jolgri 1_2020_contents.indd https://jolgri.org open access table of contents original research an assessment of servant leadership at a business unit of a south african power utility marita heyns, sean mccallaghan, derisha newton journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a18 | 09 december 2020 review article an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia hanson chishimba, eustarckio kazonga, evaristo nsenduluka journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a14 | 30 october 2020 review article building a capable state through proper human resource management thozamile r. mle, xolisile g. ngumbela journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a15 | 07 december 2020 reviewer acknowledgement journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a27 | 20 december 2020 36 46 55 64 page i of i table of contents editorial re-envisioning local government studies, research and practice for the future ogochukwu i. nzewi journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a6 | 27 january 2020 original research ward councillors’ leadership characteristics and their impact on service delivery: case of ethekwini metropolitan municipality, south africa, in 2018 zamokuhle mbandlwa, syden mishi journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a5 | 03 february 2020 original research performance evaluation of water supply services in chitungwiza: how water supply services mirrors poor governance and lack of management luckson zvobgo journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a17 | 22 october 2020 original research examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh mohammad r.i. talukdar journal of local government research and innovation | vol 1 | a22 | 08 december 2020 1 3 16 27 vol 1 (2020) issn: 2709-7412 (print) | issn: n/a (online)journal of local government research and innovation page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement https://jolgri.org open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the journal of local government research and innovation, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https://jolgri.org for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://jolgri. org 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://jolgri.org/index. php/jolgri/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the journal of local government research and innovation. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of the journal of local government research and innovation, recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the journal of local government research and innovation. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. hanson k. chishimba happy kayuni kgothatso b. shai manamela matshabaphala mareve biljohn noluthando matsiliza purshottama s. reddy tolu lawal zwelinzima j. ndevu https://jolgri.org� https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za about the author(s) mohammad r.i. talukdar faculty of business administration, american international university-bangladesh (aiub), dhaka, bangladesh citation talukdar, m.r.i., 2021, ‘corrigendum: examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a41. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.41 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.22 correction corrigendum: examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh mohammad r.i. talukdar published: 06 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the version of this article initially published, talukdar, m.r.i., 2020, ‘examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a22. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.22, the source in the footnote for figure 2 was given incorrectly. the correct footnote should read: ‘source: adapted from brac institute of governance and development (2016), talukdar (2019) and talukdar (2020a). note: please see the full reference list of the article, talukdar, m.r.i., 2020, ‘examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a22. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.22, for more information.’ instead of ‘source: please see full reference list of the article (adapted from) brac institute of governance and development, 2016, sharique iii, brac institute of governance and development, bangladesh. https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/projects/sharique-iii/, for more information’. this correction does not alter the study’s findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study results. the author apologises for any inconvenience caused. about the author(s) sandiso ngcobo department of communication, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa bongekile y.c. mvuyana department of public administration and economics, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa citation ngcobo, s. & mvuyana, b.y.c., 2023, ‘corrigendum: communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 4(0), a122. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v4i0.122 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.83. correction corrigendum: communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa sandiso ngcobo, bongekile y.c. mvuyana published: 22 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the published article, ngcobo, s. & mvuyana, b.y.c., 2022, ‘communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a83. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.83, there was an error in affiliation 2. instead of department of public administration and accounting, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa, it should be department of public administration and economics, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa. the authors apologise for this error. the correction does not change the study’s findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study’s results or the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. about the author(s) hanson chishimba school of postgraduate studies, university of lusaka, lusaka, zambia eustarckio kazonga school of postgraduate studies, university of lusaka, lusaka, zambia everisto nsenduluka department of administration and marketing, copperbelt university, school of business, kitwe, zambia citation chishimba, h., kazonga, e. & nsenduluka, e., 2021, ‘erratum: an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a35. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.35 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.14 correction erratum: an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia hanson chishimba, eustarckio kazonga, everisto nsenduluka published: 03 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the version of this article initially published, chishimba, h., kazonga, e. & nsenduluka, e., 2020, ‘an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a14. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.14, the article section was given incorrectly. the correct section should be original research instead of review article. this correction does not alter the study’s findings of significance or the overall interpretation of the study’s results. the publisher apologises for any inconvenience caused. jolgri 2_2020_contents.indd https://jolgri.org open access table of contents original research participative integrated development planning praxis in local government: the case of selected south african municipalities david j. fourie, gerrit van der waldt journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a43 | 30 november 2021 original research public participation power dynamics in strategic development planning in a metropolitan municipality: eastern cape province modeni m. sibanda, liezel lues journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a44 | 17 december 2021 review article attitudes towards migrant workers in south africa: a critical discourse analysis vongai s. ruzungunde, sindiso zhou journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a36 | 10 december 2021 23 34 52 correction corrigendum: examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh mohammad r.i. talukdar journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a41 | 06 december 2021 reviewer acknowledgement journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a52 | 21 december 2021 69 70 page i of i table of contents editorial transformative networks and public participation in local government in the post-covid era ogochukwu nzewi journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a46 | 17 december 2021 original research a proposed citizen participation–public trust model in the context of service delivery protests in south african local government pumlani msenge, ogochukwu i. nzewi journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a26 | 16 july 2021 original research twinning arrangements and service delivery in zimbabwe’s local authorities: the case of bulawayo city council (zimbabwe) and ethekwini municipality (south africa) alouis chilunjika, sharon rt chilunjika journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a37 | 30 november 2021 1 3 13 review article human rights abuses in local government areas in nigeria during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: faith-based organisations as agents of transformation favour c. uroko, chinyere t. nwaoga journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a25 | 30 april 2021 correction erratum: an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia hanson chishimbam, eustarckio kazonga, everisto nsenduluka journal of local government research and innovation | vol 2 | a35 | 03 may 2021 61 68 vol 2 (2021) issn: 2709-7412 (print) | issn: 2788-919x (online)journal of local government research and innovation vol 2 (2021) special collection: covid-19 page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement https://jolgri.org open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the journal of local government research and innovation, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https://jolgri.org for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://jolgri. org 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://jolgri.org/index. php/jolgri/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the journal of local government research and innovation. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of the journal of local government research and innovation, recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the journal of local government research and innovation. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. adrino mazenda bernard n. rasila emmanuel k. botlhale enaleen draai james ojok malefetsane mofolo mike m. sibanda modimowabarwa kanyane mokgadi molope noluthando matsiliza ntsikelelo b. breakfast reckson thakhathi rudo g. gwata stellah lubinga thembie ntshakala theophilus tsukudu https://jolgri.org� https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za jolgri 3_2022_contents.indd https://jolgri.org open access table of contents original research financial mismanagement and efficiency trade-off in local municipalities: lessons from eastern cape, south africa syden mishi, nwabisa mbaleki, farai b. mushonga journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a68 | 29 july 2022 original research modelling budget management for public service in south african municipalities: a structural equation modelling approach abongile g. zweni, bingwen yan, corrie uys journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a73 | 16 september 2022 original research contending for the designs and features of integrated development planning in south africa? an empirical analysis of the limpopo province pandelani h. munzhedzi, kedibone phago, betty mubangizi journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a77 | 31 october 2022 original research communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa sandiso ngcobo, bongekile y.c. mvuyana journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a83 |30 november 2022 original research barriers to effective supply chain management: the case of a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape beauty zindi, modeni m. sibanda journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a54 | 12 december 2022 original research the impact of rural–urban migration in south africa: a case of kwadukuza municipality douglas b. mthiyane, henry wissink, nyashadzashe chiwawa journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a56 | 15 december 2022 original research the spending of municipal infrustructure grant at ba-phalaborwa municipality tshepo e. rangwato, ricky mukonza, john molepo journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a88 | 19 december 2022 reviewer acknowledgement journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a110 | 15 december 2022 52 68 82 93 101 112 121 132 page i of i table of contents editorial ‘a luta continua’, will it ever end? the reality of local government in south africa tando rulashe journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a97 | 07 october 2022 review article comparative analysis of the public–private partnerships framework: case for south africa and brazil thulani mandiriza, david j. fourie journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a93 | 15 december 2022 review article factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities lebohang moji, norman t. nhede, tyanai masiya journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a94 | 13 december 2022 original research assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the provincial munimec forum inter-government relations structures in the eastern cape province, south africa zolani tafeni, bheki mngomezulu journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a42 | 31 january 2022 original research stakeholders’ involvement in service delivery at edumbe municipality zweliknona zwane, noluthando s. matsiliza journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a45 | 28 february 2022 original research covid-19 and the attainment of sustainable development goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south africa beauty zindi, elvin shava journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a58 | 10 june 2022 original research megaprojects as a vehicle for providing benefits to housing beneficiaries in the ethekwini municipality bongekile y.c. mvuyana, thokozani i. nzimakwe journal of local government research and innovation | vol 3 | a64 | 22 july 2022 1 3 10 18 25 34 44 vol 3 (2022) issn: 2709-7412 (print) | issn: 2788-919x (online)journal of local government research and innovation page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement https://jolgri.org open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the journal of local government research and innovation, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https://jolgri.org for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@jolgri.org indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://jolgri.org 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://jolgri.org/index. php/jolgri/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the journal of local government research and innovation. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 the editorial team of the journal of local government research and innovation, recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2021 to 30 september 2022. andiswa miggels amina jakoet-salie betty c. mubangizi bingwen yan bramwell k. gavaza dovhani r. thakhathi enaleen draai james ojok john molepo kedibone g. phago kutu ramolobe lungisani moyo maxwell sentiwe mirriam durokifa modeni m.m. sibanda mogie subban mokgadi molope mpumelelo ndlovu nnamdi madichie nonzwakazi b. makiwane nqobile sikhosana nyashadzashe chiwawa oluyinka osunkunle p. harry munzhedzi praise ramaru purshottama s. reddy sandiso mahlala sareesha pillay sean mccallaghan sithenkosi lungisa syanda a. mthuli tafadzwa maramura thean potgieter tryna van niekerk wesley niemann xolisile g. ngumbela yusuf lukman zamokuhle mbandlwa zukiswa roboji https://jolgri.org� https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers aim and scope of the journal podcasts emerging researchers’ mentorship programme references about the author(s) ogochukwu i. nzewi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, alice, south africa citation nzewi, o.i., 2020, ‘re-envisioning local government studies, research and practice for the future’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a6. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0 .6 editorial re-envisioning local government studies, research and practice for the future ogochukwu i. nzewi copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in 2015, at the height of the migrant crisis, about 150 000 refugees landed in italy and 800 000 in greece (clayton & holland 2015). while the spectacle of arriving rescue boats teeming with refugees captivated the world, receiving less attention, pivotal to the crisis were local officials of municipalities across italy and greece, who had to manage and prepare their municipalities for the potential absorption and impact of the refugee crises. in 2019, just like many years before, south african municipalities witnessed countless service delivery protests by citizens disgruntled with the poor pace and lack of service delivery in their communities. in some cases (as was the case in the north west province, where community members burnt down the houses of six local councillors), officials and existing municipal infrastructure suffer the brunt of the anger of citizens (tau 2019). crises ranging from emergency housing to healthcare highlight the role of the local government as the coalface of policy delivery and impact. local basic services are identified as a basic human right. these services include basic services like waste collection, transport, water and sanitation; quality of life services such as public safety and public spaces; and social services, such as housing, health, education and care for the elderly and children. the implication is that real change and policy effectiveness are locally contextualised and as such highlight the unique position of the local government as the epicentre of service delivery. because real change is locally contextualised, local governments are also the ground zero for social, political and economic action or change. in this sense, the repercussions of policy failure, such as the migrant crisis, housing crisis, environmental hazards, gender inequality and disruptions in social cohesion and inclusion, become the burden of local governments. from urban municipalities or cities to rural and traditional communities, local governments operate in a very complex space because of the diversity in citizen representations, needs, and political and social orientation, to mention but a few. thus, flexibility in local government is critical and is globally viewed as an accepted practice. indeed, cities and municipalities across the globe have become centres for innovation and research through focus on alternative service delivery models best suited to their unique needs. from slum upgrading to the development of smart cities, innovation in local government has the potential to become a global source of knowledge creation and sharing towards practice learning and adoption. notwithstanding these possibilities, local governments especially in developing regions like africa still grapple with basic challenges, such as affordability, shortages in funding, limited capacity, building momentum for alternative services and innovation, historical spatial development legacies and climate change adaptation (united cities and local governments 2013:29–30). these challenges present opportunities for learning. therefore, from a practice perspective, there is a need for broader knowledge sharing and collaboration on local governance initiatives and alternative service delivery models globally. from a disciplinary viewpoint, local government studies, and public administration in general, embrace multiple disciplinary (inter-, transand multidisciplinary) approaches. although the history of the discipline demonstrates a lingering struggle for an exclusive disciplinary space, its political science and law roots, and embrace of modern management techniques as well as advances in technology, indicate a public administration that cannot disaffirm this inter-, transand multidisciplinary approach. moreover, government administration necessitates that research and innovation consider developments in the functional departments of government, such as engineering, environmental management and infrastructure. nevertheless, public administration rather tends to view innovation (e.g. technology) as ex post facto research areas where what exists is studied, as opposed to where the creation and promotion of pioneering research from study to the practice space is pursued. there is a growing urgency for effective service delivery in the local government. the capable state’s role is therefore to uncover and utilise within constitutional and regulatory parameters, creative and unique approaches to effective service delivery through the embrace of alternative service delivery models. furthermore, avenues and platforms to apply much of the innovative and creative local government-focused research findings coming from public administration departments across the globe, are limited. this is despite indications that a considerable number of research and publications in public administration are centred on local government issues. this journal seeks to provide a unique space for knowledge sharing and utilisation on alternative service delivery models from research to practice and vice versa. aim and scope of the journal the journal of local government research and innovation (jolgri) is an international and multiple disciplinary journal, which provides a platform for scholars, practitioners and opinion leaders to publish quality research focused on innovative and alternative approaches and models in service delivery and governance in local government. thus, the point of departure of this journal from other local government-focused journals lies in the positioning of innovation and research as a sine qua non for the development of local government. this entails putting multiple disciplinary approaches at the front and centre as a knowledge development priority towards educational, epistemological and practice advancements in local government. thus, the journal welcomes articles written for a broad audience of academics, students and practitioners from multiple discipline and practice areas that have significant relevance to local government. the journal adopts a rigorous blind peer-review process and a rolling publication system, which encourages prompt publication of accepted papers. it includes research articles, notes, conceptual reviews and essays as well as practitioner-focused papers, which promote multidisciplinary and original research on local government innovation and practice. manuscripts are welcome from south africa, africa and across the globe. podcasts the journal also develops podcasts on important areas of local government practice and research (e.g. local government budgeting, service delivery challenges and responses, managing local government human resources and so on). the podcast will feature authors of high impact and interesting articles published in the journals, as well as important actors in local government research and practice in south africa, africa and across the globe. we are optimistic that the podcasts can be used to advance teaching and practice where possible. emerging researchers’ mentorship programme the journal will offer avenues for young research academics and graduate students to grow their academic research publication agenda through publications. the programme will offer editorial advice and consultation prior to the submission of a manuscript for publication. references clayton, j. & holland, h., 2015, ‘over one million sea arrivals reach europe in 2015’, in t. gaynor (ed.), un refugee agency, viewed 12 september 2019, from https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2015/12/5683d0b56/million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe-2015.html. tau, p., 2019, 6 anc councillors’ houses among 8 torched in violent north west protest, city press, viewed 19 september 2019, from https://city-press.news24.com/news/7-anc-councillors-houses-torched-in-violent-north-west-protest-20190917. united cities and local governments, 2013, basic services for all in an urbanising world: third global report of united cities and local governments on local democracy and decentralization (gold iii), united cities and local governments, barcelona. references about the author(s) ogochukwu i. nzewi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation nzewi, o.i., 2021, ‘transformative networks and public participation in local government in the post-covid era’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a46. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.46 editorial transformative networks and public participation in local government in the post-covid era ogochukwu i. nzewi copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. power to the people! this is a mantra a lot of us are familiar with. it is also a mantra that is largely associated with the search for democratic values and the struggle for a more equal society. however, realising power to the people even in a democracy is one of the most complicated endeavours for government in general and local government in particular. the past 2 years represents substantial changes in global governance because of the impact of the coronavirus disease pandemic. the world experienced and is still grappling with a clear and present danger, which shut down the world for months. the coronavirus disease (covid-19) shifted the global order as we know it. in january 2020, at the time of writing the editorial of our last issue, there was no forecasting of the catastrophe that was about to be unleashed into the world. in hindsight however, the editorial entitled re-envisioning local government studies, research and practice for the future, seemed to have foretold the impending global shut down, which not only imposed real time changes in the way we lived and worked but initiated the re-envisioning of the way government works. the covid-19 outbreak, did not only present a perfect storm to test both the economic and health disaster management apparatus of governments globally. indeed, the virus presented human living contradictions in the sense that the virus compelled social distancing, which some can argue that it posed an existential threat to the lifeblood of ‘people’ as social animals. critical to this jolgri issue is how the pandemic upended human interaction and relationships: a core component of our existence on planet earth. on the one hand, interpersonal relationships, congregational interactions, government to people, people to government and government to government engagement became uncertain, disjointed and uninspiring. in particular for local government practice, the pandemic amplified the disjuncture in those participatory and human networking spaces. however, on the other hand, the pandemic created a hard reckoning with public participation towards mitigating the threats it posed. munzhedzi and phago (2020) highlighted how covid-19 amplified the dysfunction in local government in south africa, from capacity and skill deficits to the transformative stagnation of rural municipalities. the authors proposed a human centred approach to tunnel through the post-covid-19 aggravated dysfunction. it is perhaps fitting that for good governance to thrive after a pandemic that threatened human interaction, a human centred approach will be germane. in an examination of three community approaches to threats of covid-19 in oman, al siyabi et al. (2020), showed how existing community participation strategies in primary healthcare (phc) were adapted to run communication and quarantine programmes in the local community and with vulnerable groups such as migrant communities. their research showed that community networks and a bottom up or grassroots approach create a sense of banding together, which is needed to provide context-specific interventions to tackle the immediate challenges of disruptive crisis. in another study, lovari, d’ambrosi and bowen (2020) showed how the pandemic created a deterministic shift in strategies previously considered ideal in government/citizen interactions. the study showed how quickly distrust builds between citizens and government in the time of crisis and proposed an ethical dimension to government communication strategies to minimise those risks. these studies show a hard shift in previously designed public participatory strategies as the world scrambled to deal with the coronavirus health crisis. it is thus not surprising that this year, the articles that have gone through our processes have a strong people’s focus. so how did covid-19 magnify old participatory governance challenges and what new ways can local governments find to solve old challenges? this issue presents some answers to these two questions. in this issue, the journal articles explore innovation in participatory spaces. firstly, by examining multiple dimensions of public participation. articles from south africa in particular provide a sharp focus on new ways of viewing existing public participation spaces and engagements. for instance, the article on participative integrated development planning praxis in local government provides a rational appraisal of the requirements for integrated development planning and public participation measures thereof. the article inspires sincere questions on whether these requirements are not overtly ambitious, especially for the least resourced and rural local municipalities. using a wide scope of 11 urban and rural municipalities, the article interrogates the implementation of legislated integrated development plan (idp) processes and finds that approaches to how municipalities implement participatory idp processes must be creative, targeted and adaptive to unique contexts of local government given the severe spatial differentiation of the rural and urban representation of municipalities in south africa. secondly, and particularly to citizens themselves, articles in this issue push for a re-imagining of citizens participation by literally adopting the concept of ‘power to the people’: in other words identifying ‘power’ as the missing link in citizens’ experience of participation. these articles stimulate deeper interrogation of citizens’ protest and disgruntlement over services. for instance, could it be that in search for ownership (through the power of decision making), citizens resort to violent protest to impose that sense of “voice’ and power missing in those participatory spaces? in line with the running theme of networks and ‘social interactions’ of this issue, another submission focuses on the government networks needed for adaptation and innovation in local government service delivery. the submission examines the often under researched area of twinning in local government practice. even more interesting is the focus on twinning between african cities, which is even less explored in literature. the original research examines how the network between bulawayo and ethekwini local government twinning arrangement has impacted improved service delivery for the city of bulawayo in zimbabwe. this alternative service delivery model not only promotes the concept of african self-sufficiency but also shows how under resourced municipalities can leverage easier accessible local resources and creative ideas to improved services for local citizens. in this issue, we also publish two articles under our covid-19 special collection. these articles show how covid-19 illuminated government/citizens’ distrust and re-enforced distrust between groups in society: firstly, in nigeria where state security forces resorted to violence and intimidation in ‘enforcing’ the lockdown measures and monitoring the distribution of covid-19 palliatives. secondly, in south africa, where distrust between citizens and migrants was magnified during the december exodus of foreign nationals through the beitbridge border post to their home countries. this was after a long hiatus caused by many months of restrictive lockdown. the recommendations from these articles provide new insight into how local government can re-strategise in building public participatory spaces and trust post-covid-19. for instance, these articles show how local government becomes the first ‘responder’ in these times of crisis, whether it is in terms of providing humanitarian relief needed at the beitbridge border post or working with community organisations such as faith based organisations to monitor and mitigate the excessive use of force by state security agents. finally, given the challenges of various governments with the vaccination of citizens against covid-19 and its variants across the globe, it is clear that going into the future we will continue to grapple with the fall out of covid-19. it is our expectation that this particular issue provides our readers with important context-based research information. furthermore, we hope that this issue inspires our future research and practice so that communities continue to search for better ways to build on our common humanity and grow the space for dialogue, engagement and partnership at the local government level. references al siyabi, h., al mukhaini, s., kanaan, m., al hatmi, s., al anqoudi, z., al kalbani, a. et al., 2020, ‘community participation during covid-19 pandemic’, frontiers in public health 8, 1044. