to understand the manner in which the best effort can be obtained from the workforce, following which communication systems management should be reviewed to ensure it is effective. The aim of the study is to establish whether communicating effectively with employees could improve employee performance in a municipality. In this regard, the study ascertained the extent to which the sharing of ideas creates openness among municipal employees, in addition to whether regular feedback contributes to improved municipal employee performance. Furthermore, the study also investigated whether open channels of communication mitigate misunderstandings and whether the recognition of employee opinions increases employee performance. To establish the stated objectives, the study used a mixed method research approach, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data were collected from the uBuhlebezwe Municipality, where a sample size of 80 respondents was obtained by using a simple random sampling technique. For the qualitative research, 10 employees were gathered by means of convenience sampling, through a focus group at the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality. The results from both methods showed that effective communication was the best tool to change employee performance in municipalities, acting as a catalyst. However, this is largely dependent on the effectiveness and availability of channels of communication. The main recommendations to municipal managers and heads of departments are that they should use effective communication as a strategic tool and appreciate all employee opinions, regardless of their positions in an organisation. Managers in a municipal setting should also involve employees in decision-making, most importantly during policy formulation. It is further important that municipal employees are provided with sufficient resources to be able to perform their day-to-day duties, as inadequate resources lead to poor performance and lack of communication. The provision of regular and honest feedback to employees with regard to their strengths and weakness could additionally improve employee performance and increase productivity. Conversely, lack of communication could lead to misunderstandings and incorrect interpretation of information messages by employees.
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    E-participation for more effective engagement
    (Picasso Headline, 2020-11-30) Okeke-Uzodike, Obianuju Ebele
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    The impact of the South African apartheid government history to democratic South Africa : the case of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality
    (Romanian Cultural Foundation, 2020-08-23) Mbandlwa, Zamokuhle
    Leaders of various South African government institutions are still referring to apartheid as the reason for inequalities in the society even after more than 25 years of democracy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the South African government history on the daily operations of the democratic government. Using cross-sectional analysis, this study analyzed data collected from ward councilors and community members. The study found that leaders of the democratic government still use the apartheid government as the excuse for poor public service delivery. The history of the South African government must be used as a point of reference and not as a reason for poor public service delivery. The majority of ward councilors of the eThekwini Municipality were selected based on their political history and not based on merit. This study answers the question regarding the correlation between poor public service delivery and the use of the apartheid regime as an excuse.
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    Leadership challenges in the South African local government system
    (Innovare Academics Sciences Pvt. Ltd, 2020-07-16) Mbandlwa, Zamokuhle; Dorasamy, Nirmala; Fagbadebo, Omololu M.
    Local governments in South Africa have experienced leadership challenges in the democratic South Africa. Poor leadership ethics have badly contributed in the leadership challenges in the South African local government system. The objective of the study was to identify the factors that contribute in the poor leadership ethics in local government and the consequences of bad behavior by local government leadership and employees. Mixed research methodology was applied in the study. Primary data was collected through selfadministered questionnaires that were personally administered by the researchers to 10 portfolio managers, 333 Employees and interviewed 9 executive managers.The study found that the poor systems to fight against corruption and unethical activities compromise public service delivery and paint all public sector officials as corrupt people. The idea of getting into government institutions for the purposes of self-benefit is dominant amongst many people who are in government institutions.
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    The impact of leadership and management capacity on municipal service delivery in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality
    (2018-04) Mhlaba, Joseph Qhinaphi; Wallis, Malcolm
    This thesis is about an investigation of the impact of leadership and on service delivery in Bushbuckridge local municipality in Mpumalanga province. This study looked at the internal and external factors that affect service delivery in Bushbuckridge Local municipality (BLM). Bushbuckridge local municipality has had some service delivery challenges over the years which affected its ability to deliver services. In 2013, BLM was placed under administration in terms of section 139 (5) (a) of the constitution of the republic of South Africa due to the collapse of service delivery. Local government is one of the arms of government located closest to the citizens and constitutionally tasked with the responsibility of delivering basic services to the citizens. Failure to deliver these services has a direct impact on the day to day lives of citizens. Poor service delivery or the lack of it thereof has often triggered service delivery protests. This study is therefore an effort to look at how municipal officials, councillors and ward committee members’ leadership and management capacity contribute to poor service delivery in Bushbuckridge local municipality. To explore the challenges affecting service in BLM the following research questions were used: • Do ward councillors; proportional councillors; and municipal officials; have the appropriate skills to execute their work effectively? • Do the municipal officials have an understanding of the underlying factors affecting service delivery in Bushbuckridge local municipality? • What organizational/institutional factors affect service delivery in Bushbuckridge local municipality? • How do environmental factors affect the delivery of services in Bushbuckridge local municipality? vii • How effective are the ward committees as a platform for public participation in the affairs of local government? • How does the leadership capacity of ward committees impact on their contribution to service delivery? • What is the link between leadership, management capacity and service delivery? This study was conducted using mixed research methods where qualitative and quantitative data was collected. Data was collected using a face to face method by the researcher using a paper based data collection tool. A total of 67 Participants from the Bushbuckridge local municipality were enrolled into the study. The qualitative data was analysed used Stata, while the qualitative data was analysed using Atlas.ti. The quantitative results have been presented in the form of graphs, pie charts and tables while qualitative results have been presented according to themes where similar responses have been grouped together. The findings are discussed in chapter six to establish the relationship with the research questions of this study. A number of conclusions based on findings are drawn in chapter seven which is the final chapter of this thesis.