The impact of leadership and management capacity on municipal service delivery in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality

Abstract

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.