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.616763 lovari, a., d’ambrosi, l., & bowen, s.a., 2020, ‘re-connecting voices. the (new) strategic role of public sector communication after the covid-19 crisis’, partecipazione e conflitto 13(2), 970–989. munzhedzi, p.h. & phago, k., 2020, ‘necessitating a germane developmental local government agenda in south africa: a post covid-19 contemplation’, african journal of governance & development 9(1.1), 181–199. references about the author(s) tando rulashe department of public administration, university of fort hare, alice, south africa citation rulashe, t., 2022, ‘“a luta continua”, will it ever end? the reality of local government in south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a97. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.97 editorial ‘a luta continua’, will it ever end? the reality of local government in south africa tando rulashe copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ‘my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. tell my people i love them. they must continue the fight’, solomon kalushi mahlangu. ‘a luta continua’ (the struggle continues), once a phrase that brought hope, inspired confidence and fuelled a fighting spirit among many oppressed people across the continent and globe. a chant echoed by great revolutionary leaders such as samora machel and eduardo mondelane of mozambique, patrice lumumba of congo, thomas sankara of burkina faso, agostino neto of angola, leopold senghor of senegal, and steve biko, chris hani and nelson mandela of south africa, in the liberation against the oppressor. while many countries on the continent had attained liberation through political freedom, the utopia was and is a livelihood free from any form of indignity and poverty. scholars see the attainment of liberation and freedom as synonymous with the decolonisation of africa. many even equate decolonisation with the philosophical and intellectual grounding that occurs when africans relive and reimagine their existence from an indigenous african perspective (enaifoghe 2019; oelofsen 2015). the decolonisation project is not only an african phenomenon but also a global imperative undertaken by indigenous peoples on different continents such as asia, south america, africa and oceania (irom 2018; speich chassé 2013). the realisation of decolonisation in africa and beyond could be what leaders of the south african struggle meant while saying ‘a luta continua’. in a post-liberation and democratic africa, the struggles faced by ordinary people on the ground are caused more by dysfunctional governments, corrupt leaders and several other systematic challenges. wasserman, chuma and bosch (2018) articulated some of the direct challenges that affect communities and citizens in south africa to be housing, unemployment, water and electricity, sanitation, corruption and municipal maladministration. some of these form part of the basic human needs as clearly stated in chapter two of the constitution of the republic of south africa of 1996 while chapter seven mandates the onus for basic services is on local government. local government in the south african republic has been at the heart of the struggles of communities as illustrated in the auditor general’s (ag) 2020–2021 local government audit outcomes where the ag indicates that there has been no improvement in the audit outcomes for the majority of the municipalities. the report further indicates that infrastructure management remains a huge problem where 70% of the municipalities have poor wastewater management treatment causing substantial harm to communities, while 80% do not have infrastructure maintenance plans causing further strain on the existing infrastructure. a total of 64%, which translates to 166 of the municipalities, contributed to a r20.45 bn loss in unauthorised and fruitless expenditure in the reporting period. all the while the ordinary citizen hopes that the struggle will end. contributions to this issue are versatile and touch on several essential areas in local government in south africa. a balance of service delivery articles sets the tone where the importance of an inclusive system and strategy by the government and stakeholders should be the departure point. one article echoes the imperatives of stakeholder engagement in local government in achieving service delivery in rural kwazulu-natal. the study found that dysfunctional stakeholder relations are attributed to poor resource management, governance and other social ills that affect service delivery. authors proposed strategies for improving stakeholder engagement and participation at this level. another article demonstrated an important assessment of local government’s response to the effects of covid-19 on the attainment of sdg 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south african municipalities. it also provides a global perspective on local government provisioning in the time of crisis by analysing local and state government responses to covid-19, a serious threat to the attainment of ‘sustainable development goals (sdgs)’ (in particular sdg 6). the authors highlighted local governments’ inadequate infrastructure and failure to provide this basic need in informal settlements, which caused a risk of an outbreak. a bottom-up approach, as opposed to a trickle-down approach, was proposed to ensure that policies and strategies are informed by the experiences of those who lived them. another submission advocated for the management of district-local relations through district intergovernmental forum. the authors found that these forums were flawed and did not execute the functions they were meant for. they recommended the refinement of the legislative roles of the district intergovernmental forum to distinguish between relevant district governance matters that need to be dealt with at the district council. this not only avoids unnecessary deliberations, duplication of agenda issues and waste of time but also regulates stakeholders’ participation in the district intergovernmental forum. this proposes a gap for studies around the district development model (ddm) as a tool to combat social ills at the local government level. several articles in this issue give a much-needed discourse on financial matters in the municipality. for instance, one discusses financial mismanagement, another budget management and another municipal infrastructure funds. the latter paints a glaring and undesired picture of a municipality that lacks the capacity to plan and implement its policies and budgets. this causes strain on existing infrastructure and for budgets to shrink as unspent funds are to return to the national treasury coffers. the study proposed a more proactive approach and the use of monitoring and evaluation (m&e) strategies. in line with all the mentioned articles, there is also a contribution that argues for the strengthening of oversight mechanisms at the local government level. another study found that ineffective internal control tracking, the ag’s limitations to regularly make progress checks on recommendations made, nepotism in municipal appointments, futile audit committees and management’s inability to enforce consequences are some of the barriers that lead to the failure of oversight at this level. their recommendations are a radical transformation through enhanced accountability and leadership and strengthened monitoring and evaluation strategies. the studies in this issue give an in-depth assessment of topical issues at the local government level and provide a premise for further studies that might fill the gaps. the journal of local government research and innovation seeks to become a major player in the network of intellectual scholarship and research on local government and government in general. it also seeks to further contribute to research in the following (but not limited to) niche areas: renewal of planning and resource allocation for local government (e.g. the district development model) improving the scholarship of research in regional and local governance. monitoring strategies for improving performance and productivity in local municipalities. mobilisation in collaborations and partnerships for public service delivery. agility, innovation and networking in the age of the fourth industrial revolution. accountability, ethics and integrity institutions and organisational change. finally, a local government of the future is one where human dignity is at the top of the list for government and basic services, and needs are received by the people without having to take to the streets and engage the government physically. ‘a luta continua’ cannot be forever in the context of the liberal movement; there is a need to continue reforming local government. in the 28 years of democracy, there is a need for a re-emergence of the concept by steering further local government reforms in a direction that includes the democratisation of the structures of local governance infused with ethics and integrity to enhance the performance of local government. references auditor general, 2021, local government audit outcomes 2020–2021, government printer, pretoria. enaifoghe, a., 2019, ‘the decolonization of african education and history’, african renaissance 16(s1), 61–84. https://doi.org/10.31920/2516-5305/2019/s1n1a3 irom, o., 2018, ‘decolonization in asia, latin america and africa’, in d.i. imbua, o.a. irom & o.o. agbor (eds.), europe and the wider world: a reader, pp. 126–144, aboki publishers, makudi. oelofsen, r., 2015, ‘decolonisation of the african mind and intellectual landscape’, phronimon 16(2), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/3822 republic of south africa, 1996, the constitution of the republic of south africa of 1996, government printer, pretoria. speich chassé, d., 2013, ‘decolonization and global governance. approaches to the history of the un-system’, conference: international organizations and the politics of development: historical perspectives, graduate institute, geneva, december 6–7, 2013. wasserman, h., chuma, w. & bosch, t., 2018, ‘print media coverage of service delivery protests in south africa: a content analysis’, african studies 77(1), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2018.1426312 abstract introduction historical background problem statement literature review research methodology results and discussion conclusion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) zolani tafeni department of public management and economics, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, durban, south africa department of finance, department of employment and labour, east london, south africa bheki mngomezulu department of political science, manaagement sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation tafeni, z. & mngomezulu, b., 2022, ‘assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the provincial munimec forum inter-government relations structures in the eastern cape province, south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a42. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.42 original research assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the provincial munimec forum inter-government relations structures in the eastern cape province, south africa zolani tafeni, bheki mngomezulu received: 01 sept. 2021; accepted: 11 nov. 2021; published: 31 jan. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this research examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the provincial munimec in facilitating the inter-government relations (igr) arrangements for improvement provincial service provision mandate in the eastern cape province. post-1994 local government reforms led to the establishment of wall-to-wall municipalities to accelerate municipal services provision and the introduction of systemic municipal service provision guidelines as part of socio-economic transformation. objective: the effectiveness and efficiency of this plan remains unclear. this research intends to address this issue with the view to contribute on strategies that can be adopted to improve service provision through the integration of igr structures. method: the study adopted a qualitative approach by administering structured questionnaires to purposely selected participants and carefully reviewed various documents and policies in igr and local government. the questionnaire analysis included theoretical propositions that incorporated the efficiency of the provincial munimec igr structures, the legal igr framework, and the participatory approach in munimec igr structures by stakeholders. result: one core finding is that the munimec igr structure has contributed to the coordination and integration of government service delivery interventions at municipalities, yet little empirical evidence explains this improvement. research shows that government’s igr obligation to coordinate the integration of government service delivery interventions to municipalities could have more impact on service delivery improvement than the utilisation of a single-oriented approach. this study provides lessons on the view that any regulation without a structured implementation plan leads to poor service delivery. a key recommendation is that both the national and provincial government need to promote shared service delivery through the enhancement of the igr framework. keywords: intergovernmental relations; socio-economic development; service delivery; municipal private partnerships; effectiveness; efficiency. introduction this study aimed to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the eastern cape provincial municipalities and members of the executive committee (munimec) igr structure in addressing service delivery challenges at municipal level. the eastern cape province is characterised by a total of 45 municipalities, which are comprised of six districts, two large cities and 37 local municipalities. section 40(1) of the constitution of the republic of south africa (act 108 of 1996) states that government is established as national, provincial, and local government spheres which are distinctive, interdependent, and interrelated in nature. the element ‘distinctive’ basically refers to the autonomy enjoyed by the spheres, implying the degree to which each sphere is the final decision-maker on a particular matter that falls within its jurisdiction. through this constitutional exercise, a decentralised governance system among the three inter-related spheres emerged, leading to the development of a systematic intergovernmental relations (igr) system which gave effect to the cooperative government principles (mdliva 2012:14). to give effect to these principles, on 15 august 2005, the igr framework act was promulgated. the act provides for: [a]n institutional framework for the three spheres of government to facilitate coherent government, effective provision of services, to monitor the implementation of policy and legislation, and the realisation of developmental goals of government as a whole. (www.dlpg.org.za) the study parameters basically focused on the munimec igr structure because it came into effect in terms of the igr act (act 13 of 2005). the aim of the igr framework act 13 of 2005, was ‘to assess the effectiveness of the igr framework in promoting and facilitating settlement of intergovernmental disputes, and service delivery in south africa (sa)’. historical background before the dawn of a democratic south africa in 1994, uneven administration was systematically designed to provide and deliver services to communities along racial lines. this implied that only a certain ethnic group could benefit from the social and economic services which the then government provided. the idea of igr was poorly and inadequately defined, which made it impossible for shared socio-economic development (mdliva 2012). all the power was in the central government despite the division of central, regional, and local levels of government (levy & tapscott 2001:4). however, towards the end of the apartheid rule, igr was characterised by autocratic central rule, which led to increased administrative inefficiency, corruption, and minimal popular legitimacy. the deficiency by the provincial legislatures to significant law-making function came as a serious hindrance to democratic servicing of all citizens regardless of their racial identity. the only function that the then provincial legislatures had was to endorse legislation from the central executive, which showed a level of dependency and a closed system. at the same time, no real powers were given to local authorities. the local government was only regarded as a government service provider rather than an independent level of government. the white paper on local government (1998:15) listed some of these challenges as follows: ‘skewed settlements’, ‘extreme concentration of taxable economic resources in former white areas’, ‘huge backlogs in service infrastructure in historically underdeveloped areas’, ‘creating viable municipal institutions for dense rural settlements’, ‘inability to leverage private sector resources for development’, ‘entrenched modes of decision-making, administration and delivery’, ‘the need to rebuild relations between municipalities’, as well as ‘substantial variations in capacity and the local communities they serve’. the igr framework is still new in the south african context, as the nine provinces were only formed after 1994 and the local government system was only introduced in 2000. this alone has contributed to the ongoing intense debate on whether the basic structures laid down in the constitution are the right ones or whether restrictions are needed to affect the most needed structured system of government. this has diverted attention from the urgent question of how these structures can function efficiently and effectively (national development plan 2012:432). while we acknowledge the fact that the system of governance is the result of compromise, this is not unique to south africa, but is the case all over the world. in the real world of governance, there is no country that can set up its governmental framework in isolation from the politics of the day. south africa’s approach of decentralisation in implementation responsibilities while retaining national oversight and using central finding mechanisms to achieve joint redistribution of services is no different from what is the case in other countries. the challenge is to ensure that these structures benefit all sorts of people. the constitution sets out the division of powers and functions between national, provincial, and local government. but no written document can set out all the features of the intergovernmental system. the constitution provides a set of principles on how the system should work, but does not give instructions on how to translate these principles into action. these include the principles of subsidiarity and differentiation, which allow a great deal of flexibility in the application of the constitution. it takes time and experience to find the best way to implement these principles (molebeleli 2018:89). the experiences of many countries suggest that building effective and efficient relations between the different government spheres requires a considerable amount of time, effort and will (stats sa 2019:185). currently, the arrangement of the three government spheres provides basis on which to build. at the same time, it highlights a need to focus on the key issues that require rapid, shared and sustainable attention for effective igr. according to rsa (act 108 of 1998) and rsa (1998:39), national and provincial governments are mandated to strategically coordinate and facilitate igr throughout the government system in order to provide the most needed public services to the communities. apart from the three spheres of government responsibility, the organs of the state are equally bound by the cooperative governance principles in strengthening igr functionality. consequently, the interdependence and relative autonomous status under the constitution of these spheres of government presents significant strengths to south africa. it also means that there are limits to the extent to which the spheres can direct or control the approaches taken by each other. reddy (2001:22) writes that ‘various uncertainties regarding the responsibilities and administrative allocation between the different spheres of government still exist’. the extent to which these uncertainties will affect the capacity to provide services needs to be given special consideration. the primary objectives of the igr are meant to improve and coordinate structured service delivery intervention at a municipal level towards sustainable and shared socio-economic growth. in this regard, the study sought to evaluate and determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the munimec igr structure in service delivery through a case study approach. problem statement despite the introduction of the provincial igr framework and its implementation strategies since the evolution of local government, south african municipalities are still characterised by a series of poor delivery of basic municipal and socio-economic services to their citizens (masiya et al. 2019:20). the eastern cape provincial government leadership led by the former premier, mr pumulo masaulle in his state of the province address (2017) committed to improve government service delivery by the interventions through igr. although there is a need for the strengthening of igr structures in the province, there are still gaps in enhancing political leadership, accountability and collaboration towards rapid service provision and delivery (tafeni & mngomezulu 2020:600). consequently, the munimec igr structure, which is a combination of mayors (district and local municipalities) and mec for cooperative governance & traditional affairs (cogta), came into existence as a shared approach in dealing with service delivery unrests in the province. uncertainty abounded around the potential success of this igr structure because of already existing number of structures with similar intent. in south africa, there has been frequent mistrust and conflict between the different spheres of government. this has undermined the efforts to overcome obstacles in the path of their success. the cost of such chronic uncertainty is enormous. this has led to a situation in which decisions are not being made as a wait-and-see attitude prevails. for example, the protracted debate over the transfer of responsibility for electricity distribution from municipalities to regional electricity suppliers resulted in municipalities underinvesting in the maintenance and upgrading of electricity distribution infrastructure (national development plan 2030). the primary objective of the study was to evaluate and determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the munimec igr structure in addressing service delivery shortcomings. the intention is to highlight best-practice endeavours which in turn would inform a suitable conceptual approach on which future igr structures could be modelled. literature review overview of inter-government relations role in service delivery the slow delivery and provision of public services by government and municipalities to a larger extent, is a result of inadequate coordination and structured development, aimed at enhancing local economic and rural development. the dissatisfaction and the frustrations with regard to poor service delivery has, on several occasions, led to service delivery protests by the communities (reference). this is against the background that government promotes structured igr to radically improve socio-economic conditions in the province and enhance delivery of services to the people. the hope is that this development-oriented igr structure model will ultimately improve services, while avoiding unemployment, poverty and inequality (eastern cape planning commission in their diagnostic report of 2013). according to lemon, o’meara and winchester (2004:67), south africa was once rated with the best developed infrastructure. however, the indicators currently depict a different picture with issues which have emerged since the 2009 political landscape. this resulted in immense infrastructure backlogs because of poor infrastructure maintenance and management. the past regime’s governance approach also contributed to the currently skewed socio-economic development as a result of centralised governance (ecsecc 2015:23). the presidential review committee (prc) (1998) noted that: [t]he relationship between and within different spheres of government had, at that time, emerged as a key concern and weaknesses were reported in the structure and practices of intergovernmental relations. (ch 2, para 2.4) despite the existence of the igr legislative framework, there is still uncertainty among governments over the exact responsibilities and functions of the different government administrative levels with specific reference to responsibilities of concurrency, thus presenting the eastern cape province with a negative outlook for socio-economic development. poor coordination within and between different government spheres, departments and municipalities contributes to incapacity to implement government programmes and subsequently hinders municipal basic service delivery. however, despite all these problems, south africa has several reputable development finance agencies that strengthen the government’s service delivery arm. these include statutory bodies such as the finance and revenue commission, the auditor-general, the state tender board, the public protector, the president’s co-ordinating council, interdepartmental forums, the south african local government association, the ministerial forums of the national council of provinces, ministers and members of the executive council and other agencies that can contribute to better service delivery. south africa’s cabinet lekgotla endorsed the introduction of a new outcomes-based approach to prepare development plans and to help in service delivery improvement. this outcome-based approach involved a series of strategies and activities that contributed directly to the achievement of the outcome. the outcomes approach came as a government’s performance measure of programmes impact at community level in improving the general welfare of citizens. furthermore, the former president of the rsa, in his state of nation address (2010), announced the outputs for each of these outcomes for the period 2010–2014. he stated that a high level ‘performance agreement’ and a fully detailed and negotiated ‘delivery agreement’ was expected to be developed by the minister and the department with key partners who needed to co-operate to deliver these outputs (mdliva 2012:8; presidency, statement 2010:5). notwithstanding the efforts, limited and capacity constraints for igr between government departments has created a service delivery gap. munimec igr initiatives have emerged over the past 5 years to provide political and administrative support to government’s service delivery coordination interventions. this is largely because of internal pressure arising from increasing levels of unemployment, competing demands for dwindling national resources, escalating crime and the deteriorating state of existing infrastructure. this has compelled many governments to introduce provincial igr arrangements (budget speech 2014). research methodology according to bryman (2016:5), the term ‘social research’ refers to research on topics that relate to issues relevant to social scientific fields such as sociology, human geography, social policy, politics, and criminology. babbie (2015:89) opines that all scientific social research has a research design that identifies the key research factors, data collection technique and data analysis approach and how they interact to ensure that the final findings of the research report meet the original research questions. the research design of this study is a roadmap for conducting scientific research and links the empirical data collection to the original research questions and finally to the conclusions. this study used a cross-sectional survey design. on the other hand, methodology is broader than research methods and yet very critical in that it provides theoretical groundwork for the research method. dunne et al. (2012:162) defines methodology as ‘the study of, or a theory of, the way that research methods are used in undertaking a scientific study’. eventually, it comprises the descriptive analysis of research methods and highlights the resources and limitations thereof. methodology sets the philosophical basis for the research. in social research there are two methods that are predominantly used in conducting any scientific research, namely, quantitative research method and qualitative research method. for the purpose of the research problem and questions a quantitative research approach was used in this study. in quantitative research, the word ‘quantity’ implies that this research involves a study by gathering quantifiable data (bryman 2004:76) cf. mditshwa (2012:23). quantitative methods are used when the purpose of the research is to arrive at universal statement and when the research seeks to assign figures to observations (antwi & hamzak 2015:221). the researcher administered structured questionnaires for data collection. according to lucey (2002), a questionnaire: [s]hould realise the following objectives: it should reflect accurate information regarding the research study; it should meet the aims of the research; and it should be implemented within the ambit of available time and resources. (p. 85) the researcher designed structured questionnaires and sent them personally via email to 47 respondents who were purposefully selected because they were directly involved in the munimec igr structure operations. the questionnaires were administered to the members of the executive councils, executive mayors and mayors, head of departments and municipal managers from or tambo district municipality in the eastern cape province. out of the 47 questionnaires administered, 34 (72%) were received back as reflected in table 1 and the data were analysed using statistical package of social science (spss). the questionnaire was designed in such a way that it triggered practical reflections by the respondents covering the aspects of the munimec igr performance shown in the figure below in line with the research objectives. the questionnaire including the covering letter was in english language to improve the response rate. table 1: questionnaire distribution. results and discussion as stated earlier, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the munimec igr structure in coordinating government (national and provincial) service delivery intervention at a local government level. both national and provincial governments have an immense role to play in the local government sphere with regard to igr (republic of south africa 1998:39–40). section 40(1) of the constitution (act 108 of 1996) of the republic of south africa stipulates three spheres of government, namely, national, provincial, and local spheres, which are interdependent, distinctive, and interrelated in nature. table 2 presents the results on provincial munimec forum efficiency. in the table 2 participants were requested to rate the efficiency of munimec. only a total of 37.06% (24.12% often +12.94% always) respondents considered provincial munimec igr as efficient in co-ordinating provincial strategic partners towards the provision of services in a rapid, shared, and sustainable manner. in terms of the provincial igr strategy (2016), the munimec structure aimed at improving efficiency by maintaining solidarity among the politicians and administrators. on the one hand, a total of 25.8% of respondents did not regard the munimec structure efficient in solving the challenges faced by provincial governments and on the other hand, 37% of respondents were uncertain about the efficiency of the munimec igr structure. when considering the objectives of munimec, this gives a negative impression about the munimec igr structure. this relates to aspects such as the reflection of municipal needs on the munimec agenda, level of commitment to the implementation of resolutions taken and bridging of gap between the three spheres of government in terms of strategic coordination and integration of service delivery interventions. table 2: provincial munimec forum efficiency. table 3 presents the findings on provincial munimec. in terms of the provincial munimec functionality, 38.8% of the respondents considered that the munimec igr structure is not functional with regard to its ability to resolve service delivery backlogs and that it does not have the capacity to resolve igr challenges and other governance, social and economic challenges facing government at municipal level. a total of 46.5% of respondents considered the munimec as functional in implementing the above-mentioned aspects, while 14.7% of respondents were not sure about its functionality or non-functionality. the white paper on local government of 1998 (republic of south africa 1998) affirms that ‘all spheres of government are obliged to observe the principles of co-operative government put forward in the constitution’. table 3: provincial munimec functionality. table 4 presents the munimec igr structure legal framework. a total of 68% respondents strongly suggested that south africa had a credible igr policy framework for coordination and integration of government service delivery interventions at municipal level. this further revealed a 16% of respondents who did not agree with the credibility of the igr policy framework in south africa, while 15.7% of respondents remained neutral. given the above, this implies that for the local government to enhance service delivery it should take necessary measures to strengthen the munimec igr structure to fast-track the social and local economic development of the municipalities. table 4: the munimec inter-government relations structure legal framework. in terms of participation of the munimec members [sector departments, and municipalities in this case], 46.06% of respondents agreed that they participated in the development agenda and programme setting of the munimec structural arrangements. 25.45% of the respondents on the other hand disagreed with this question, suggesting that munimec igr structure agenda and programme setting never considered their institution’s inputs, while 27.45% of respondents were undecided (see table 5). the local government munimec igr structure cannot fully grasp the exact needs of municipal needs by merely conducting a desktop exercise, but by ensuring that public participation of all stakeholders is involved in the structure set-up. the promotion of public participation is at the core of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996. similarly, chapter 2 of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, provides in the bill of rights that ‘all citizens must be treated equally’, which is a true reflection of the nation’s democratic values regarding human dignity, equality and freedom, and the upholding of constitutional principles (ijeoma 2013:419). table 5: participation in the munimec inter-government relations structure. in summary, the above findings imply that the munimec igr arrangement can be the most appropriate and efficient means for enabling rapid, shared, and sustainable socio-economic development at municipal level. the eastern cape provincial igr summit (2017) agrees with these findings in that the only fundamental hope for the highly rural eastern cape province is the strengthening of igr structures, giving more legislative powers and resources to respond to socio-economic development needs efficiently and effectively. consequently, the establishment of the munimec igr structure in the province has greatly assisted the municipalities in delivering their constitutional mandate through collaborative efforts and structured coordination of service intervention programmes. according to mnukwa (2019:5), eastern cape province has most of its populace/population living in poverty. they experience inequality insofar as access to economic, political, and symbolic power is concerned. this situation highlights the fact that the eastern cape provincial government has a huge responsibility to intensify its development initiatives by promoting partnerships with the private sector in dealing with underdevelopment in the entire province. based on the findings of the study, it can be said that the effectiveness and efficiency of the munimec igr arrangement in the coordination and integrations of government socio-economic development projects can only be improved by employing a shared igr model. this is supported by the above findings from the munimec participants with a mean of above 50%. this means that the existence of the provincial munimec structure has contributed greatly to job creation and poverty reduction. the above contentions endorse a positive narrative for the eastern cape provincial government in the sense that the utilisation and strengthening of igr structures would certainly contribute towards the realisation of the provincial priorities, which are aimed at improving the welfare of communities. this is in line with the findings from south african law reform commission (2021:113). therefore, provincial igr strategy projects provide a framework that enables all spheres of government to work together with the view to improve public service delivery through the provision of infrastructure and related non-core services. conclusion in conclusion, this study gave a perspective on igr and munimec igr structure in the eastern cape, along with the challenges faced by this province and the service delivery programmes that are in place to improve the living conditions of communities. the eastern cape government has had more than a decade to devise systems and processes in a bid to respond to the inherited as well as newly emerging service delivery challenges. institutional arrangements, systems and mechanisms have been implemented at executive, administrative and legislative levels. the transition to democracy in south africa, after apartheid, led to serious fundamental changes in the formation and functioning of the state. this change led to the redefining of the responsibilities of the different spheres of government after the restriction of the igr. after more than two decades of democratic rule, the question about the functionality of new igr frameworks, structures and procedures still surfaces in many intergovernmental platforms because of the issues of service delivery backlog that still prevails in the country. according to reddy (2001), the most effective and efficient igr approach is firstly to promote a culture of co-operation, trust and mutual respect. secondly, it is to provide capacity building. one of the main constraints to effective service provision at the municipal level has been the lack of capacity. this reality, however, has been separated from the igr discussions, which should be championed by the provincial level of government. according to rsa (1996), ‘the national and provincial government have the legislative and executive authority to see to the effective performance by municipalities of their functions’. there is a perception among some national departments that their provincial counterparts are not well prepared for intergovernmental meetings. the geographical isolation of some provinces makes speedy and effective interaction with national departments problematic (de villiers 1999:6–10). this points to a gap that needs to be filled. in summary, freund (2014:9) writes that south africa is during a very long-term era of slow growth and often stagnation while its economy is more dominated by high standard of living, limited public fiscal that continues to drop and high demand for service provision. the existence of the two igr structures such as munimec in the eastern cape province has positively benefited the province in terms of social and economic development. however, more work still needs to be done to maximise benefits to the eastern cape communities. recommendations drawing from the above, it is critical for the provincial government, led by the coordinating departments (namely, the office of the premier (otp), cogta and provincial treasury (pt) to consider expanding the igr arrangements to the private sector through public-private partnerships (ppps) and municipal private partnerships (mpps) in order to better deal with the current socio-economic challenges faced by the province. the igr arrangement model is both a unique political and socio-economic experiment which requires serious attention in assisting the south african municipalities in enhancing service delivery, good governance, rural and economic development towards sustainable economic growth. acknowledgements the author zolani tafeni acknowledges and appreciates the assistance from the staff of the department of cooperative governance & traditional affairs (cogta) and municipalities. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both the authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the z.t., upon reasonable request. data sharing is not applicable to this article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references antwi, s.k. & hamza, k, 2015, ‘qualitative and quantitative research paradigms in business research: a philocophicl reflection’, euaropean jiournal of busines and management 7(3), 217–225. babbie, e., 2015, the practice of social research. mindtap course list, 14th edn., oxford university press, cape town. bryman, a., 2004, social research methods, 2nd edn., oxford university press, oxford. bryman, a., 2016, social research methods, 5th edn., oxford university press, oxford. budget speech, 2014, minister of finance pravic gordan, 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pretoria. abstract introduction methodology and approach to the study conclusion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) favour c. uroko department of religion and cultural studies, faculty of social sciences, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria chinyere t. nwaoga department of religion and cultural studies, faculty of social sciences, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria citation uroko, f.c. & nwaoga, c.t., 2021, ‘human rights abuses in local government areas in nigeria during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: faith-based organisations as agents of transformation’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a25. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.25 note: special collection: covid-19. review article human rights abuses in local government areas in nigeria during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: faith-based organisations as agents of transformation favour c. uroko, chinyere t. nwaoga received: 13 oct. 2020; accepted: 15 mar. 2021; published: 30 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there were cases of human rights abuse during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic in the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north local government areas. indigenes of these areas went through excruciating pain and suffering after the declaration of total lockdown by their state governments. the state governments declared lockdown, with no (or inefficient) distribution of palliatives to the indigenous population. aim: this article examines human rights abuses perpetrated whilst the victims were in the same vicinity as their aggressors during the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus. setting: the data were collected from the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili local government areas. methods: the phenomenological method of qualitative research was used in the study. data were collected from official government documents, gazettes, and faith-based organisation (fbos). the data collected were analysed descriptively. results: corruption among security personnel, the lack of sensitisation and training of security personnel by the government on the rules of engagement and the lack of punishment of security personnel after their abuse of power are the motivating factors to the human rights abuses during the coronavirus pandemic in nigeria. conclusion: citizens were forced to go out to look for money and food to buy. these citizens were engaged by security agents (enforcing the lockdown) and were harassed and killed. the findings reveal that lack of special training for covid-19 security personnel, corruption and lack of sensitisation are the reasons for these cases of human rights abuse. faith-based organisations have roles to play towards achieving a reduction in the escalating cases of human rights abuse in these areas. keywords: covid-19 pandemic; fbos; insecurity; security agents; nigeria; corruption. introduction insecurity and security agents have been part of the social issues militating against the safety of the indigenes of the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north local government areas (lgas). one would think that during the period of crisis, security agents would metamorphose into becoming agents of protection for the indigenous population, but the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has solidified the traditionally held belief of security agents being part of nigeria’s insecurity. nigeria’s security agencies had a ‘bad reputation for brutality, extortion, and harassment even before the current coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain the virus’ (khalid 2020:1). on 31 march 2020, the federal government of nigeria announced a total lockdown in selected states. this was because of the first recorded case of the new virus known as covid-19 on 25 february 2020. after this declaration, the governors of the states of delta, akwa ibom, ebonyi, abia, kaduna and anambra in nigeria took a drastic step aimed at protecting their citizens from being infected with coronavirus by declaring a total lockdown in their states (amzat et al. 2020; bbc 2020; garda 2020; fuwape, okpalaonwuka & ogunjo 2021; nan 2020). thus, security agents became empowered to assist the executive by enforcing the legislation (aborisade 2021). thirteen security agencies were empowered to enforce the lockdown in the aforementioned states. this was to reduce the movement of people, and it may have reduced the increasing number of cases as well as the spread to other states (omaka-amari et al. 2000:94). it was reported that essential food items and money were distributed to the citizens to cushion the hardship on them. unfortunately, the elites behind the distribution of the money and items were able to manipulate the system and in the process enrich themselves and their families, as a result of inaccuracies in the statistical database listing the real poor nigerians (tijani 2020). a rise in death rates was reported in the print and electronic media in nigeria. unfortunately, this rise in death rates was not caused by the covid-19 pandemic, but by the killings carried out by security agents. for instance, a 28-year-old man in warri was killed on 02 april 2020 by the army for being out during the lockdown (adurokiya & agborh 2020). in aba, a tricycle rider was killed by a security agent on 16 april 2020 (alaribe & ugbor 2020:1). it was on this basis that amnesty international concluded that the behaviour of the nigerian police in the enforcement of covid-19 measures was not perceived by human rights organisations and the civil populace as procedurally just (amnesty international 2020). the families of victims were left to grieve their husbands and sons with no compensation. security personnel continued in their abuse of the civil and religious rights of the people. the government seemed to be completely overwhelmed with setting up isolation centres and procuring appropriate drugs. meanwhile, the role of faith-based organisation (fbos) was seriously sidelined during coronavirus. it is on this basis that this article examines the spate of excess abuses of human rights by security agencies in nigeria and the role of fbos in finding solutions to this problem. whilst literature on the deaths emanating from the covid-19 pandemic and the number of new infections is readily available, literature on the insecurity of lives in warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas during the pandemic is scant. thus, the aim of this study is to fill this gap in the literature by highlighting the social and economic roles of fbos in combating the present security challenges during this covid-19 pandemic. firstly, this article examines the covid-19 pandemic in nigeria. secondly, it looks into the causes of the abuse of human rights by security agencies. thirdly, it assesses the impacts of the irregular killings and also explores the roles of fbos in curbing this sad development. it is believed that the engagement of fbos will speak anew to the security challenges in these lgas. methodology and approach to the study human rights abuse became the norm during the coronavirus pandemic. in order to outline the depths of this abuse, the phenomenological method was used. the method aims to describe, understand and interpret the meanings of experiences of human life (bloor & wood 2006). data from official documents of the nigeria centre for disease control (ncdc), national human rights commission (nhrc), federal ministry of health (fmh), world health organization (who), united nations human right council (unhrc), the websites of some fbos, gazettes and periodicals served as major sources of data collection. this was because these agencies and parastatals were directly or indirectly involved in the fight against coronavirus as well as its reportage. the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in nigeria on 11 february 2020, the name covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) was selected by the world health organization. according to the director-general of the world health organization, the name was chosen based on the fact that it did not refer to any geographical location, animal, individual or group of people but only referred to the disease (who 2020). reports from gazettes reveal that covid-19 started in wuhan, a city in the hubei province of china, in late 2019 and has since spread worldwide. on 25 february 2020, nigeria recorded its index case. according to the ncdc (2020), this index case was an italian citizen who worked in nigeria and returned from milan, italy, to lagos. the ncdc is the body in charge of the management of covid-19 in nigeria. the functions of the ncdc during the period of coronavirus were to prevent, detect and control the disease; coordinate surveillance systems to collect, analyse and interpret data on the disease; support states in responding to small outbreaks and lead the response to large disease outbreaks; develop and maintain a network of reference and specialised laboratories for fighting the disease; and conduct, collate, synthesise and disseminate public health research to inform policy on the disease (devex 2021; ncdc 2021). the government of nigeria took the covid-19 pandemic with levity. on 01 april 2020, nigeria had 140 active confirmed cases, two deaths and nine people recovered (campbell 2020). it was after this that the government of nigeria declared a lockdown. insecurity and security agents’ brutality after the declaration of lockdown in the various states of the federation, security agencies were empowered to enforce the governmental directives. these security agencies included the nigerian army, nigerian police force, nigerian road safety commission and nigerian civil defence, amongst others. they were charged with the responsibility of making sure that there was no interstate travel; ensuring that work, schools and marketplaces were closed; and stopping vehicular and human movement, except where based on necessity. there were reports of excessive enforcement from the nigerian security agencies. nigeria’s security personnel had a bad reputation for brutality, extortion and harassment even before the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain the virus (khalid 2020). it was alleged that security forces harassed and even killed desperate and hungry nigerians in warri, uyo, afikpo, kaduna south, aba north and idemili north lgas (ewang 2020; onyekwere 2020; ventures 2020). security agents went about destroying the shops of people who went out to sell or buy food (adediran 2020; sylvester 2020). in addition, security agents broke car windscreens and deflated the tires of motorcycles. the citizens of the warri, uyo, afikpo, kaduna south, aba north and idemili north lgas had no opportunity to prepare for the lockdown, and the problems were compounded by the failure to follow through with assistance in the form of the essentials of life such as food; promises were not being honoured, leading to the erosion of the citizens’ faith in the authorities and the violation of lockdown orders (jimoh et al. 2020). additionally, citizens who were on essential duties were flogged mercilessly by security agents. citizens who sat outside their homes were flogged and humiliated. effiong (2020:1) reported ‘troubling videos showing policemen, military officers and other agents of the state torturing, flogging, harassing and humiliating citizens for staying outside’. according to the nhrc, security forces enforcing the lockdown in parts of nigeria killed people even though the coronavirus itself did not kill (bbc 2020). this made the commission reiterate that ‘nigerian security forces have a reputation for brutality’ (bbc 2020). table 1 shows the brutality of security forces against ordinary nigerians during the coronavirus pandemic. table 1: cases of human rights abuse by security forces. table 1 shows that the army, police, civil defence and other security agencies carried out human rights abuses. there was high-handed treatment of nigerians during the coronavirus. the rich but especially the poor were harassed, abused and eventually saw the muzzle of the gun of nigerian security personnel as their last sight. it is important to look at both the remote and immediate causes of the continuous perpetuation of brutality against nigerians during the coronavirus. causes of insecurity and security agents excesses the remote and immediate causes of the use of excessive force by nigerian security forces during the coronavirus cannot be underestimated. these include corruption, lack of sensitisation and training, and lack of punishment after abuse of power. corruption corruption is evidenced by the unfair distribution of resources. in warri lga, on 01 april, okowa announced the first 14 days of lockdown in the state, noting that the period of the lockdown would enable the state government to check the spread of the pandemic, adding that it was a worthwhile sacrifice by all to get it under control (agency report 2020). in uyo, the government through the security agencies used barriers to stop people from entering their states (reuters 2020). in the aba north, kaduna south and idemili lgas, there were restrictions on movement (ekwebene et al. 2020; reuters 2020). the citizens of some lgas in nigeria were on total lockdown, including warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north. unfortunately, palliatives meant to cushion the effects of the hardship on the indigenous population were diverted to ‘special individuals’. the palliatives were discovered after they provoked outrage in a nation reeling from spiralling food prices, high unemployment and anti–police brutality protests that turned violent in october 2020 (dabang & ukomadu 2020). in delta state (warri), there was looting of goats, sheep and chickens (bbc 2020). in kaduna south, people entered and looted the palliatives (bbc 2020). in afikpo, the ebonyi state government immediately started distributing palliatives when they discovered that the looting of coronavirus palliatives was going on (aliuna 2020). in anambra, the palliatives were taken away to another location to avoid angry youths taking them away (ovat 2020). tijani (2020:1) lamented that ‘the covid-19 financial palliative that was meant to lift the suffering of the poorer nigerians turned into covid-419’. media reports show that billions of naira were donated by the international monetary fund (imf), european union (eu) and community-minded individuals in nigeria. the imf approved us$3.4 billion in emergency financial assistance under the rapid financing instrument to support the nigerian authorities’ efforts to address the severe economic impact of the covid-19 shock and the sharp fall in oil prices (fouda 2020). furthermore, on 14 april 2020, the european union (eu) announced a eur 50 million (n21 billion) contribution towards the implementation of a coordinated response to the covid-19 pandemic in nigeria (eu 2020). unfortunately, this fund has not been evenly accounted for. the financial times (2020) reported that theft does not stop even during the coronavirus in nigeria. obi-ani (2021:8) termed the stealing of funds during the coronavirus ‘crass corruption’. hitherto, money such as the imf and eu support has been lost to corruption, and this current loss may be business as usual. the civil society legislative advocacy centre (2020) lamented that ‘nigeria’s public finances suffer from a lack of accountability. nigerian cronies use public budgets as a quasi-legitimate tool for personal enrichment and political adventures’. most of the people who received the payment of conditional cash transfer and other relief materials were not the vulnerable poor indigenous population. there was no transparency and accountability in the distribution of the relief packages; hence most of the stimulus ended up in the wrong hands (tijani 2020:1). one will infer that in order to survive citizens had no other alternative than to go out and look for what themselves and their family would eat. as evidence shows, some of these citizens were harassed, intimidated, abused and in some cases killed by security agents. it was on this basis that olurounbi (2020) submitted that the nigerian security response to covid was deadlier than the disease. in uyo, sgt alexander edidiong hit dr david daniel edet with a big stick on his left ulna and dislocated his left wrist, which was confirmed by x-ray, when the doctor pleaded for the police officer to allow him to go perform his essential duty (news agency of nigeria 2020). lack of sensitisation and training before the declaration of lockdown in the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas, there was no proper selection of the security personnel or sensitisation to the rules of engagement during the lockdown. there was no requisite training organised for them on how to enforce the executive orders during the period (iweze 2020). this is the reason why they killed and harassed the indigenous population at will (nzarga 2014; verjee & kwaja 2020). this problem of brutality explains why nigerians had no trust in security agents during the coronavirus. it was on this basis that afolabi (2018) noted that security agencies in nigeria need special training to contain situations such as this. pandemics and epidemics are reoccurring phenomena in today’s nigerian society; hence, structures need to be put in place to prevent a reoccurrence of what happened during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. lack of punishment after abuse of power none of the security personnel who infringed brutally on the human rights of the indigenous population of the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas during the covid-19 pandemic have been punished. resident doctors at the university of uyo teaching hospital (uuth) akwa ibom threatened to down tools in the state over an alleged assault on one of their members by a security operative that went unpunished (news agency of nigeria 2020) in the media, the citizens were told that the erring security personnel would be punished according to the law; however, the available reports and evidence are to the contrary. mugabi (2020) reported that the failure to punish those responsible for abuses emboldens security agents to play against the rules when executing their duties. security agencies and their cronies exhibit a level of impunity and even deny that any human rights abuses were carried out. for instance, a petrol attendant was killed in aba north by a security officer, but nigeria’s minister of information denied it. according to him, ‘[t]he petrol attendant was not actually killed by the policeman … the policeman hit a keke1, people were protesting so during the protest another motorist hit the petrol attendant’ (ukpong 2020). a keke is a tricycle used for transportation in nigeria. most states have adopted the use of the keke because it is less prone to causing road accidents. faith-based organisations and the coronavirus in nigeria faith-based organisations are important agents of transformation in nigeria. in nigeria, ‘fbo’ refers to any organisation formed by a group of individuals on the basis of having the same religious belief. faith-based organisations are stable, enduring and often the most trusted institutions in the community (carver & reinert 2020). göçmen (2013:495) revealed that fbos provide a broad range of social welfare services and use their influence in policymaking for socially excluded groups. an ‘fbo is any non-governmental organisation (ngo) that refers directly or indirectly to religion or religious values and functions as a welfare provider or as a political actor’ (facit 2020). from the definitions above, fbos look after the social, economic and cultural development of individuals and communities. nigeria is a country with three major religions, namely christianity, islam and african traditional religion. however, christianity and islam are the two major religions. there are various denominations of christianity, such as roman catholic, pentecostal, orthodox and presbyterian; whilst islam has branches or sects such as the sunnis and shiites. out of these denominations and sects have emanated organisations that provide health and educational services through their hospitals, clinics and maternal care units, schools and colleges, vocational training centres, seminaries and universities (olarinmoye 2013). these are fbos in nigeria. olarinmoye (2013) submits that they own economic institutions such as bookshops, hotels, banks, insurance, mass media and information and communication technology companies and are also prominent owners of real estate in the form of sacred cities and prayer camps, which cover thousands of hectares of land. faith-based organisations abound in nigeria. they include the christian association of nigeria, nigerian inter-religious council, federation of muslim women’s association of nigeria, justice development and peace commission, christian health association of nigeria, nigerian catholic bishops’ conference, pentecostal fellowship of nigeria, christian rural and urban development association of nigeria, dunamis international gospel centre, jama’atu nasril islam, muslim students society, young men’s christian association and catholic institute for development, justice and peace, enugu, amongst others. with regards to funding, fbos get their funding from public-spirited individuals, units and organisations. furthermore, they have as their donors: state and international organisations, ngos, sector regulators (religious networks, state ministries and agencies) and their clients (users of their services) (olarinmoye 2013). during the covid-19 pandemic, fbos made large donations to the federal government of nigeria. the dunamis international gospel centre donated medical equipment worth millions of naira to the federal capital territory administration to combat the covid-19 outbreak (ewepu 2020). furthermore, deeper christian life ministry donated the sum of n50 million to the federal government of nigeria (the vanguard 2020). in addition, bishop david oyedepo, the founder of the living faith church worldwide (winners’ chapel international), made donations of ambulances, test kits, personal protective equipment to the lagos and ogun state governments, to assist in the fight against the covid-19 scourge in nigeria (falade 2020). faith-based organisations tried especially to empower the nigerian government in the fight against covid-19. faith-based organisations and the security of citizens during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic little is known about the social role played by fbos in the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas during the covid-19 period. the life of the ordinary nigerian has not been touched by these fbos because the fbos donated money to the federal government of nigeria without a commensurate payment to the nigerian citizens who are their members. most donations were made directly to the federal government of nigeria with little attention paid to the ordinary nigerian (taiyese 2020; the vanguard 2020). several recommendations are made with regards to the role of fbos and the security situation in nigeria during the coronavirus: faith-based organisations should start providing relief materials to members of their community in their various houses in the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas. they should not concentrate their social role on their members only but also assist other members of the community. rice, beans, garri, other food items and even cash can be given to members of the community (mostly the indigent) so as to enable them to adhere to the social distancing and lockdown mandates declared by the federal and state governments. faith-based organisations should help to sensitise the security agents of the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas. they can do this by writing rules of engagement on a pamphlet and ensuring that it is shared with the security agents in their community. they can also join security agents in enforcing the lockdown, and in the process identify problems with the enforcement strategy. when they have identified these problems, they should advise the security agents accordingly. furthermore, fbos should locate the relations of the victims of security excesses and reach out to them economically and socially. they can do this by ensuring that they provide for the remaining members of the family. faith-based organisations should try to get the details of those killed by the security agents, their phone number, names and places where they were killed to enable them to take appropriate and prompt action (french press agency 2020). when fbos promote physical and mental well-being, when they discourage illegal or reckless behaviour and when they advocate for ethical conduct, they are also indirectly promoting the health of their members and all citizens (carver & reinert 2020). finally, fbos should meet with the chiefs of security agencies and ensure that those security agents who were indicted for various human rights abuses are made to face the strong arm of the law. when other security agents see punishment meted out to their erring colleagues, they will follow the rules of engagement. conclusion the engagement of fbos in the contemporary security challenges in nigeria would protect the lives and the human rights of nigerians. the reason why security agents have continued to trample on the rights of nigerians during this covid-19 pandemic period is predominantly based on the fact that they were not properly trained on and sensitised to the rules of engagement during emergency cases in the warri, uyo, afikpo, aba north, kaduna south and idemili north lgas. furthermore, the government failed to properly distribute palliatives. faith-based organisations can right this wrong by ensuring that they share food items with members of their immediate community so that citizens can adjust to the lockdown announced by the government. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.c.u. and c.t.n. contributed equally to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. ethical considerations ethical clearance was not needed for the study. this article followed 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transportation in nigeria especially in the cities. abstract introduction study methods and scope classical budget theories public budgeting process local government union council budgeting implications of budget theories in union parishad budgeting conclusion acknowledgements references appendix 1: sample union councils or union parishads appendix 2: legal basis of up budgeting appendix 3: up revenue statement appendix 4: up expenditure statement about the author(s) mohammad r.i. talukdar faculty of business administration, american international university-bangladesh (aiub), dhaka, bangladesh citation talukdar, m.r.i., 2020, ‘examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a22. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.22 note: this article was republished with the spelling error corrected in the title for appendix 1 from ‘appendix 1: sample union councils or onion parishads’ to ‘appendix 1: sample union councils or union parishads’. the publisher apologises for any inconvenience caused. original research examining the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process: union councils in bangladesh mohammad r.i. talukdar received: 16 aug. 2020; accepted: 06 oct. 2020; published: 08 dec. 2020; republished: 29 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in many countries, local governments are neither well equipped nor properly accountable for performing their functions smoothly. they have also failed to become effective strategic partners of the national government and other levels of subnational governments. they have neither sufficient tax-base and local resource-entitlement nor full-bodied intergovernmental support. but the demands for services and goods continue to exceed the supply at local-government level in bangladesh and elsewhere. as a result, the local government planning and budgeting issues become centrally positioned in the debate on the subnational level decentralisation, especially concerning fiscal decentralisation and political economics of local governments. aim: keeping this fact in mind, the study examined the implications of classical budget theories in the local government budgeting process, particularly in the budgetary process and decisions of local government union councils in bangladesh. setting: the data collection period was january 2018 to february 2018. the units of analysis of this study are ‘the classical budget theories’ and the lowest tier of the rural local government institutions in bangladesh – that is, ‘the union. councils’. methods: the study followed ‘focused synthesis’ and ‘qualitative case research’ methods for data collection and used the epistemological view ‘positivism’ for data analysis. results: the study contributed to the literature stream of local government studies, public budget theory, subnational finance and budgeting, and the political economics of the local government. conclusion: this research reveals that ‘budgetary incrementalism’ and ‘high conditionality’ to inter-governmental transfers undermine the essence of community stakeholders’ consultations and spirit of local governance. it also unveils that central limitation towards effective functioning of a local government union council in bangladesh is more related to the crisis of ownership and competence of the elected council rather than just to the external influences that somewhat affect their autonomy in the budgeting process and decisions. keywords: budget theory; budgeting; examine; implication; local government. introduction examining implications of the selected classical budget theories in the budgeting process and decisions of the local government – especially at the local government union councils or union parishads (ups) in bangladesh – requires prior understanding of the influencing phenomena and magnitude of autonomy of the ups in their budgeting decisions. it also requires taking into account the extent of authority and autonomy of the ups, concerning the resources necessary to carry out the responsibilities assigned to such elected councils that belong to the lowest level of the rural local government institutions in bangladesh. talukdar (2020a) identifies the influencing phenomena at local government union council budgeting decisions in bangladesh. these include scarcity of resources, previous year budget, political and personal traits of the union council chair, local problems, local demands, legal aspects, up-competence aspects and council management. talukdar (2019, 2020a) unveils the fact that the effects of the influencing aspects on the fiscal autonomy of local government ups in bangladesh are evident with varying levels, scales and dimensions, but all influences do not undermine the fiscal and budgetary autonomy of ups. the indicator-based empirical analysis of talukdar (2019) discloses that the magnitude of influences appears to be double than that of the budgetary autonomy of local government union councils in bangladesh. talukdar (2019) also notes down that demands for public goods and services delivery are progressively exceeding the supply at local-government level in bangladesh and elsewhere in the globe. furthermore, studies of devas (1988) and talukdar (2013) make the fact public that the revenue assignments of subnational governments in most developing countries, including bangladesh, seem to be very limited, and poorly structured and designed. the poor design and drawback of the revenue assignments arise because the national governments in most developing countries have taken control of the main revenue sources, including the conventional local-based revenues. such a reality creates the ground for sharing the national funds with subnational governments to surmount the challenge of mismatch between the strengthened responsibilities and intensified resource scarcity at the peripheral and rural levels of a government (devas 1988). thus, the government attitude postured in allocating funds to local governments matters much for three main reasons. firstly, the money involved does not belong to anyone’s level of government because it is the taxpayers’ money. secondly, the local governments in most countries have very limited revenue sources, mainly because national governments have pre-empted the main tax fields. thirdly, although the services assigned to local governments are often of strategic importance nationally, these services have been assigned there because of the opportunity for greater efficiency of decision-making and responsiveness to local conditions and local wishes that decentralisation offers (devas 1988). as a result, the local government union council budgeting necessitates securing public resources through intergovernmental transfers and by mobilising local resources, and through efficient planning, strategic allocation of resources, and controlling the fiscal management. such a process needs to be complemented by a range of budgetary and decision-making theories, which fundamentally invites a trade-off between the two models – that is, the ‘political incrementalism’ in decision-making and systematically scrutinised ‘rational choice-making’ (talukdar 2019). however, in practice, in bangladesh as well as in many other developing countries, the national government allocations to subnational governments are mostly driven based on the incremental model, and to some extent on the rational choice model. notably, on the part of the local government union councils in bangladesh, talukdar’s (2019) point of view is that allocation of their probable aggregate resources to the expenditure responsibilities seems to follow the fiscal-year plan that is primarily developed based on the translation of a 5-year strategic development plan into the prioritised yearly planning, with the combined approach of systematic rational and political analysis. study methods and scope the article follows ‘focused synthesis’ and ‘qualitative case research’ methods for data collection, and uses the epistemological view ‘positivism’ for data analysis. the data collection period was january–february in 2018. the units of analysis of this study are ‘the classical budget theories’ and the lowest tier of the rural local government institutions in bangladesh – that is, ‘the union councils’. the article limits its scope to the implication of selected classical budget theories in the budgeting process and decisions of local government union councils in bangladesh. the number of sample union councils is six (see appendix 1). notably, the ‘qualitative case research’ method requires systemic investigation and detailed scrutiny of the unit of analysis, by employing techniques like documents and contents review, in-depth interviews of the relevant stakeholders and observations (talukdar 2020b). it follows the ‘focused synthesis’ method that denotes collecting and documenting information and data from diverse sources, including published and unpublished documents of the study organisation, staff memorandum, anecdotal story of concerned staff members and consultation with key staff members (talukdar 2012). both methods together help frame the ground of ‘positivism’ which is a philosophical theory, particularly an epistemological school of thought. simply put, it signifies that positive or true knowledge is based on the empirical inquiry on natural properties and their social relations. it takes information derived from sensory experience and interprets those with reason and logic, and thus forms exclusive evidence-based knowledge, which is also supported by other ‘priori’ and ‘posteriori’ knowledge. classical budget theories a budget simply portrays the revenue and expense projection for a specific upcoming period, typically for one fiscal year, july–june, in the case of most governments, and their agencies and institutes. budgeting and planning are integrally linked. the budget theory is the academic study of the relationship amongst political psychology as well as the political economy of the government, social motivation and empowerment of the actors as well as agencies, and institutional as well as public management approach concerning government budgeting process, decisions and their outcomes. as the local government falls under the executive organ in the government structure of bangladesh, the concept of the budget theory is equally applicable to the study of the state of budget affairs of the local government union councils in bangladesh. however, the ideal situation for a budget theory to apply in a local government structure is that decentralisation, autonomy, central–local relationship, local government finance and local governance get strong and further interrelationship attention. the classic theorists in public budgeting are henry adams, william f. willoughby, v. o. key jr., and more latterly, aaron wildavsky, richard fenno, charles lindblom, irene rubin, jones frank r., baumgartner, bryan d. jones, naomi caiden, james d. savage, allen schick, dennis ippolito, thomas greitens, and gary wamsley. aaron wildavsky’s contribution, the politics of the budgetary process, published in 1964, seems to be a classical theoretical scaffold for analysing public budgetary decisions in the united states (us) and anywhere in the world, although it was originally based on the norms and rules of budgeting in the us and it required the stable patterns of interactions amongst the actors involved. wehner (2015) points out the fact that the questions to wildavsky’s ‘budgetary incrementalism’ theory grow in the global fiscal and economic crisis context. richard fenno published the power of the purse: appropriations politics in congress in 1966. irene rubin in 1990 complimented fenno’s book as being a classic one. according to rubin (1990), the attributes of wildavsky’s and fenno’s ‘incrementalistic’ assumptions in budgeting at the national level are: centrality of a legislatively dominated budget; the decentralisation of the process; and the importance of agencies in the process. in 1988, wildavsky changed the lens that he had portrayed in his 1964 book and published a new book titled the new politics of the budgetary process, with naomi caiden. aaron wildavsky and naomi caiden reveal how federal budget decisions were made and how formal budget institutions and processes were intertwined with political dynamics in key areas of the budgetary decision-making process: entitlements, deficit, surplus, defence and reforms (wildavsky & caiden 2003). the book was originally published in 1988, with the latest (fifth) edition published by pearson on 18 july 2003. rubin (1990) categorises budgeting theory in two kinds: ‘descriptive and normative’. according to rubin (1990): descriptive theory is based on close observation or participation in public sector activities. theorists describe trends, sequences of events, and infer causes, paying attention to local variations as well as uniformities across cases. while normative theory-advice may be based on a much narrower range of observations than descriptive theory and its proposed solutions may be based on values rather than observations. if the explanatory power of the descriptive theory is too weak, or if the advice of normative theory is not adopted by public officials or is adopted and abandoned because it does not work, the gap between theory and practice may become unacceptably wide. (p. 179) public budgeting process the essential process of budget preparation includes setting up the fiscal targets, given the strategic allocation of resources, well-matched expenditure assignments and mechanism for ensuring aggregate expenditure control, as well as operational efficiency and competitive advantages (talukdar 2020a). public budgeting is the connecting performance process of tasks with the extent of resources needed to undertake those tasks. although most of the budgeting work is managerial and technical, public budgeting is fittingly a political process as well (rubin 2014; talukdar 2019). budget derives in three forms: (1) ‘line item’, (2) ‘program’ and (3) ‘performance’. there are also two types of budgeting techniques: (1) ‘zero-based budgeting’ and (2) ‘incremental budgeting’. in the case of ‘zero-based budgeting’, it starts from beginning or zero, and thus each of the units submitting a budget must justify all of its budget requests and requirements from beginning to the end, whilst in the case of ‘incremental budgeting’, an agency can use an incremental approach to budgeting where it simply adds, complements or subtracts from the previous year’s expenditure and performance records (menifield 2013). figure 1 displays a world view of the budget cycle. figure 1: a world view of the budget cycle. this world view reflects four stages of the budget cycle: budget formulation, budget approval, budget execution and budget oversight. budget formulation and execution are necessarily executive functions, whilst budget review, as well as approval, requires legislative involvement, and budget oversight necessitates many-sided contributions – that is, third party professional audit, legislative review of audit reports, and executive actions to correct audit findings. notably, in the 1990 book, irene rubin explains the budgetary reform process through a splendid historical review that is documented in box 1 below. box 1: the budgetary reform process: a historical outlook. local government union council budgeting within the system perspective of the public budgeting process, central governments or national governments seem to be a system, whilst subnational or local governments appear to be as a subsystem. thus, the national governments call for agencies and subnational governments to submit a specified type of budget that they prepare and prefer (axelrod 1995; gianakis & mccue 1999; menifield 2013; smith & lynch 2004; thuurmaier & willoughby 2001). understanding the process of preparing budgets of local governments is vital to explain the implication of selected classical budget theories in budgetary decisions of the local government. figure 2 shows the budget life cycle of local government ups in bangladesh. figure 2: the budget life cycle of union parishads or union councils. the budgeting process of a union council or union parishad (up) in bangladesh starts with initiating an annual development plan for the same. the planning committee of the up starts it. it requires reviewing the strategic 5-year plan to outline and sketch out a draft plan, followed by initiating ward-level discussions and placing ward-level inputs to the up standing committees for their screening. following the standing committees’ recommendations, the planning committee frames the plan brac institute of governance and development 2016; talukdar 2019, 2020a). it is noteworthy that a union council holds nine subunits, each of which is recognised as a ward. at this stage, the up secretary, along with the up planning committee, shapes the budget that embraces an assessment of assets, and retained revenues and grants, and undertakes likely expenditures and liabilities for a fiscal year. the key instruments used in this regard include the annual development plan, office memos and relevant documents. the draft budget is supposed to be placed then to the union development coordination committee (udcc) for its comments. the union council chair reviews the draft budget with the udcc feedback on it. the chair then presents the adopted draft version of the budget to the hundreds of local citizens at an open budget meeting, held at the union council level. the purpose of the open budget meeting is to get the draft budget publicly reviewed and vetted. following the public assessment, the union council revisits the budget and endorses it with or without making changes. the union council then formally submits it to the delegated government authorities – that is, to the concerned upazila nirbahi (i.e. executive) officer (uno) at the upazila or subdistrict level, deputy director of local government (ddlg), and deputy commissioner (dc) at the district level. the ddlg then forwards it to the local government division (lgd) of the ministry of local government, rural development and cooperatives (mlgrd&c) to allocate a certain amount of grants to the concerned union council, usually by following the ‘budgetary incrementalism’ approach. conventionally, the lgd keeps the up informed about the decisions through official letters (talukdar 2020a). with this progress, a union council revisits the actual fund flow, reviews and amends the budget, and re-endorses it. the next stage is the implementation of the final approved budget, followed by a doable monitoring and reporting, and acceptable audit and evaluation of the same (brac institute of governance and development 2016; talukdar 2019, 2020a). table 1 displays the union council budget calendar at a glance, whilst appendix 2 unveils the synopsis of legal basis of the local government up budgeting in bangladesh. table 1: union council budget calendar. the local government union council budget calendar (table 1) clearly shows a 13-stage initial budget preparation roadmap for a local government up in bangladesh. each of the 13 activities represents a stage, whilst each stage serves between the initiating date of a concerning activity and the initiating date for the next stage. implications of budget theories in union parishad budgeting following the analysis of the budgetary process of local government union councils in bangladesh, classical budget theories – especially aaron wildavsky’s and richard fenno’s ‘budgetary incrementalism’ – and irene rubin’s review of the normative budgetary theory are being examined to see their implications in the local government budgeting process and decisions. budgetary incrementalism as a theory of public policymaking, ‘incrementalism’ was originally built in the late 1950s. charles e. lindblom, an american political scientist, published an easy titled the science of muddling through in 1959, to help policymakers comprehend a middle way between the ‘rational actor model’ and ‘bounded rationality’ to avoid the cost of large changes and to see the factual complication and emergent rationality of the issue as they get engaged and emerged into the process (talukdar 2019, 2020a). in such an approach of ‘incrementalism’, policies develop from a process of interaction and mutual adaptation amongst a multiplicity of actors advocating different values, representing different interests, and possessing different information (hayes 2013). in public policy, ‘incrementalism’ is the approach of change by which many small policy changes are enacted overtime to make a larger broad-based policy change. according to quinn (1978), ‘logical incrementalism’ focuses on the power-behavioural approach to planning rather than the formal system-planning approach. the applied ‘budgetary incrementalistic’ model of wildavsky (1964) and fenno (1966) shows that no major changes are required in the budgets from year to year, and hence only a few choices of policy concerns need to be placed in the budgetary framework. nevertheless, a comparison between alternatives for spending is missing here, and it prevents many budgeters from seeing the changing budget reality and theorising about it (rubin 1990). rubin (1990) further observes: while the budget reformers emphasize both the need to run government like a business and the constitutional basis for their reforms, the public economists base their arguments on what they perceived as rational choices and optimization of decision making. both groups emphasize the need to get the most from each dollar, but the public economists are less concerned with cost accounting and management and more concerned with choices between options, laying out the options carefully and choosing between them on carefully specified grounds. (p. 180) in this theoretical connection, national government transfers seem to be built on the past year’s real transfers and reviewed budgets, and performance outcomes of the last and preceding years’ transfers to the local government ups in bangladesh. in effect, the last year’s genuine intergovernmental transfers help shape the reviewed budget of the local government ups in bangladesh. thus, the national government’s response to the new fiscal-year budget of the local government is either insignificantly or not at all based on the up-proposed budget, and rather extremely based on the government’s politics of the budgetary procedure and decisions – that is, ‘budgetary incrementalism’ approach of the national government that predominantly counts the amounts of the previous year transfers and performance outcomes of the same. such an observation is similar to talukdar (2019), whilst its theoretical leaning is identical to the seminal works of wildavsky (1964) and fenno (1966). descriptive to normative theory ‘incrementalism’, a leading theory in public budgeting, intends not only to act as a descriptive theory but also to perform as a normative one. nevertheless, the literature on the absolute normative lens of public budgeting theory includes citizenry inclusion and engagement, stakeholder involvement, national and local governments’ partnership, cost-effectiveness, transparency and accountability to the public, and quality public service delivery (talukdar 2020a). these could only be attained by generating the quality of budget information and data, and by publicising and disseminating those to ensure improved citizenry access to such information and data (rubin 1990). eventually, these are likely to advance citizenry consciousness to demand accountability on public spending and service delivery. furthermore, talukdar (2013) opines that budget preparation ought to be participatory and open to provide an impression to the community citizens that tax and other available resources would be used in their interests. the field observations from this study and talukdar (2019) reveal that the budget preparation of the local government union council is to a great extent participatory. a union council takes the community inputs in the budget-planning process from the ward or subunion level, and presents a comprehensive draft budget to the open budget meeting for getting the inputs on public review of the budget before the budget gets officially endorsed by the elected council. the problem, however, is bestowed with the limited local tax-base and absence of local authority on taxation, incompetent councils and shortage of professional human resources, the poor capacity of union councils to collect their assigned revenue from the household and other taxes, as well as from other sources, and poor competence of the elected chairs and councils to maintain the standard delivery of public services. talukdar (2019) observes that a union council receives most of its revenue as inter-governmental transfers, including development assistance and social safety-net supports, local government project assistance as block grants and a percentage of pay and allowance support for up secretary, village polices and elected representatives of the council. in a 2016 study, rahman et al. (2016) observe: union councils lack skilled human resources and adequate incentive to increase their revenue base and manage the taxation system efficiently and effectively. union council tax rates are fixed by the central government as shown in the union council-model tax schedule. (p. ix) the finding of this study in this regard is similar to rahman et al. (2016), but additionally, it reveals the fact that the local tax-base is too limited fundamentally because of the heavily imbalanced distribution of the revenue authority and political economy between the national and local governments, immensely favouring the national government. talukdar (2019) observes the fact that union councils fail to maintain their revenue records and statements appropriately. in the 2019 study of talukdar, almost half of the sample union councils have faced complications and taken long periods to deliver appropriate data relevant to the revenue assignments (see appendix 3). such lengthiness to satisfy data requests reveals the concerns of inadequate documentation and poor record-keeping of concerned ups that are innately linked to the fragile institutional-ownership and poor accountability of the elected representatives, particularly heads of the councils. furthermore, the value of public money is crucially important, and so the expenditure management of local government ups is fundamental to fiscal decentralisation and local political economy. talukdar (2019) observes the fact that ‘present year expenditure information to a certain extent is publicly available, but old expenditure data, even the information, and data of recent past fiscal years, are not properly recorded and maintained. it has taken also a long period to collect expenditure details of three recent-past fiscal years, i.e. 2016–2017, 2015–2016 and 2014–2015’ (see appendix 4). in the 2019 study of talukdar, evidence of such a worsening situation is found at least in 40% of sample union councils, where union council secretaries got recently transferred. certainly, disorganised documentation and poor maintenance of expenditure statement records have screwed this problem. transparency and institutional ownership the envisioned results of decentralisation are participatory, transparent and accountable local governance, and citizen-centric efficient service delivery. central to all these aspects are capacity and institutional ownership of the elected councils, as well as downward accountability of elected representatives of the same. as part of the transparency of the councils, their revenue and expenditure information is supposed to be made publicly available. previously discussed two evidences from talukdar (2019) reveal the fact that local government union councils in bangladesh are in the emergent stage to effusively disclose the revenue and expenditure information. both this study and talukdar (2019) reveal that central limitation towards the effective functioning of the local government union councils in bangladesh is more related to the crisis of ownership and competence of the elected council, rather than just to the external influences that somewhat affect their autonomy in budgeting process and decisions. local governments in bangladesh, particularly union councils, are yet to be developed with a high sense of self-responsibility, committed leadership and capability. once these grow, the basis for shrinking government conditions to subnational transfers, as well as increasing local discretionary authority and tax-base by subverting the national government resource-base at the local level shall be grounded. conclusion the local government planning and budgeting seem to be central in the discussion of subnational fiscal decentralisation and local political economics. also, scarcity of resources in union councils or ups in bangladesh ought to influence in making local government ups resource-centric. this, in effect, makes local government union councils severely dependent on the ‘incrementalistic’ budgetary approach of the national government and on highly ‘conditional inter-governmental transfers’ for undertaking their assigned responsibilities and for serving the community. the rationality of the government conditions and control on local government union councils is vested in the crisis of self-responsibility and competence of union council chairs and members. justification of the government conditions is additionally embedded in the inevitable inter-governmental resource dependency and in the importance of ensuring the financial accountability of the councils. the research reveals that ‘budgetary incrementalism’ and ‘high conditionality’ to inter-governmental transfers may undermine the essence of community stakeholders’ consultations and spirit of local governance – that is, responding to community-centric concerns and community-driven development. the study also unveils that central limitation towards the effective functioning of the local government union council in bangladesh is more related to the crisis of ownership and competence of the elected council, rather than just to the external influences that somewhat affect their autonomy in the budgeting process and decisions. the research suggests that the local government must be given autonomy in terms of levying taxes instead of relying on a highly conditional, incremental annual grant to serve its various stakeholders. secondly, building governance shields by increasing citizenry awareness and by incorporating public disclosure of all revenue assignments and expenditure responsibilities could prevent financial leakage and improve service transparency. thirdly, procedural improvement, appropriate professional human resource support and capacity-building interventions seem to be crucial requirements to overcome the challenge of institutional accountability crisis. but unless the elected representatives, especially chairmen of the council, show an inclination for institutional commitment and ownership, the accountability framework does not work strongly in this context. despite the similarities in spirit, the notions and applied practices of the ‘community perception of accountability’ are different. for instance, local citizens are more concerned about roads and constructions, apparently fair distributions of reliefs and social safety-net schemes, the social connection of the elected representatives, and public access to them, rather than formal earnings and expenses-related accountability of the councils. furthermore, community people are more concerned about immediate outputs, visibility and quantity, rather than the quality of services and sustainable development of the society. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that no competing interests exist, except the declaration of the copyright of the data-set used in the appendices belongs to the author. the author, however, acknowledges that appendix 3 and appendix 4 data-set of this paper was previously used in his 2019 study. thus, the author cited his 2019 study as the data source of the concerned appendices. author’s contributions the author declares that he is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as data and information relevant to this study are integrated into the article and its appendices. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references axelrod, d., 1995, budgeting for modern government, 2nd edn., st. marin’s press, inc, new york, ny. brac institute of governance and development, 2016, sharique iii, brac institute of governance and development, bangladesh. https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/projects/sharique-iii/. colburn, j., 2017, ‘making the most of the budget cycle: the budget formulation stage’, international budget partnership, viewed 12 march 2018, from https://www.internationalbudget.org/2017/02/making-budget-cycle-budget-formulation-stage/. devas, n., 1988, ‘system of allocation of government funds to local and regional governments’, in e.b. prantilla (ed.), financing local and regional development in developing countries: selected country experiences, pp. 1–29, uncrd, nagoya. fenno, r., 1966, the power of the purse: appropriations politics in congress, little, brown and company, boston. gianakis, g.a. & mccue, c.p., 1999, local government budgeting. a managerial approach. praeger, west port, ct. hayes, m.t., 2013, ‘incrementalism’, in encyclopedia of britannica, viewed 12 march 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/contributor/michael-t-hayes/9346359. lindblom, c.e., 1959, ‘the science of muddling through’, public administration review 19(2), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/973677 menifield, c.e., 2013, the basics of public budgeting and financial management, 2nd edn., university press of america, lanham, md. quinn, j.b., 1978, ‘strategic change: logical incrementalism’, sloan management review 20(1), 7. rahman, s.h., hossain, m.s. & uddin, m.m., 2016, public finance and revenue mobilization of union parishads: a case of four union parishads, bigd special publication series no. 03 july 2016, brac institute of governance and development (bigd), dhaka. rubin, i.s., 1990, ‘budget theory and budget practice: how good the fit?’, public administration review 50(2), 179. https://doi.org/10.2307/976865 rubin, i.s., 2014, the politics of public budgeting – getting and spending, borrowing, and balancing, 7th edn., sage, los angeles, ca. smith, r.w. & lynch, t.d., 2004, public budgeting in america, 5th edn., pearson, upper saddle river, nj. talukdar, m.r.i., 2012, ‘mobile communications and fighting corruption’, in v. kumar & j. sevensson (eds.), karlstad university studies, karlstad. talukdar, m.r.i., 2013, rural local government in bangladesh, 2nd edn., osder publications, dhaka. talukdar, m.r.i., 2019, ‘autonomy in budgeting decisions of local government union councils: a study of bangladesh’, journal of public administration and governance 9(2), 30–70. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v9i2.14773 talukdar, m.r.i., 2020a, ‘influencing phenomena of local government budgeting decisions in bangladesh’, international journal of law and public administration 3(1), 38–54. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijlpa.v3i1.4829 talukdar, m.r.i., 2020b, ‘when the case creates a competitive advantage’, asian case research journal 24(1), 97–109. thuurmaier, k.m. & willoughby, k.g., 2001, policy and politics in state budgeting. m.e. sharpe, armonk, ny. wehner, j., 2015, ‘aaron wildavsky, the politics of the budgetary process’, in m. lodge, c. edward & s.j. balla et al. (eds.), the oxford handbook of classics in public policy and administration, pp. 195–204, oxford university press, oxford. wildavsky, a., 1964, the politics of the budgetary process, little, brown and company, boston, ma. wildavsky, a. & caiden, n., 2003, the new politics of the budgetary process, 5th edn., longman classics series, pearson, london. appendix 1: sample union councils or union parishads figure 1-a1: list of sample local government union councils or union parishads. appendix 2: legal basis of up budgeting table 1-a2: legal basis of local government union council budgeting. appendix 3: up revenue statement figure 1-a3: revenue statement of local government union councils. appendix 4: up expenditure statement figure 1-a4: expenditure statement of local government union councils. abstract introduction literature review challenges of megaprojects in housing delivery research methodology findings and discussions consumer satisfaction in housing strategies increase in household size and housing allocation breakdown of network connections recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) bongekile y.c. mvuyana department of public administration and economics, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa thokozani i. nzimakwe college of law and management studies, school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation mvuyana, b.y.c. & nzimakwe, t.i., 2022, ‘megaprojects as a vehicle for providing benefits to housing beneficiaries in the ethekwini municipality’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a64. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.64 original research megaprojects as a vehicle for providing benefits to housing beneficiaries in the ethekwini municipality bongekile y.c. mvuyana, thokozani i. nzimakwe received: 05 feb. 2022; accepted: 20 may 2022; published: 22 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the integrated housing development plan developed by the ethekwini municipality is aimed at creating sustainable human settlements. it was developed to ensure that by the year 2020, all residents would have access to a housing opportunity which was to include secure tenure, basic services and support in achieving incremental housing improvement in living environments with the requisite social, economic and physical infrastructure. however, this did not materialise because there are a lot of issues that the municipality has continued to grapple with in fulfilling this mandate. aim: this article aims at rethinking the modality of megaprojects as a vehicle for providing long-lasting benefits to housing beneficiaries in the ethekwini municipality. method: this article is qualitative, and data were collected from members of the cornubia community, officials from the ethekwini municipality and the kwazulu-natal department of human settlements. findings: the findings show the role played by megaprojects in creating a quality living environment for communities to meet government objectives. whilst the south african government through these large-scale projects aims to provide quality accommodation together with basic services, this study also finds that this has cost implications for the poor because of other external factors such as unemployment and lack of access to resources. conclusion: whilst an enormous number of policies have been adopted to address the housing backlog, sustainable human settlements are still a challenge in south africa. it should be observed that the department of human settlements is chasing a moving target. the article has identified policy gaps in achieving sustainable human settlements which do not adequately address the achievement of integrated human settlements that the government is aiming at. keywords: housing; local government; governance; beneficiaries; sustainability. introduction the housing act of 1997 acknowledges that all south africa’s people shall have access to permanent residential structures with secure tenure. this shall ensure privacy and provide adequate protection against the elements with amenities such as potable water, sanitary facilities, disposal of waste and electricity supply (ed. department of housing 1997). hence, the government committed to ensuring that the right to access housing was to be fulfilled using a state-subsidised approach. the new approach of mega human settlements in south africa represents a shift from the previously uncoordinated, small-scale, low-impact, sporadic and unsustainable housing development measures. through these projects, the government aims at achieving diversity in human settlements with an emphasis on social and economic inclusion, whilst at the same time promoting spatial justice (gauteng partnership fund 2020). it should be observed that in seminal work conducted by scholars such as denicol, davies and krystallis (2020), megaprojects are used as a delivery model to produce large-scale complexes and one-off capital investments in the public and private sectors. however, as argued by various authors (altshuler & luberoff 2004; flyvbjerg et al. 2003; merrow 2011; priemus & van wee 2013), these kinds of projects are very risky endeavours, notoriously tricky to manage, and at the end they fail to achieve their original objectives. in the process, megaprojects professionals have a responsibility of coordinating with multiple forms of the institutional framework, which includes the country’s laws, legal agreements with financial institutions, national and provincial legislation and corporate hierarchies. in the development of integrated human settlements, housing contractors tend to have an increased potential for income from higher-density mixed-used projects. this is because of the increase in floor space, with more sales per square meter and an increase in property values. as a result of the compactness and the higher-density nature of megaprojects, less is spent on the infrastructure and utilities per household (landman 2010). this article aims at rethinking the modality of megaprojects as a vehicle for providing long-lasting benefits to housing beneficiaries in the ethekwini municipality. it sought responses from research participants on whether there has been a change in the welfare of beneficiaries who have been provided with houses by the municipality through the approach adopted by the government. the findings show the role played by megaprojects in creating a quality living environment for communities to meet government objectives. this article begins by presenting the background of megaprojects in south africa, then a review of the literature, the theoretical framework on megaprojects, the research methodology used to undertake the study, presentation of findings and discussion of the results, recommendations and finally a conclusion drawn from the results and areas for further research. literature review megacities’ social dimensions of sustainable development can be seen in the population growth, population densities, life expectancy rate, immigration rate, socialisation, inequality of income distribution, rate of crime, varieties of housing shortages, slums, squatters, unemployment rate and unhealthy conditions (majd & tabibian 2015). scholars such as van marrewijk et al. (2008) and capka (2004) reaffirmed that mega construction project definitions refer to huge investment projects, which are aimed at supporting governments in achieving social and economic development objectives. at the same time, these projects attract public and political attention because of their impact on communities, the environment and budgets (othman & ahmed 2013). ibrahim et al. (2020) further defined megaprojects as large-scale investment projects with colossal use of resources including financial, human and equipment. megaprojects involve large housing investments, which respond to societal disparities through the provision of substandard housing in south african cities and which address the pro-growth and/or pro-poor agenda (sutherland et al. 2011). it should be observed that the success of megaprojects depends on whether they are implemented as planned; if not, the intended aims can never be achieved – and this results in chaos and mismanagement. findings of the research conducted by gardner (2018) further contends that human settlements strategies are still delivering large-scale, peripheral and income-polarised developments with limited economic opportunities. housing practitioners, as indicated by ballard and rubin (2017), had raised concerns about the idea of megaprojects, which would result in these large-scale greenfields aggravating (newly unused land) urban sprawl. the development of the cornubia project was to address the challenges of informal settlements from a holistic point of view. the project was expected to consider the complex dynamics of settlements with their origins from poverty, inequality and the continued spatial marginalisation of the poor (ethekwini municipality 2016/2017; royal haskoning 2012). the increase in the demand for large infrastructure investments has been a result of global urbanisation, which results in governments committing to megaprojects. such projects are highly complex and uncertain and have a social and economic impact on a country’s economic growth. successes and failures of megaprojects always point to the directions of the government of the day. hence, governments have a responsibility of ensuring that there is a smooth implementation of these projects, which can be achieved through engaging all stakeholders and risk management (guo et al. 2020). further to this, esposito et al. (2021) affirmed that the large-scale developments should be aligned with an overarching institutional strategy that coordinates stakeholder involvement across all spectrums. scholars such as marietta, haffner and hulse (2021) argued that middle-income households have always experienced problems with affording houses in prime areas with decent jobs, transport and cultural facilities. this is caused by the increased inequalities in accessing resources offered by the cities. hence, this results in communities spending more time commuting because of the separation of home and workplace. the approach adopted by the government in addressing housing shortages in south africa has been delivering houses through megaprojects or catalytic projects. according to ballard and rubin (2017), the rationale behind this was to deliver more houses that resulted in achieving the aims of integrated human settlements. sustainable human settlements, as defined by the department of human settlements (2015: 268), focus on improving the quality of life of households by ensuring that there is: [e]nough accommodation which is suitable, relevant, appropriately located, affordable and fiscally sustainable; access to basic services; security of tenure and access to social services and economic opportunities within a reasonable distance. challenges of megaprojects in housing delivery the period of reconstruction post-1994 included the provision of affordable low-cost housing, which served as a critical strategic goal of the reconstruction and development for south africans. this was to promote a sense of community and nation-building through the participation in key decisions affecting all south africans. citizen participation is crucial even with the relocation of communities to new settlements. it is important to note that some families have lived in informal settlements all their lives and the exposure to formal living environment is new. some of these families have been living in informal settlements all their lives, and they find themselves exposed to formal living environments (khan, khan & govender 2013). as a result, cornubia was based on spatial concepts that included compacting the city through densification of urban development, corridors that were to promote the integration of the city, the new nodes in previously disadvantaged areas, urban edges that were to contain the sprawling of informal settlements, whilst at the same time protecting agricultural and environmental resources and open space networks (kzn department of human settlements 2015). another notable challenge for megaprojects is the fact that approval takes longer than implementation. permits should involve prioritising the project and clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved. time frames should be clearly stated, whilst at the same time leaving room for public participation (garema et al. 2015). the delay in approvals has a negative effect on the cost of projects, as these delays cause a major overrun on the project and overspending (ballard & rubin 2017). research methodology the research was qualitative, as the authors sought to understand the role of megaprojects as a vehicle employed by the ethekwini municipality in improving the quality of communities of cities expected to benefit from it. biographical data of participants data were collected from seven officials employed in the provincial department of human settlements in kwazulu-natal, officials from the human settlements unit in the ethekwini municipality and 100 participants (44 were interviewed and 56 focus grouped) who have benefited from the cornubia housing project. interviews with officials tested scholarly views that sustainable human settlements should not only be about providing people with houses but should encompass the provision of social amenities, skills development and opportunities. the secondary data employed in the article was carefully examined and critically engaged; these included textbooks, journal publications, government documents, acts and regulations and internet sources. the article used semistructured, in-depth one-on-one interviews, and focus groups were conducted to collect data from the participants. according to hesse-bibber and leavy (2011:102), in-depth interviews involve partnerships between interviewers and their respondents. these sessions afford the researcher opportunities to learn about the phenomenon through the perspective and experiences, as well as the languages, of those living the experiences. a total of 44 one-on-one interviews were conducted with the members of the community of cornubia. during interviews, the respondents had an opportunity to share their stories, pass on their knowledge and give their perspectives. table 1: representation from officials. figure 1: employment status of participants. representation from community members the given pie chart is a representation of the employment statistics of the participants who were interviewed during the study. it shows that out of 100 participants, 32% were employed, whilst the other 52% were unemployed, 13% were pensioners and 3% were self-employed. this shows that the study area had a mix of employed and unemployed people, and as a result, they could only afford formal housing provided by the government. age distribution of participants the given chart serves as a representation of the dispersion in terms of age amongst the participants selected for the study. ten per cent of the participants were between the ages of 20 and 30; 44% were between the ages of 30 and 40; 25% were between 40 and 50 years; 6% were between 50 and 60 years; 12% were between 60 and 70, whilst 3% were between the ages of 70 and 80. the chart further indicates that most beneficiaries were between the ages of 30 and 40 – an age group that is at the stage of raising families. those who were above 40 had spent most of their time in informal settlements, which were not a better place to raise children. figure 2: age distribution of participants. figure 3: household sizes of participants. household sizes of participants the given chart is a representation of the size of households determined during the interactions with the study participants. as indicated, 55% of the participants lived in households with 1–3 members, 27% lived with 4–5 members, 14% lived with 6–7 members and 4% lived with 8–10 family members. this is an indication that although some households have been relocated to formal housing, they still contend with overcrowding. this means that families with more than four members are expected to share a two-bedroom house. in such cases, privacy and other issues are compromised. seven focus group interviews were conducted with members of the community of cornubia. the researcher as the facilitator guided the session and ensured that there were no interruptions during interviews. individuals who were interviewed in focus groups were 56 in total and were of the same orientation and had similar goals. the researchers encouraged members to talk and take turns when talking. the researchers were able to interview members of the cornubia steering committee involved from the initial stages of the project, up until people were relocated to the new area. the role played by the community in ensuring the quality of life of the people staying in the area was also discussed. in analysing the data, a thematic analysis was used to interpret and present the data collected. this data assisted in bringing into perspective how sustainable human settlements and housing development should seek to create a liveable environment with integral abilities that stimulate an ongoing process of consolidation and upgrading over time. findings and discussions the spatial development plan (sdp) forms part of the integrated development plan (idp) as it informs and interprets the idp spatially and provides guidance on the execution of the idp. it further guides the spatial distribution of land uses in a municipality, giving effect to the spatial vision, goals and objectives of the municipality, whilst prioritising areas for spatial interventions (ethekwini municipality spatial development framework 2016/2017). todes (2017) alluded to the fact that concerns have been raised around the usefulness and effectiveness of spatial planning in the face of powerful political and economic interests where institutional capacities are limited. attention has been drawn away from understanding how people locate and move within the city, what drives their choices and the effects of the patterns on their livelihoods and survival. however, it has failed to achieve the desired spatial transformations towards a more racially and socially integrated city because it is too weak to address property, policy and institutional interests (todes 2017). human settlements can create a highly liveable environment, which also promotes an ongoing process of consolidation and upgrading over time (council for scientific and industrial research, building and construction technology 2000). in achieving this, the breaking new ground (bng) indicates that a balance should be maintained between economic growth and societal development to achieve sustainable human settlements (doh 2004). it further indicated that densification is crucial in addressing sustainable human settlements – and ensures that communities are brought closer to economic opportunities, whilst at the same time accessing all amenities. in making this possible, the municipality adopted the strategy of building high-rise structures to accommodate the demand for housing. densification is a concept used ‘in planning, architecture and urban design, which is used to describe, predict and control the use of land’ (ethekwini municipality 2016/2017; turok 2011). hence, participants indicated that: ‘apartheid used natural barriers like rivers and mountains to separate communities. they used also man-made barriers like freeways and power lines to separate communities. how can we reverse use the same, you know, the mechanism that they used to separate us, but use them as a matter of integration of communities and ensure that there is equity where there was none before?’ (p4) hence, a decision had to be made regarding densification to address sustainable human settlements. bringing communities closer to economic opportunities and accessing all amenities requires the municipality to adopt the strategy of building high-rise structures to accommodate as many people as possible (mvuyana 2019). such decisions must be covered in policies that encourage high-urban densities (boyko & cooper 2011). to promote sustainable human settlements, scholars conducted empirical research and supported the idea of higher levels of density housing that would provide benefits for car travel, travel distances and transport costs (barret 2010; gakenheimer 2011; newman & kenworthy 1991; nijkamp & rienstra 2010; owens 1986; stead & marshall 2001; guindon as cited in du plessis 2015). this idea is further supported by turok (2016) – the efficient land use by municipalities promotes concentrated activity which leads to higher productivity, drives economic growth and takes people out of poverty through employment. hence, municipalities must ensure that the land identified is near other facilities to achieve integration in human settlements. increasing sustainability, walkability and accessibility should be considered, as these are important factors that promote integrated human settlements. the integration process should adhere to the principles identified in the bng. when densifying, the spatial development framework (sdf) should be considered as it stipulates plans for the municipality (sutherland et al. 2015; turok 2011; yusuf & allopi 2004). the sdf has been used as the strategy for integrated human settlement development. human settlement developments should be incorporated into the sdf. spatial planning can be regarded as the development of urban areas, which can only be achieved through densifying the cities and having mixed-use and high-density public transport routes aimed at integrating cities (idp 2016/2017; sim et al. 2016). in the sdf, cornubia was identified as an investment opportunity located within the urban development corridor. the aim was to redress the imbalances and build future communities by responding appropriately to the needs and growth patterns and trends (cornubia spatial framework plan 2011). these new nodes from previously disadvantaged communities ensure that communities are connected to the city. the findings indicate that housing projects do not follow spatial plans but are driven by developments in a particular direction. according to the participant from the provincial department of human settlements: ‘if you want the clinics, the department of health should allocate the funding to cater to a newly established development in terms of the clinics. that is the desired stance, but operationally it does not happen like that all the time.’ (p2) to further illustrate this point, todes (2008) argued that because the poor rely more on the government, domestic workers and other unskilled workers are not considered once the project has been identified, as the emphasis is more on the locals. even though the spatial developments have been approved by council, catalytic projects tend to bypass the whole process. inasmuch as plans are driven by developments in a particular direction, plans for developments must be adopted to meet the requirements (ethekwini municipality 2015). consumer satisfaction in housing strategies the level of satisfaction in the services provided by the municipality is measured by the services that communities can access. participants indicated that they were now experiencing problems in accessing other services such as electricity, as in some instances houses were handed over to them without electricity, and this has led to illegal electrical connections. this exposes communities to risks because the services are not provided as expected: ‘i used to have electricity in my shack where i used to stay; now that i am here, i no longer have electricity.’ (p12) the presidency, through dhs, has emphasised access to facilities as one of the transitions from housing to human settlements – this was done to ensure that towns and cities were transformed to ensure efficiency, inclusion and sustainability. this was to be achieved by ensuring that communities access facilities such as basic services, sports and recreational and social services within a reasonable distance from where they live (the presidency 2010). the cornubia project was aimed at ensuring that the beneficiaries have access to services which would lead to integrated human settlements. as a result, the integrated residential development programme (irdp) stipulates that suitable land is identified for such projects, which includes the acquisition of land and the servicing of the site for a variety of land uses including commercial, recreational, schools and clinics (dhs 2014). the findings indicate the importance of consumer education in respect of issues such as these, where communities should be made aware that some of the services cannot be provided immediately after they had taken occupation. the community participant indicated that: ‘officials together with the community leader came to notify us that we were to be moved to an area called cornubia.’ (p75) during the planning stage of megaprojects, all stakeholders must be involved, and the issues raised here should be discussed as they affect communities directly. in this way, communities tend to understand that facilities cannot be provided overnight but that plans are underway once the funding has been secured. such engagements can also reduce service delivery protests (zonke & matsiliza 2015). housing delivery protests tend to be fuelled by other services which are not delivered by other sectors. booysen (2007) and bond and mottiar (2013) confirmed that community protest is caused by the poor quality of services delivered, as well as public representation at the grass-roots level. increase in household size and housing allocation the integrated human settlements strategy is aimed at ensuring that communities are accommodated in houses that cater to the needs of different household sizes. household sizes have always been a problem for poor black south africans – whether they are living in informal settlements, townships or rural areas. the exodus of people from rural to urban areas has also resulted in some people not being accommodated in suitable areas (mvuyana 2019). the community participant indicated that: ‘as we continue to give birth to children these houses are going to be small as time goes on because the majority of us are not interested in family planning.’ (p35) the physical domain, as indicated by busch-geertsema, confirms that there should be enough space for houses to accommodate the needs of a household in terms of quality and quantity (busch-geertsema, culhane & fitzpatrick l. 2016). some scholars indicate that the past model of freehold did not deal with the dynamics of poverty as class distinctions amongst the poor, because the housing model did not accommodate household sizes (bauman, bolnick & mitlin 2000; biermann 2004; huchzermery 2001; seekings 2000). the findings indicate that the new model of integrated human settlements should also consider household sizes when designing the projects to be implemented. the participant from the community indicated that: ‘i have a family of five and these units are very small. my son sleeps in the dinning room because he can not share a bedroom with his sisters.’ (p57) breakdown of network connections the national development plan (ndp) (2012) acknowledged that in south africa, there is a sound spatial structure, with economic activities distributed across metropolitan cities as well as large towns and cities which are linked by the established networks and connected by infrastructure. however, the challenge is that there is a dysfunctional and inequitable settlement pattern, which causes many people to live in poverty – including those in rural areas. hence, participants were concerned about members of the community who abandoned their new houses and returned to informal settlements: ‘some of us travel long distances to work and we come back late. we are aware that some have decided to abandon these houses and go back to informal settlements.’ (p45) to this effect, the findings indicate that there should be proper engagements with communities before they are relocated to new areas. the importance of profiling communities should be prioritised to prevent cases where people would be relocated far from their places of work: ‘in this new area, we are expected to have more money for the services and other things. life is expensive in this place. even going to town requires money to pay for the taxi.’ (p41) if beneficiaries continue to work far from their homes, sustainable human settlements will not be achieved and this would not improve the quality of life of beneficiaries. the findings further indicate that the quality of the houses delivered is measured by the satisfaction of beneficiaries with the services provided to them (mzini, masike & maoba 2013). recommendations policy gaps in housing development in the south african context, integrated human settlements, as advocated in the bng, were aimed at ensuring a variety of land uses that would provide social, economic and environmental integration. planning by municipalities should be aimed at integrating communities from different walks of life. a variety of developments were identified by the dhs, through municipalities, to ensure that people were relocated to new developments close to economic opportunities and had access to all amenities as stipulated in the bng (department of human settlements 2017). this holistic approach was also advocated by the united nations new urban agenda, where governments had to commit to ensuring that integration in human settlements was achieved through the provision of mixed-use housing in suitably located areas (new urban agenda 2018). intergovernmental relations should be promoted amongst all three spheres of government, as mandated by the constitution of the republic (kahn, madue & kalema 2018). to this effect, an appropriate legislative and policy framework for human settlements is formulated to support the operation of an efficient, effective and transparent planning system. the proposed framework should consider issues of socio-economic factors, employment, education and income, as it can assist the government in addressing the needs of beneficiaries. the role of the private sector should be clearly defined in housing development; hence, parameters should be set by the government to avoid cases of corruption as currently experienced in the country (mvuyana 2019). to date, the dhs in south africa relies on the housing policies and strategies adopted post-1994, as there is no human settlements act which regulates integrated human settlements. housing policy reforms much like this article, a study conducted by mvuyana (2019) identified the gaps in the megaprojects and their failure to improve the quality of life in communities as expected. the concepts of integrated human settlements can only be applicable if communities are relocated closer to economic activities, having access to facilities such as schools, clinics, recreational centres and other facilities that are aimed at completing settlements. this article further recommends that future research should be conducted around the development of an alternative approach to be considered in the development of smaller social housing estates that are more evenly distributed throughout and across urban areas, effectively deconcentrating social housing estates rather than the people living in them (oecd 2020). these mini projects will ensure that family ties are not broken (as happens with the megaprojects), communities will not have to travel long distances to places of work and communities may return to their areas of abode. integration amongst government departments the bng has emphasised the need to give attention to development planning to ensure that sustainable settlements are developed. the issues to be considered are the location for development, layout planning and design and infrastructure development, as well as maintenance and interdepartmental planning. the study recommends that interdepartmental planning should include all the departments which provide services to complete human settlements – for example, public transport, education, sports and recreation, etc. the article further recommends that government departments through integration should be able to provide a human settlement product that includes housing, transport, water, sanitation, electricity, land, environment, social, economic and governance. housing provision should not be seen as a responsibility of the dhs alone but should be the responsibility of all government departments. proper planning from all line departments should be the key to ensuring that all services are provided simultaneously. integration can only be achieved when all line departments share their vision, mission, departmental objectives, strategic plans and operational plans. this involves the cooperation of all the three spheres of government, as some of the functions do not rest with municipalities, but with provinces and the national government. conclusion it should be observed that the concept of human settlements is aimed at completing an individual, as it has been acknowledged in the bng, by building a nonracial, integrated society, which can be achieved through sustainable human settlements as well as quality housing. it should also be observed that integrated human settlements have a new meaning to beneficiaries, as it is the beginning of a new life altogether. it should be acknowledged that municipalities, through housing delivery, should ensure that quality living environments are created whilst providing houses on the other hand. municipalities cannot do this alone; other departments involved in housing development should also collaborate with the municipality. it is important to note that housing delivery should not be aimed at providing large numbers of units to accommodate communities to address the housing backlog but should also ensure that urban opportunities are provided to beneficiaries. acknowledgements the study was part of the thesis submitted for a doctoral qualification conferred by university of kwazulu natal. hence, the research published has been extracted from the thesis. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors have contributed to the preparation of this article. ethical considerations this study was part of the thesis submitted for a doctoral qualification. it was approved by the ukzn humanities and social sciences research committee (ref. no. hss/0161/0160) on 12 february 2016. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references altshuler, a.a. & luberoff, d.e., 2004, mega-projects: the changing politics of urban public investment, brookings institution press, washington, dc. ballard, r. & rubin, m., 2017, ‘a “marshall plan” for human settlements: how megaprojects became south 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interpretation conclusions and recommendations recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) zweliknona zwane department of public management, economics and law, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, pietermaritzburg, south africa noluthando s. matsiliza department of public administration and hospitality management, faculty of commerce and management, nmd campus, walter sisulu university, mthatha, south africa citation zwane, z. & matsiliza, n.s., 2022, ‘stakeholders’ involvement in service delivery at edumbe municipality’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a45. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.45 original research stakeholders’ involvement in service delivery at edumbe municipality zweliknona zwane, noluthando s. matsiliza received: 30 sept. 2021; accepted: 17 nov. 2021; published: 28 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: stakeholders have diverse interests in the provision of public services; hence, they support municipalities in responding to communities’ basic needs by engaging them in decision-making and in offering development support. aim: this article aims at assessing stakeholders’ engagement in service provision at edumbe municipality, in kwazulu-natal. the main objective was to improve service provision and development at edumbe local area. setting: edumbe municipal area is the study location where data were collected by researchers. methods: a qualitative approach was employed to collect and analyse data, using the case study design. results: it has emerged that resource management, socio-economic factors and governance issues are barriers in successfully achieving stakeholders’ full support in service delivery. conclusion: this study demonstrated dynamics of limited stakeholders’ engagement at edumbe. it is recommended that municipality must improve its relations and strategies for engaging stakeholders to improve their participation in service provision. findings from this study contribute to the existing knowledge of participatory democracy in south africa. keywords: community engagement; efficiency; service delivery; stakeholder participation; sustainability. introduction using a participatory democracy framework, this study assesses the involvement of stakeholders in service delivery at the edumbe municipality. this article argues that the interests of stakeholders have been overlooked by municipal officials of edumbe. the current local government environment is volatile, and municipalities must adapt to constant environmental changes. the principles of cooperative government are provided by the constitution (1996) to be used as a mechanism that can restore peace and relations between officials and the communities. the complexity of municipalities is also exacerbated by political will that is influential on the state power use (mohale 2017:53). the environment of municipalities can present itself as an open and as a closed system; hence municipalities must adapt to the environment (pasquini & shearing 2014). the external factors that are prominent in interacting with municipalities are economic, political, geographic and social. moreover, the internal factors include municipal goals and strategies, expertise of municipal officials and their staff, infrastructure and financial resources. local government must adapt to these factors in order to deliver services effectively. in contrast, community needs are more than what municipalities can offer; hence municipalities are not always successful in satisfying communities in service delivery. the discourse of effectiveness must be understood to be linked to the environment; hence its context must be understood as cyclical and can be favourable when the environment provides the opportunity. in the post-new public management (npm) system, governments are subjected to scrutiny by communities and are held accountable for their doings. hence, the work of public officials is complex and complicated. the issue of networks is crucial for municipalities to maintain vertical governance relations between them and stakeholders and between them and the provincial and national governments. municipalities can fulfil their political mandate by communicating, collaborating and allowing stakeholders to participate fully in decision making relating to their needs and demands. venter (van der waldt 2014:88) is of the view that public service delivery can be realised when there is active participation by all actors in decision-making regarding service delivery. this article responds to the research aim by focussing on the problem statement, theoretical framework, literature review, research methodology, findings and interpretation, conclusion and recommendations. problem statement the aim of this article is to assess stakeholders’ engagement in service provision at edumbe municipality, in kwazulu-natal. the apartheid geographic design and planning of municipalities brought a legacy of challenges that discourage citizens in municipalities to effect sustainable operations and service provision (masuku & jili 2019). furthermore, the non-payment of user charges and rates by citizens demonstrate that the user pay principle is not legitimate to its users in smalland medium-sized municipalities that do not have a strong financial base and autonomy in decision-making during policy formulation (fuo, 2017). scholars echoed the non-compliance with policy directives by municipalities as emanating from a lack of support from the central government (khaile, davids & khaile 2021; ledger 2020). previously ‘homestead’ and ‘bantustan’ areas missed the opportunity to development and upgrade their infrastructure that would allow the service provision of machinery and achieve effective service delivery. the recent mass demonstrations and service delivery boycotts demonstrate the dissatisfaction of the community towards municipalities (mabizela & matsiliza 2020). unexpectedly, service delivery boycotts continued after 1994, particularly at the edumbe municipality, where residents realised that the municipal agenda to develop communities was a ploy for the political manifesto that outlined promises of greener pastures that never materialised post-1996 (zwane 2017). this was further exacerbated by the political instability and administrative incapacity to render services to the community of edumbe. the series of social protests at edumbe were instigated by the lack of capacity of municipal officials and poor infrastructure needed to support service delivery. there are also gaps in decision-making because of the lack of involvement of community members in resource planning and participatory budgeting; hence, managing municipal operations was new to both parties under a new dispensation. zwane (2017:3) asserted that municipal services are strained by a lack of resources, especially financial and human resources. literature review theoretical approach this article adopted the participatory development approach to understand the urgency for effective public participation in local government. participatory democracy participatory democracy or participative democracy (pd) underscores the broad spectrum of participation of the constituents in a political system that is supported by freedom and rights based political systems (modise 2017). participatory democracy originates from the early writings of jean-jacques rousseau and later promoted by j.s. mill and g. d. h. cole, who posited that political participation is crucial for the fulfilment of a just society (wolfe 1985). furthermore, barber (1984) and kaufman (1960) engaged in discursive preferences of participatory democracy that demonstrate the nexus of community-based activities and democracy. in the context of this study, pd is linked to pluralism and democracy. pluralism advocates for the consideration of a mass voices in decision-making, and the word democracy has etymological roots from the greek words ‘demos’ and ‘kratos’, and it implies that the majority of the people rule and are holding power (barber 1984; kaufman 1960). participatory democracy supports both pluralism and freedom; hence there is affirmation of diverse political parties in south africa considered, but also all stakeholders should be involved in public participation. in the current trend of governance, municipalities should inculcate tenets of democracy by engaging with civil society, private and non-governmental organisations to participate in decision-making regarding public issues affecting them (escobar 2017). liberals stress the dichotomy between civil society groups and the political realm. some scholars argue that in a developmental state such as south africa, government should lead development and provide basic services to all stakeholders (mohale 2017:53). in addition, naidoo and ramphal (2018:8) assert that government must maintain a balance between government and stakeholders’ interests by supporting all stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. section 12 of the south african constitution (rsa 1996), the entrenched bill of rights endorses south africa as a sovereign democratic state. through the constitution (1996), the parliament endorsed a people’s parliament as a forum that promotes public participation by visiting all provinces to broaden democracy and public participation. the provinces and local government are mandated through delegated legislation, to comply with all the policies and law that protects citizens’ rights during public participation. unlike the apartheid government, the democratic government endorsed several policies and mechanisms such as the reconstruction and development programme to transform the economy and the public service with the intention to develop the state (rdp, 1994). the municipal systems act (2000) also supported municipalities in the establishment of advisory committees that can advise the council in issues of its business, including the participation of communities and other parties in issues affecting them. a case in point has been demonstrated by the local government during covid 19 pandemic, where stakeholders such as the municipality, businesses, non-governmental organisations and civic organisations must comply with covid-19 compliance during the preparation and conduct of funerals and memorial services leadership, p. local government bulletin 14. public participation some of the values that are subscribed to the notion of public participation in local government include the following: human dignity and justice human dignity is protected in south africa and can also be achieved by applying equality and the advancement of human rights and freedom for all (escobar 2017:1). this implies that municipal officials must be cognisant of human rights to provide basic human needs based on the availability of resources. it is the responsibility of the government to address the imbalances of the past and target the previously discriminated group and provide basic services and other goods as part of their redressal. through the court system, stakeholders can approach the judicial system and courts and request an amendment of a decision or policy when policymakers were treated unfairly or unjustly (wangari 2018:5). it is therefore notable that certain values such as ‘customer satisfaction’ and ‘batho pele’ principles can be considered as tools to motivating workers positively in their line of duty to enable them to attainment service delivery targets. according to ogonu, nwokah & acee-eke (2019:385), procedural justice is a democratic way of redressing the fundamental mistakes during service provision, when a negative service encounters or service failures may have resulted in defection of customers and citizens. in some instances, when the continued dissatisfaction is gross and not corrected, stakeholders may summon municipalities into protests and social riots: managerial accountability managers must inspire subordinates by being accountable and responsive to the oversight role, policy formulation and implementation of public policy that leads to service delivery (masuku & jili 2019:3). managers are expected to account not only to their superiors but also to the public. they need to report on the manner they manage resources and how they have been responsive to the public on whether they have achieved their intended objectives. policies such as section 71(1) of the municipal finance management act, the municipal financial management act 2003 (act no. 56 of 2003), are useful tools that are used to enforce the practice of financial accountability: management of resources as accounting officials, municipal managers are entrusted to manage municipality’s assets, income and expenditure (rsa 1999). it is also the responsibility of stakeholders to hold the administrative officers answerable for the manner they discharge their duties. with such a limited tax base, municipalities like edumbe neither have a strong tax base nor enough revenue to support development efforts and service delivery. in the context of development, municipalities benefit from the equitable sharing that is funded by the national government. the integrated development plan (idp) outlines and guides the planning of resources that must be spent by municipalities. any deviation from the norm must be communicated to the communities through ward committee meetings and ‘imbizo’ by the mayor: participatory leadership a participatory leadership approach is suitable for driving service provision because it encourages leaders and senior management staff to ethically work together with subordinates in order to motivate them to attain goals and objectives of their units and departments inclusively with the stakeholders as planned. leaders are tempted to pursue political interests and focus on political and administrative functions that are determined by municipal needs (kgatle 2018). the political leadership’s role is to drive the service delivery agenda of the municipality in terms of the idp, which is in line with the district goals and the provincial and the national agenda of the government of the day. leaders and managers must also hire suitable and capable staff that can work towards fulfilling departmental goals and the mandate of local government. it is imperative for political leadership to focus on their roles and functions and avoid too much political interference whilst participating in local affairs of their constituencies: sustainability of service provision the south african constitution (1996) provides for the devolution of power to the local government. hence, municipalities are supported by the national government through various grants to ensure that there is a development of service provision and infrastructure to work. municipalities are established to develop communities in their areas of jurisdiction (aiguosatile & uyi 2011:149). there is an economic problem where municipal resources are limited and cannot match the human needs and demands. therefore, municipalities must adopt sustainability by using resources without compromising the future generation. sustainability is new and lacks pragmatism in local government. municipalities are delegated by the south african constitution of 1996 to deliver effective and efficient services to the community in a sustainable manner. sustainable services can only be offered when resources and revenue are managed efficiently, fairly at a reasonable cost. some municipalities are challenged by a lack of revenue and savings to invest on service provision. it seems to be an ideal to achieve efficiency in those municipalities with no source of revenue collected from taxpayers and residents, but are fully dependent on government subsidies (adu-gyamfi, asongu & sonto 2018). during the covid-19 lockdown restrictions, municipalities such as edumbe struggle to collect revenue to sustain their operations financially because they collect less from the ratepayers as some have lost jobs and income to conduct their businesses. financial sustainability can be ideal because rural municipalities such as edumbe consume a low tax base and rely on equitable sharing of revenue from the national government and the municipal infrastructure grant (mig): internal organisational arrangements municipalities can only operate well when there are internal controls and organisational arrangement that are in place to support service provision. the internal controls also need to be supported by vigorous control mechanism based on good governance and ‘batho pele’ principles to effectively improve governance and organisational arrangements. managers and leaders have an obligation to monitor and supervise operating teams in their respective units in an organisation. it is the responsibility of heads of the department, council and ward councillors to make sure that stakeholders are updated with issues relating to service delivery to avoid protests and unfulfilled financial mandates (fourie 2009:13): benchmarking and information communication technologies benchmarking has a history of success in improving performance in private organisations. benchmarking is also relevant and significant for assessing the relative historical performance of public organisations (controlling for external conditions), quantify utility progress towards meeting policy objectives, assist in the identification of performance gaps in utilities handled by specialists and enable regulators to match the targets that are desired to be met and the incentives for utilities (mugisha et al. 2007). it is imperative that municipal employees benchmark on various strategies that can enhance stakeholders’ involvement in their core business. municipalities can also collaborate with other service providers and pilot projects benchmarked from other african countries and internationally, especially in areas such as skill development and training programmes. the intention of such projects would be to improve their skills. in return, the organisational internal arrangements can be nourished for public participation and service provision: adapting to environmental changes service delivery is performed in a political environment where municipalities are constantly challenged by global factors that constantly impact municipal operations (mohale 2017:85). in a developmental state such as south africa, government is expected to respond to both global and national factors. municipalities are expected to adapt to economic challenges such as effects of covid-19 by providing incentives to pay less on rates for the indigent people like the elderly, poor and young unemployed people. expectedly, taxpayers serve as buffers by paying tax that is used to support the poverty alleviation strategies. naidoo and rampal (2019) assert that municipalities can adapt to micro environmental factors while being support by ward councillors and other stakeholders in processes such as the idp and the local economic development (led). these stakeholders involve the municipal officials, government officials and experts, business fraternity, community leaders and voluntary community organisations or private sector companies. stakeholders’ engagement process in service delivery stakeholders have a vested interest on the success the municipality in service provision and development. they include community members, municipalities, investors, suppliers, interest groups, non-governmental organisations, associations and traders. these are some of the steps that include stakeholders’ involvement in service provision: develop a detailed communication plan the idp guide municipalities to develop their plans by including all the resources and goods needed in a particular municipal jurisdiction (van der waldt 2014). the plan must reflect all the various channels to connect all possible stakeholders to participate in the itemised plan (ekung, okonkwo & odesola 2014). these items can be useful in participatory budgeting and in the planning of public projects, where communities reflect their needs through identified appropriations: create a conducive environment it is significant for the ward councillors and other leaders to provide a conducive environment for stakeholders to participate in the issues affecting their municipality (ekung et al. 2014). stakeholders can participate well when they are briefed about the issues such as project goals and have all details at hand – the who, what, when, how and why. clarity on responsible persons can also alleviate the fear of failure and can shed understanding of how the engagement will be unfolding amongst stakeholders: interacting and communicating with stakeholders a healthy communication between the stakeholders and the municipal officials is needed to provide services effectively and to implement the public project without excluding any stakeholder (ngilambi & mccubbin 2017). managers and municipal officials must provide stakeholders the opportunity to contribute with inputs during service provision, especially in new projects and when there are changes needed. stakeholders must be constantly briefed with new developments and be provided with all crucial information to assist them to perform their roles well, especially in the early stages of developing a service and a public project: monitoring and evaluation it has become a culture for all the public organisations to monitor and evaluate their services and goods they produce along the lines of the implementing policy or programme (nelson 2016). stakeholders are sometimes used as outside observers, yet they can contribute effectively if they can be invited to do so by the implementing departments and local municipalities. it is crucial to monitor and evaluate services to check on the success of the policies and the capability of the performing municipality of agency. the study location the researcher chose edumbe local municipality in paulpietersburg to be the location of the study because one of the researchers is familiar with it and the villages within edumbe jurisdiction in kwazulu-natal province. as edumbe local municipality is a category b, it does not have full autonomy to make decisions as part of the zululand district in the north-western part of the kwazulu-natal province. edumbe is situated within the area next to the mpumalanga province in the north. this municipality does not collect enough revenue to sustain its operations and services. edumbe municipality has a population of about 89 614 people. according to statistics south africa (sa) 2016, edumbe has 41.3% of its population under the age of 15 years, whilst 54.2% of the population is aged between 15 and 65 years. it is a small municipality that is mostly rural with one town, paulpietersburg. the internal organisational structure of most organisations is based primarily on the arrangement and grouping of personnel to accomplish tasks. a strongly hierarchical structure, for instance, is characterised by ‘ranks’ in which superiors direct the actions of their subordinates towards the goals of the organisation. individuals of a higher rank supervise and assign tasks to their subordinates. this structure supports the primary way tasks are accomplished that ultimately contribute to the goals of the organisation. the edumbe municipality comprises eight wards, which are monitored by ward councillors. edumbe tourist attraction is based on cultural tourism with many heritage sites including the residence and the grave of mkabayi kajama of the zulu nation at kwagamakazi and the voortrekker park in paulpietersburg. it is also rich in ecotourism with the existence of the ithala game reserve, pongola bush nature reserve and natal spa hot springs and leisure resort (edumbe municipality, idp 2019–20). research method and procedures this study adopted a mixed research approach, where data were collected using both questionnaires and interviews. the rationale for using a mixed approach is to avoid the limitation of both qualitative and qualitative instruments during data collection (makhoere, jokonya & gorejena 2020). it can offer rich data because questionnaires were distributed to a large sample and interviews were also conducted (maree 2019). the sample was drawn from edumbe’s population by recognising participants who were willing to participate and who understood the context of effective service delivery in edumbe. a convenient sample was extracted from stakeholders who included municipal officials, employees at the mayor’s office, the municipal manager, councillors, community leaders, representatives from the non-governmental organisations, civil society, government officials, community leaders, members of business fraternity and the residents of edumbe that was directly and indirectly responsible for service delivery. the researcher used excel and the thematic approach to analyse data. data analysis and interpretation data were collected from three villages, and all eight wards from these villages were considered for sampling. the researcher selected 160 participants to participate in this study from a community population of 101 607 inhabitants. the researchers further considered a convenient sample to be appropriate for this study. according to maree (2016), a convenient sampling is considerable fit for this study because of its ability of being incredibly, uncomplicated, prompt and economical. the questionnaires and the interview schedule were written in both english and isizulu to accommodate all participants at edumbe. to avoid bias when using the selected sample, the researchers remained truthful and honest in the whole process of the research conduct. section a: biographical data this section summarises the biographical characteristics of the respondents. table 1 demonstrates the gender distribution by age, and it can be reported that the ratios were distributed between within the range of 2:3 (41.9 and 55.5), respectively. within the age category of 45–49 years, 33.3 were male. within the category of males only, 6.2 were between the ages of 45 and 49 years. this category of males between the ages of 45 and 49 years formed 2.6 of the total sample. table 1: the overall gender distribution by age. table 2 indicates the composition of participants according to race. there was a total of 94.3 black respondents as compared with a small proportion of 5.7 mixed race. edumbe municipal area is more dominated by black residents, and there are very few white and indian people living in the area. black people and mixed-race people were the only ones who were willing to take part in this study. table 2: racial representation of participants. figure 1 presents a geographic location of edumbe municipal jurisdiction of all the municipal area serviced by edumbe municipality (www.municipalities.co.za). figure 1: edumbe locality municipality map. figure 2 presents the organisational structure of edumbe municipality which imply that there are various units headed by officials ar edumbe municipality (idp, 2012-2017). figure 2: organisational chart (edumbe municipality). in figure 3, participants obtained education such as primary education (19.7), secondary education (51), diploma (10.8), degree (12.1) and post-graduate (6.5). many respondents are literate enough to understand and respond to the questions asked by researchers. this statistic is useful and reflects the authenticity about the fact that participants can engage municipal officials and other stakeholders in issues affecting them because they are literate. according to marzuki (2015), when citizens possess education and local knowledge, they can propose innovative solutions that can address their problems and can lead to constructive resource allocation. also, a fair proportion of the respondents with higher qualification can contribute with high-level options during public participation. figure 3: education levels of the respondents. section b: responses from the empirical research the aim of this study was to assess the extent to which stakeholders and community participate in service provision at the edumbe municipality. data were analysed and interpreted according to the following themes: understanding of stakeholders participation when participants were probed to indicate whether they understand stakeholders’ participation, 3.8% of the respondents strongly agreed and 14% of them agreed to the question. in contrast, 24.8% disagreed and 21.7% strongly disagreed. based on the interview transcripts, it surfaced that participants were dissatisfied with their involvement in decision-making and they were not timeously informed. they further indicated that the communication strategy used by the municipality was not suitable because it was regarded as ineffective or non-existent. one of the participants from the business fraternity, indicated that they have been called from the idp and led road shows. most of the respondents (35.7) were neutral in their responses. it is important to observe that the public participation spectrum dictates the nature of public participation levels at a given time. hecker et al. (2019) are of the view that public participation is often misunderstood although it should be accepted as the involvement of stakeholders in development and implementation of policies that rely on public and scientific perceptions. involvement of the stakeholders in planning for service delivery and development stakeholders were probed about their involvement in the planning of services and development efforts at edumbe. it has also been observed that stakeholders’ have knowledge about the planning forums of idp that took place in their communities although they had no direct involvement in the planning phase. a larger number of 43.6 respondents strongly agreed , while 16.7 agreed that municipality include the community in the planning of municipal services at edumbe. this implies that some stakeholders are directly involved in the activities of the municipality that can shape their future. according to zwane (2017:56), idp and led roadshows are conducted by edumbe municipalities annually to prepare for resource allocation and budget estimates. another participant agreed that a local newspaper often announces notices from municipality such as an invitation to attend a meeting but not all the residents from villages read the newspapers. ng and rahman (2021) asserted that it is crucial for stakeholders to use their knowledge and experience to participation in planning and development processes to promote long-term community involvement and development in communities. few participants who play an important role in the development and service delivery at edumbe make a difference in their lives and other people’s lives. some stakeholders prioritise their vested interest first before they can determine the success of their municipal engagement. van der waldt (2017) pointed out clearly the importance of early involvement of stakeholders in planning of community resources to legitimatise the efforts of development and resource application in communities. therefore, the municipal officials must inform the stakeholders that it is their right to be involved in planning for resources and service delivery because it affects them. in a democratic society, public participation is used as a ladder to create democratic spaces where stakeholders can communicate with each other and know the perceptions of the consumers and the ability of the municipalities to offer services. when there is a gap, there is dissatisfaction about government’s provision and the potential performance of government officials and political office bearers. tools and strategies for promoting stakeholder’s participation the participants were asked whether they have been exposed to mechanisms that can improve their participation. most of the participants were aware of public meetings, which are commonly used for public participation. they indicated that the mayor invites residents to attend ‘imbizos’ in their villages to report on service delivery and budget preparations that are allocated per their idp process. the majority (32.55) of the respondents strongly agreed that there are forums to promote pp, and 29.3 agreed, respectively, to the statement. other participants were not pleased with the fact that the municipality has mixed agenda of combining public participation with entertainment, which was popular in the communities. another participant brought to light the fact that local government system does not operate in a vacuum, it is prominent to environmental changes that support municipality such as the central government, non-governmental sector, business people and political parties. a smaller number of the respondents, 11.9% and 10.8%, respectively, responded negatively. whilst 15.9% of the respondents were neutral, and they indicated that they no longer have trust in the government. providing information feedback to stakeholders respondents were probed to rate the municipality’s responsiveness in providing feedback to the stakeholders and communities. a minority of 9.6% respondents strongly agreed and 29.9% agreed to the statement. they indicated that residents do not bother attending public meeting where they can be briefed about how the municipality has escalated their needs and demands. during public meetings, stakeholders can also be empowered by the information distributed to them because these meetings are also used as a platform for empowerment and to enhance accountability from the municipal officials on how public money has been spent by municipalities. this is echoed by the low response of community members who participate in the activities of the municipality. some participants from the community were dissatisfied with the way councillors interfered in the election of ward committee members where only members from their political party are elected (fourie 2009). ward councillors are expected to adhere to the south african constitution (1996) mandated when they participate in the local government and elections even though they are in favour participatory democracy. a sizable number, 29.9%, of the respondents, were neutral in their response, meaning that they were not participating in the entire process; 14.6% and 15.9% of the respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed to the statement. public participation must involve follow-up visits to the stakeholders and the beneficiaries to determine the extent to which decisions are affecting the community members and to assess the level of impact of municipal decisions in service provision. it is also the responsibility of the municipalities and national government to monitor and evaluate the extent to which local needs are addressed through service delivery. based on the responses of the participants, it seems as if that the process of empowering the stakeholders with information is not happening well because there are challenges within the process of participation for issues affecting their interests. political leadership (councillors) and public participation participants were probed on the involvement of political leaders and politicians in public participation. a noticeable number of 24.4% disagreed and 21.7% strongly disagreed with the statement. this is because councillors can change their mindset once they are elected and distance themselves from their constituency. councillors are also responsible for attending their party’s political activities, and they do not have enough time to serve the constituencies and tackle their problems immediately. the respondents also indicated that some officials and councillors always refer to their party mandates when they carry out their duties. it should be observed that political interference can be a challenge to community members who are not supporting a political idea; hence it is important that political ideas do not dominate in public participation. in most cases, when there are community meetings arranged to elect political deployees, the councillors interfere in the election process of ward committees. in that way, the ward committees are elected on party’s political affiliation, which then defeats the purpose of having a ward committee. molepo, maleka and khalo (2015) asserted that during public participation, it is not easy to separate politics from public participation because political office bearers would want to honour the interests of their political parties when they are on duty. conclusions and recommendations this study demonstrated that stakeholders’ participation in service delivery is crucial to support the sustainability of edumbe municipality even though the stakeholders are still challenged by various issues. findings from this study suggest that one of the main challenges is shortage of financial and human resources that could sustain development and service delivery in that area of jurisdiction. participatory democracy informs a legal provision of fair and equitable engagement of stakeholders, whilst municipal officials chose a lame duck approach to account and respond to the needs of their constituencies and communities. municipal officials are also responsible for steer participatory democracy in a direction that suits them and the community and honour policy determinants such as ‘batho pele’ principles. local government, as the third sphere of government that is closer to the people, is expected to continuously engage stakeholders in matters affecting them and ensure that representatives participate directly with the electorate. it is evident from the results of the study that the members of the community do not participate the way they should in the activities of the edumbe municipality. lack of stakeholder participation emanate from various issues that include non-compliance, political interference and improper management of funds. this study indicated that there is a low level of stakeholder engagement at edumbe municipal area, in service provision and in development projects and programmes. this might be caused by participants that do not reflect the aspirations and experiences of all stakeholders. in the absence of regular public meetings attended by stakeholders, there is minimal chances that stakeholder’s participation can be fully realised in terms of the municipal systems act. recommendations it is therefore recommended that councillors and municipal officials must engage stakeholders in all the planning and processes that include service delivery and development at edumbe municipal area. there is a need for a participatory empowerment approach in the training and awareness forums to empower residents with various methods and strategies used for engaging stakeholders at edumbe. municipal officials must tap on the competencies of the residents and other stakeholders to advance development in the area and use their innovative skills and ideas effectively during public participation for the benefit of the people who live in those wards irrespective of political affiliation. the office responsible for public participation at the edumbe municipality must be responsible for mentoring councillors and community leaders and create democratic spaces whether community issues are handled at grassroots level up to the council, by both public officials and community leaders, communities and political leaders. the edumbe municipality, with the assistance of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (cogta), must monitor and evaluate their programmes and projects continuously in areas of service provision. there is a room for further study on sustainability as a mechanism to improve service delivery. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.z. collected primary data and n.s.m. collected secondary data , wrote and edited the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained 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framework for local government’, in g. van der waldt (eds.), municipal management: serving the people, 2nd edn., juta, kenwyn. van der waldt, g., 2017, ‘local government’, in c. landsberg & s. graham (eds.), government and politics in south africa, 5th edn., van schaik, pretoria. wangari, m., 2018, ‘procedural justice in service delivery’, master’s degree dissertation, university of nairobi. wolfe, j.d., 1985, ‘a defence of participatory democracy’, the review of politics 47(3), 370–389. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0034670500036925 zwane, z.m., 2017, ‘an assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of the management of service delivery: a case study of edumbe municipality’, doctoral thesis, university of kwazulu-natal, westville campus. abstract introduction methods results and discussion conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) luckson zvobgo climate system analysis group (csag), department of environmental and geographical science, university of cape town, cape town, south africa citation zvobgo, l., 2020, ‘performance evaluation of water supply services in chitungwiza: how water supply services mirrors poor governance and lack of management’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a17. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.17 original research performance evaluation of water supply services in chitungwiza: how water supply services mirrors poor governance and lack of management luckson zvobgo received: 09 june 2020; accepted: 04 sept. 2020; published: 22 oct. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: provision of reliable water services is crucial for urban livelihood. in chitungwiza, provision of water services has been deteriorating since the millennium with residents losing hope for better services. the poor supply of municipal water in chitungwiza has led to a chronic ‘dry taps situation’ where household taps are dry from periods of several consecutive days to months. aim: this article assesses the water supply challenges in chitungwiza through performance evaluation of the water supply services. setting: the study was conducted in 26 suburbs in the four residential zones of chitungwiza municipality. methods: performance evaluation of water supply services was carried out using seven performance indicators: coverage of water supply connection, extent of metering of water connections, presence of leakages, extent of non-revenue water, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied and efficiency in redressal of customer complaints. two hundred and ninety-eight semi-structured questionnaires were administered in four residential zones of chitungwiza. water distribution system surveillance and key informant interviews were also conducted. results: the results indicate high non-revenue water, poor water infrastructure maintenance, lack of water investment leading to widespread leakages in the distribution system, poor water quality supply and unreliable services provision. a majority, 80.2%, rated the municipal water supply services as poor. to cope with this new reality, households in chitungwiza implemented a ‘source switch’ to new sources. conclusion: household shallow wells were identified as the main adapting strategy with 51.7% households relying on wells despite concerns about the water quality of the wells. chitungwiza municipality should implement structural reforms that allow the current water service provision to improve. keywords: performance evaluation; dry taps; water services provision; water infrastructure; chitungwiza. introduction provision of reliable water services is key for sustainable development of cities (yadav et al. 2014), human health and ecosystem management (aboelnga et al. 2020). in africa and other developing regions, however, urban water supply is facing numerous challenges including institutional bottlenecks (ainuson 2010; britto, maiello & quintslr 2019; larsen et al. 2016), old and weak water infrastructure (padowski, carrera & jawitz 2016; rouse 2014) that lacks investment (zimmerman, mihelcic & smith 2008), poor governance and weak institutions (adams & zulu 2015). chitungwiza is a classic case study of a city in a developing region facing multi-governance and institutional challenges that for the past 15 years have led to residents having dry taps that last for consecutive days or even months. with growing concerns about the impacts of climate change and population growth on urban water supply in developing countries (aboelnga et al. 2020; bischoff-mattson et al. 2020; chen et al. 2015; roberts 2008), cities need to develop strategic plans to ensure sustainable development of water supply systems and resilient services. however, the situation in chitungwiza is contrary to this; the city is off track in achieving sustainable cities development as far as provision of reliable water services is concerned. chitungwiza is the third largest and the fastest-growing urban centre in zimbabwe with a population of 386 000 people. the town was established in 1978 as a dormitory suburb of the capital city, harare. chitungwiza gained full municipal status in 1981 (japanese international cooperation agency 2013). chitungwiza municipality has, since the millennium, been failing to provide basic services, such as reliable water access and regular waste collection and removal (africa water facility 2009). the water crisis in chitungwiza reflects the direction the country has been pulling towards for the past three decades in terms of management and development. the water situation in chitungwiza for the past two decades reflects a retrogressive development process in zimbabwe revealed through deterioration of basic services and livelihoods across the country. despite the chronic poor water services provision in chitungwiza, no study has ever been conducted to explore the water supply situation and how it could be improved. on an average, cities and towns in africa are growing at 5% per annum (world bank 2014). as a result, municipalities are facing considerable challenges to meet the growing demand (adams 2017; clifford holmes et al. 2014) and chitungwiza is one such example. the recent rapid urbanisation and population growth has resulted in water supply services in chitungwiza failing to keep up the pace. the situation in chitungwiza has been intensified by a dilapidated water supply infrastructure that for the past three decades has lacked investment. the involvement of the central government through the ministry of local government and retrogressive policies has also contributed to the water services failure in chitungwiza (nyikadzino & nhema 2015). chitungwiza’s water system needs immediate investments, but it will be necessary to investigate both the system failure and governance issues to ensure that the right approach to address the problems is used. this research provides a broad understanding of the current water supply and service provision in chitungwiza and how this is preventing the city from achieving its sustainable cities development agenda. because of lack of consistency in water supply in chitungwiza, most customers have lost confidence and trust in the water service provision. this has affected the patterns of paying for water, leading to chitungwiza municipality failing to mobilise the financial resources needed for meaningful water development projects and upgrade of the system to keep water supply continuous. this is because the municipal water system operations are largely financed bywater bills paid by consumers. most residents have sunk shallow home wells as an alternative source to unreliable municipal water supply in chitungwiza. however, there are risks of these wells drying up and of water quality issues, jeopardising human health, hence a consistent potable municipal water supply is indispensable. for the past decade and half, chitungwiza has been implementing a strict water rationing programme, where each zone gets water access for at least 24–48 h per week. more than 40% of the residential suburbs in chitungwiza experience deficiencies in supply that can last from 24 h to several days (africa water facility 2009). failure of the economy of zimbabwe during the past two decades, along with the loss of donor funds has resulted in virtually no investment in water service delivery in zimbabwe. the water supply has run down in chitungwiza and the repairs and maintenance of services have completely disappeared (hove & tirimboi 2011). households are left with no option but to resort to unprotected wells as a coping mechanism to the on-going water supply problems. the study was conducted to give answers to three fundamental questions for chitungwiza municipality in its quest to address the chronic water supply challenges to achieve sustainable cities development objectives: what are the water supply service challenges in chitungwiza? do the current water supply services in chitungwiza meet both local and international benchmark standards of good practice? what are the residents’ opinions regarding water supply services provision in chitungwiza and how do these opinions shape household coping mechanisms? why are reliable urban water services pertinent in sustainable cities development? with growing water demand because of competing water users in urban water supply in developing regions under the uncertainties of climate change, reliable water supply services that limit water losses and prioritise good urban water management and governance are fundamental. this underscores the need to have reliable urban water supply services that are sustainably managed and governed. this article is premised on the relevance of reliable urban water supply in the attainment of sustainable cities development agenda. the availability and supply of sufficient drinking water of acceptable quality is becoming a fundamental global challenge (ahmadi et al. 2020; bischoff-mattson et al. 2020). in chitungwiza, provision of reliable water supply and service is facing many challenges because of poor governance, unattended water system and lack of good management. these two will potentially reverse the gains and achievement of sustainable cities development agenda in chitungwiza. the recent development of urban water supply shortages and interrupted services across the globe has led to the discoveries of new terms such as ‘day zero’ (bischoff-mattson et al. 2020; booysen, visser & burger 2018). in most cases, day zero scenarios are associated with climatological deficit (ahmadi et al. 2020; booysen et al. 2018). day zero scenario threatens the future of sustainable cities development as cities would struggle to provide reliable water supply services (ahmadi et al. 2020). however, in chitungwiza, the fears of day zero would be more likely to emerge from the lack of municipal capacity to deliver sustainable, reliable water services than the interruption of services caused by severe climatic conditions and droughts. thus, it is critical that checks and balances are applied in chitungwiza to assess water service delivery and identify areas that need immediate attention for sustainable water services development. addressing water supply governance challenges in chitungwiza resonates with the global agenda of improving access to safely managed water systems that promotes sustainable development. current water supply and management in chitungwiza is not aligning with the future sustainable cities’ development. this article, therefore, focuses on assessing the key water supply indicators that are vital for chitungwiza to meet reliable water supply services in attaining the sustainable cities development goals. water infrastructure and supply services in chitungwiza water in chitungwiza is public and solely supplied by chitungwiza municipality through two sources: potable water distribution system and municipal boreholes. the potable water is supported by 79 municipal boreholes. chitungwiza municipality does not have its own potable water treatment plant but buys potable water from harare city. therefore, for chitungwiza to sustainably keep its supply, residents should pay for water services so that the municipality is able to buy water from city of harare. residential potable water in chitungwiza is distributed and managed based on the four zones (table 1). harare is currently supplying a volume of 25 megalitres (ml) per day. the current supply volume from harare was reduced because chitungwiza municipality is in debt to harare water. the supply volume is based on the purchasing power of chitungwiza municipality. the current supply is only able to provide one-third of the total water required in chitungwiza. this has resulted in serious water supply rationing in the city. table 1: details of water property connections according to four zones of chitungwiza as of 2016. a main water distribution pipeline that supplies water to chitungwiza comes from the prince edward water treatment plant. it leaves the treatment plant at an elevation of 1467 m to chitungwiza. with this elevation, lower altitude areas of chitungwiza (figure 1), zengeza and st mary’s zones are fed directly using gravitational force. this main distribution pipeline is 600 mm in diameter and it splits into two mains of 525 mm and 450 mm to the night storage reservoir (nsr) in the seke north zone (figure 1). the nsr supplies the two seke zones (seke north and south) because they are located on higher ground that requires pumping from the nsr to boost water pressure. the initial nsr design storage capacity was 46 ml for 3 days (world bank report 2014). as a result of population growth and city expansion, the nsr is now unable to supply water for at least 2 days to these two zones. this current setting has caused irregularities of supply across the four zones. the two zones that are supplied through gravitational force usually have good pressure and the other two which require pumping experience low pressure. this is because of consistent black out caused by load shedding affecting zimbabwe. the seke zones have been severely impacted, so that even during the scheduled time when they should receive water, if there is load shedding it means no water for them. the problem is exacerbated by lack of meaningful infrastructure development of the water system for the past three decades. figure 1: current water supply distribution system for chitungwiza. the current water supply rationing in chitungwiza applies to the residential connections only (world bank report 2014). this has led to cases of water vending amongst households with no alternative water sources, that is, wells and boreholes (gambe 2019). the use of shallow household wells as the main coping mechanism for the unreliable municipal water supply services present challenges such as the drying up of these wells during the dry season around october and november (gambe 2019). there are also issues of water quality associated with the use of wells and other new sources. planning for an efficient and reliable water delivery system by the municipality is therefore fundamental for human health, better livelihoods, achievement of sustainable development goal 6 (sdg 6) and economic development in chitungwiza. there is an urgent need for water system development to address the dry tap situation, moving to a more reliable and sustainable supply in order to meet current and future demand as the city’s population keeps growing exponentially. methods performance evaluation of the water supply services in chitungwiza was carried out using the assessment of compliance with the seven performance indicators: coverage of water supply connection, extent of metering of water connections, presence of leakages, extent of non-revenue water (nrw), continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied and efficiency in redressing customer complaints. to assess the above performance indicators, the study used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. the reason for mixing qualitative and quantitative research approaches was to allow appropriate assessment of all the seven indicators. this is because indicators such as the perceptions of the quality of water supplied by municipality and efficiency of redressing customer complaints are best assessed using a qualitative research approach. data collection and field observations involved a three key strategic approach in the systematic order given here: surveillance of the water supply system to assess the condition of the infrastructure. conduct key informant interviews with the chitungwiza municipality water department. household data collection across the four residential zones of chitungwiza. system surveillance the main aim of surveilling the water supply and distribution system and the related infrastructure was to determine the exact areas in the system that need immediate attention because an unmaintained system produces leaks and bursts, increasing nrw. this poses management challenges that lead to interruption of water supply services. non-revenue water for chitungwiza was calculated using the method proposed by yadav et al. (2014) as presented in equation 1: data on water sold to consumers for the year under study was obtained from chitungwiza municipality finance department. data on water purchased from harare water and put into the residential transmission and distribution system were obtained from chitungwiza municipality water department through district bulk water meter readings located in the four residential zones. key informant interviews key informant interviews were conducted in may 2017. the main reason for conducting key informant interviews was to understand the technical challenges that are facing chitungwiza water department in terms of budgets, procurement, finance and engineering capacities. three key interviews were held with the director of water department, the chief technician of the faults section and the director of revenue collection and finance. household questionnaires and interviews household semi-structured questionnaire surveys were conducted to solicit information on the following six performance indicators: coverage of water supply connection, water supply system maintenance and service, presence of leakages, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied, efficiency in redressal of customer complaints. the questions sought to understand the extent of the problems and to gain the deeper thoughts and perspectives of the households towards the municipal water services provision. a purposive sampling technique was used to administer a total of 298 semi-structured questionnaires between may and july 2017 (see table 2) across the four residential zones of chitungwiza. thus, households were selected at random at the interviewer’s discretion. however, issues such as presence of leakages in the surrounding areas were also considered in selecting households within suburbs. randomisation was used to avoid bias. table 2: sample size and distribution across the study area. the questionnaire had three main sections: the first part focused on the major problems with the current water supply services in chitungwiza based on the performance indicators that were measured. the aim was to unpack all the water supply challenges faced by households. the second section focused on whether households were satisfied with the water services they are receiving and their perception towards the services. the last section focused on the measures or coping strategies implemented by households to address dry taps situation in chitungwiza and the other problems in the service provision. definition and measurement of the performance indicators used in this study box 1 describes the performance indicators and the benchmark used to assess and measure system performance for the six performance indicators. both local and international benchmark targets were considered varying with the indicator being assessed. box 1: description of performance indicators used to assess chitungwiza municipality water supply services. ethical consideration ethical clearance was not required for the study. curec reference number: ssd/curec1a/bsg_c1a-17-02. results and discussion table 3 shows a summary of the socio-economic attributes of the households/respondents and the key water supply issues investigated in chitungwiza. table 3: descriptive socio-economic data and summary results of key water supply issues. performance evaluation chitungwiza municipality is failing to meet the benchmark of the six indicators (box 1) used that are key for water services delivery. table 4 shows a summary of the performance indicators used to evaluate chitungwiza’s water supply system and service provision. a detailed description of the indicators is given in the subsequent ‘results and discussion’ sections. table 4: performance indicators measured in chitungwiza in 2017. status of chitungwiza water supply the water supply in chitungwiza was observed to be highly variable across the 26 major suburbs, ranging from 20 min to 3 days in a week. a full-scale survey was conducted on the municipal water distribution system to identify possible sources of nrw through system leakages, illegal connections and issues of water theft. the condition of the municipal boreholes and other water-related infrastructure were also assessed. non-revenue water the calculated nrw was 55%, which is much higher than expected for urban water utilities. however, the calculations were not as accurate as they should be because amongst the four zones in chitungwiza, seke north zone had other suburbs without district bulk water meters. eleven district meters have been purchased ready for installation (from the interview with water director). this will facilitate the measurement of real losses. most nrw water in chitungwiza was from real and physical losses. these losses were through illegal and unmetered connections, inaccurate meter reading and distribution system leakages. causes of high non-revenue water in chitungwiza leakages and ageing infrastructure: leakages in the municipal water distribution system were observed as a major contributor to high nrw in chitungwiza. to contextualise the problem, leakages in chitungwiza are identified by households in their neighbourhoods, municipal workers (during operations whilst doing connections and repairs) and municipal police during patrols. despite speedy reporting of leakages, chitungwiza municipality does not attend to the leakage reports with urgency. most households surveyed were not happy with the municipality leakage response time, which in most cases is said to take at the earliest 2 days but can extend to weeks. table 5 shows the leakages recorded between may 2016 and july 2017 (1 year before survey). a total of 40.9% leakages were reported, but the municipality’s reaction time was slow with a minimum of 48 h, thus increasing the nrw in chitungwiza as more treated water is lost from the system through leakages without being accounted. table 5: leakage statistics from surveyed households. late and slow leakage response by the municipality reflects a poorly maintained water system that mirrors poor service provision. water infrastructure in chitungwiza was installed five decades ago. as a result of economic meltdown in zimbabwe, the chitungwiza system was severely affected. renovation and expansion of new water infrastructure has been suspended. this has put pressure on the existing ageing infrastructure as the population and town activities are expanding rapidly. illegal and unmetered connections: discussions with the director of water department and the chief technician revealed that illegal connections are decreasing, and this agreed with the servicelevel benchmarking (slb 2016) report of the preceding year. this is because of the implementation of tough measures and penalties introduced by the municipality for illegally connecting for water. a $200 plus administration fee was charged for illegal connectors. this means, it is expensive if households are caught because the formal connection costs $44 plus the cost of buying your individual water meter. chitungwiza municipality does not charge for connecting. illegal connections are identified by the municipal workers and police. this team is also responsible for monitoring the distribution system and leakage identification. however, other respondents argue that the fines charged to illegal connectors were not punitive, because they believed that in the long run their yearly water payments surpass the fine paid by illegal connectors. during household survey and system surveillance, illegal connections were identified (see figure 2). cases of water theft were identified in chitungwiza. this has contributed to the high nrw in chitungwiza. concerted effort is required from both parties, the utility provider to maintain and repair the ageing infrastructure and households to stop and report illegal connections and water theft cases. municipal police are said to be involved in illegal connections as they were bribed by illegal users during their operations. figure 2: evidence of illegal connection and meter by-passing in chitungwiza. coverage of water supply the study assessed the coverage of water supply in the four zones of the residential suburbs during survey and system surveillance. municipal water coverage in chitungwiza residential suburbs was not 100%. unserved suburbs with no municipal water supply system were identified. three extension suburbs had no municipal connections: unit a, l and p. one extreme case was of a suburb in seke south zone without municipal water supply or boreholes. they completely rely on household wells and some use installed submersible pumps in the wells, feeding into bulk tanks that are connected to the houses. across the four zones in chitungwiza, supply of municipal water with low pressure was consistent. municipal boreholes municipal boreholes are a very important water source in chitungwiza. the total number of municipal boreholes, their condition and distribution were observed because recently the population relying on boreholes has been increasing. non-governmental organisations have been playing an important role in the drilling of municipal boreholes in chitungwiza to improve access to water and security. reliance on borehole water has increased because of the chronic intermittent and unreliable municipal water supply and the quality issues associated with the current water supplied. sixty-five boreholes were working whilst 14 were non-functional. non-functional boreholes had worn out rods and some had dried out because of poor siting. in some cases, households were making contributions to repair malfunctioning municipal boreholes. challenges facing chitungwiza municipality to repair boreholes are related to lack of spares to replace worn out parts and inadequate funds to procure the parts. table 6: non-governmental organisation donated boreholes in suburbs of chitungwiza. water supply and management issues in chitungwiza during the household survey, several important water supply and management challenges that indicate water system performance were mentioned. most of the respondents (80%) expressed dissatisfaction with the current water supply system and the water-related services. households unveiled several problems and the most recurring problems. the order of ranked problems is listed in table 7. table 7: order of ranked chitungwiza water supply and management problems. water supply services rating household service rating of chitungwiza municipality water services: household perception and water service provision rating were assessed. these perceptions are important as they define the relationship between the utility provider (municipality) and its clients/households. household perception and their rating of the services determine their willingness to pay for water services. the following have been identified as key issues. household perceptions on the quality of municipal water: a majority of the respondents, 90.3%, ranked the municipal water quality as poor. the results are consistent with a study conducted in twosuburbs of chitungwiza (unit k and j) by gambe (2019), where 80.3% of the interviewed residents describe the quality of municipal water supply as poor. many respondents describe the water as odorous, with suspended solids and of bad colour. these quality traits were also consistent with gambe (2019) study in which residents describe the water as brownish in colour with an unpleasant smell, especially on the day supplies are reconnected. water colour was affected by dry pipes that allowed rust to accumulate before the next supply. households in chitungwiza have adopted a variety of alternative and private investment choices to combat low quality and which disrupted paying for municipal potable water. level of service satisfactory: a majority of the respondents, 80.2%, rated the municipal water supply services as poor, defined by unreliable water supply services, poor water quality supply, unjustified bills that are not delivered on time and poor communication between utility provider and residents. only 3.4% of the respondents were happy with the level of water service provision. there is communication gap between utility provider and residents. this indicates a lack of transparency. figure 3 highlights that household ratings for both the quality of municipal water supply and the household satisfaction were extremely poor. this reflects a deep management failure by the chitungwiza municipality. every water utility provider thrives by improving service provision to facilitate water-user payments, which chitungwiza municipality failed dismally. this is affecting water revenue generation and subsequently leads to the broader failure of the whole system as the utility provider lacks reliable revenue generation to improve water services. figure 3 shows expanded household perception on the quality of municipal quality supply and satisfactory service rating of the water supply services of chitungwiza municipality. figure 3: household perception on municipal water quality and level of water supply service satisfaction. since majority of the households widely perceived the quality of municipal water as very poor, households have embarked on various coping strategies. these include boiling of municipal water before drinking, pretreatment using water guard on both municipal and well water before drinking, use of borehole water and purchasing drinking water from supermarkets. gambe (2019) also found out that in two suburbs of chitungwiza, 75% of respondents revealed that they no longer use the municipal water for consumption purposes. figure 4 shows the coping mechanisms that residents in chitungwiza are using to deal with the poor municipal water supply. figure 4: common coping strategies amongst households in chitungwiza. the choice of coping strategy was influenced by the distribution of municipal boreholes, income level and education. the use of well water was common in newly developed areas not yet serviced. water supply in chitungwiza chitungwiza residents are facing unreliable and poor water supply services, with the majority of households perceiving the municipal water to be of poor quality. although this study did not conduct the lab tests on the municipal water to assess its quality, measurements related to water quality were based on the responses provided by households. water was observed to be available 1–2 days per week in most suburbs. the water supply distribution system is poorly maintained, the municipality is not replacing either broken and stolen meters as they are mandated to do so, leakages were prevalent and not attended on time. these results were consistent with previous research (drangert & sharatchandra 2017; hess et al. 2017; vaux et al. 2020). the water supply system also lacks monitoring, which has encouraged illegal connections and water theft in chitungwiza suburbs. most of the nrw in chitungwiza is from real losses. non-revenue water can be reduced through appropriate technical and managerial actions and monitoring nrw can trigger such corrective measures (yadav et al. 2014). the following measures can be implemented to reduce nrw in chitungwiza: improve bursts and leakage reporting (early reporting). timely attendance to leakages, pipe bursts. replace old pipes on time. tough regulations on illegal connections, with high fines or jail sentence. accurate meter reading and investment in the modern meters and metering. some cities in developing countries such as india have benefited from effective leakage reporting system through social media (gupta et al. 2016). chitungwiza can use the same approach, drawing lessons from these cities on the effectiveness of social media reporting and awareness for households through platforms such as twitter, whatsapp, facebook and short message services (smss). water supply and management problems in chitungwiza in extensive discussions with households throughout the data collection, several water challenges that households are facing with the municipal water supply services were expanded. trust: lack of household trust in municipal water services provision was consistent throughout data collection. owing to chronic poor water service delivery, residents have completely lost trust in the municipal water supply in chitungwiza. ninety per cent of the residents lack trust and they do not rely on municipal water anymore as indicated by the switch to various alternative sources (figure 3). corruption and mismanagement: residents believe that corruption in chitungwiza municipality has affected water services provision. these results are consistent with other researches elsewhere in countries such as nigeria (emenike et al. 2017), south africa (adams, sambu & smiley 2018; bischoff-mattson et al. 2020) and malawi (adams 2018). corruption was mainly through illegal reconnection of the households that have water access officially cut off by the municipality. municipal teams responsible for disconnecting meters of non-compliant households were believed to be corrupt. they were disconnecting water during the day and came at night asking for bribes to reconnect. households revealed they mostly ask $5 to reconnect. households also argued that municipal workers were living a luxurious life at the expense of poor water services delivery. unreliable municipal water supply services: households showed dissatisfaction with intermittent and unreliable municipal water supply services. ninety per cent of the households rated municipal water supply and related services as highly unreliable. a research by adams (2018) in lilongwe slums in malawi produced similar results. to cope with unreliable municipal water supply, residents have implemented a ‘source switch’ where households resort to using various alternative sources, although some of the sources are not safe and reliable. sixty-two per cent of the householders interviewed had private wells and boreholes that supplied water for both drinking and domestic use. wells and private boreholes have become a coping mechanism vto adapt to unreliable municipal water supply services. in other regions residents use rainwater harvesting technology (emenike et al. 2015; nnaji & mama 2014) such as rooftops, gutters and bulk tanks but the technology was not common in chitungwiza. households believe their new sources to be more reliable than municipal water. another proportion of the interviewees purchased bottled water from supermarkets for drinking and felt safe with this source, but this is not sustainable in the long run. about 13.1% had submersible pumps in their households that were connected to bulk tanks of 5000 l – 1000 l. the private systems were connected to the municipal system supplying the whole house through meter by-passing. figure 5 shows the detailed questionnaire survey on household water sources alternative to municipal water supply that are adopted in the four zones of chitungwiza. municipal boreholes are not included. figure 5: adopted household water source alternatives to poor municipal water supply in chitungwiza. in totality, 51.7% of the 298 surveyed households in the four zones of chitungwiza rely on homestead wells. however, water quality for these wells remains unknown. to address the challenge, some households have been practicing point of use treatment methods of the water with water guarding, others boil the water whilst some do nothing (figure 4). the results of the pretreatment of well water for drinking purposes are consistent with emenike et al. (2017) where households in south-west nigeria apply various point of use treatment measures to compensate for poor water quality delivered by municipality. lack of accountability and transparency: households expressed concerns over the lack of transparency and accountability of the council on the management of finances and other resources. the municipality was not sending bills on time to the residents. water users complained that they were paying their debts without seeing changes to water bill debts. that dampened the efforts by water users to pay because they believe the system lacks transparency (koehler, thomson & hope 2016). households accused the municipality of not being accountable. poor and unattended water infrastructure: some households had malfunctioning water meters and some had been stolen. in chitungwiza, water meters are the property of the municipality and it is the responsibility of the municipality to replace stolen or malfunctioning water meters. about 14.1% of households had either stolen or malfunctioning meters. old malfunctioning and stolen water meters were not replaced. in some cases, municipal workers were accused of asking for bribes to repair malfunctioning meters. figure 6 highlights the overall water meter conditions in chitungwiza. figure 6: water meter conditions in chitungwiza. conclusion and recommendations chitungwiza municipality water supply services are failing to meet the benchmark of all the performance indicators investigated that are key for water services delivery. chitungwiza does not have its own water treatment plant, which means the burden of managing a water treatment is transferred to harare water but despite this, they are failing to maximise on this to realise continuous water supply by increasing their purchasing power of water from harare water. the study established the following as major issues in the current water system: unreliable municipal water supply leading to the lack of residents’ trust in the whole system, supply of poor water quality, poor maintenance, slow attendance to leakages that are leading to high nrw, lack of transparency and accountability by the municipality. other factors are mismanagement of the water supply and corruption by the municipality. majority of the households, 80.2%, rated the municipal water supply services provision as poor. this reflects a serious problem between residents and the municipality that need urgent solutions through structural and institutional reforming of the municipality. the study recommends the following: chitungwiza municipality should consider implementing structural reforms that would allow the current situation to be improved. the municipality should improve on transparency, accountability and management and end corruption. improvement in the quality of municipal water supply is vital. further studies are required to assess water quality of boreholes and wells that are used by households. acknowledgements the author acknowledges the willingness of the participants of all the households interviewed. the author is also grateful of the full support received from the chitungwiza municipality. competing interests the author declares no known competing financial interests or personal relationship that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article. authors’ contributions all work associated with the writing of this article was done by the author l.z. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references aboelnga, h.t., el-naser, h., ribbe, l. & frechen, f.-b., 2020, ‘assessing 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postgraduate studies, university of lusaka, lusaka, zambia eustarckio kazonga school of postgraduate studies, university of lusaka, lusaka, zambia everisto nsenduluka department of administration and marketing, copperbelt university, school of business, kitwe, zambia citation chishimba, h., kazonga, e. & nsenduluka, e., 2020, an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia. journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a14. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.14 review article an analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia hanson chishimba, eustarckio kazonga, everisto nsenduluka received: 21 apr. 2020; accepted: 13 aug. 2020; published: 30 oct. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the government of the republic of zambia established the local government equalisation fund, to which each year parliament appropriates not less than 5% of the total amount of projected income taxes collected for the republic for that financial year. the purpose of the fund is to provide a source of financing for service delivery. aim: the goal of this study was to analyse the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia. setting: the study focused on lusaka city council, luanshya municipal council and chisamba and luangwa town councils in zambia. methods: a concurrent mixed-methods approach was used. the population comprised registered property owners and council officials in the selected districts. the sample was drawn using stratified sampling. data were collected using questionnaires and analysed by using descriptive statistics and regression analysis using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25. qualitative data were analysed using a narrative approach. results: the expenditure composition of the equalisation funds shows that expenditure on personal emoluments accounts for a greater proportion than capital and service expenditure. there were similarities and differences in the methods of service delivery among local authorities: the use of local government enterprise, contracting out, franchises, volunteers, self-help groups and in-house provision. conclusion: there is lack of satisfactory adherence to the guidelines on utilisation of equalisation funds for service delivery as espoused by the central government. the local authorities studied do not adhere to the prescribed guidelines on the utilisation of equalisation funds. keywords: equalisation funds; financing; local government; local revenue; fiscal capacity; revenue base; service delivery. introduction the law and mandate relating to local authorities in zambia is contained in the republican constitution (amendment) act no. 2 of 2016, with the meticulous law on local government elaborated in the local government act no. 2 of 2019. the zambian constitution, as amended in 2016, holds that a local authority shall administer the district, oversee programmes and projects, make by-laws and perform other prescribed functions in the district. assuredly, the amended constitution provides for the establishment of a sound, reliable and predictable financial base. this has been done to enhance capacity of local authorities to initiate, plan, manage and execute policies with respect to matters that affect the people and to promote social, spatial, financial and economic planning at the district level. in the performance of their functions, local authorities face daunting constraints, which have been compounded by the increase in expenditure responsibilities and the unfortunate free rider problem for most council services. undoubtedly, the fiscal situation of councils has been worsened by the erratic disbursement of fiscal grants and the erosion of the resource base through the interplay of various actions by the central government. the current macroeconomic situation has undermined the capacity of the zambian population to pay for services provided by the local authorities. consequently, there has been a failure by local authorities to provide essential services at acceptable standards, in addition to perpetual defaults on payments to workers, suppliers and statutory bodies (lolojih 2008). central to the fulfilment of the local government mandate are financial resources, yet most of the service users do not pay for the services rendered by the local authorities; currently, municipalities are owed billions of kwacha, and the ratio is climbing. to finance their operations and provide public services, local authorities collect revenue in the form of property taxes, personal levies, rent, fees and charges. regrettably, government has taken away all the lucrative sources of income from councils such as sales tax, income tax, road tax and water and electricity charges. this has resulted in the creation of a vicious circle of horizontal and vertical fiscal imbalances owing to the differences between the local tax base and the assigned expenditure responsibilities (martinez-vazquez, mclure & vaillancourt 2006). the financial position of local authorities has been worsened by the central government’s issuance of statutory instrument number 55 of 2000 and the enactment of the water and sanitation act no. 28 of 1997, which transferred the water and sewerage functions to utility companies, as well as the 1997 amendment of the rating act, which drastically exempted a number of rateable properties (government of zambia si 55 of 2000, rating act amendment no. 12 of 1997). consequently, the fiscal and social effect of these changes is manifested in the poor road and drainage systems, uncollected garbage and unsanitary facilities, which is evident in the recent death of over 100 people from a cholera outbreak that affected most towns in zambia, especially lusaka, in the year 2018. the revenue base of local authorities has been diminishing following the government decision to take away most, if not all, of the lucrative sources of income from councils, such as sales tax, income tax, road tax and water and electricity charges. the financial problems worsened in 1992 when the government decided to discontinue funding to councils and scrap the 35% sales tax, as well as in 1997 with the amendment of the rating act, which drastically exempted a number of rateable properties. this has resulted in the creation of a vicious circle of horizontal and vertical fiscal imbalances owing to the differences between local tax base and assigned expenditure responsibilities. no doubt, these imbalances have affected service provision. to redress the imbalance and ignite development, the central government established the local government equalisation fund. the establishment of the local government equalisation fund, through the local government (amendment) act no. 12 of 2014, upstretched service expectations of residents within council jurisdictions. it renewed hopes of improved service delivery, improved capital investments and conditions of service within local government spheres. according to the local government (amendment) act no. 12 of 2014, each year parliament appropriates not less than 5% of the total amount projected to be collected as income taxes for the republic for that financial year to the local government equalisation fund. the purpose of the fund is to supplement the financing of councils for the performance of their functions as listed in the first schedule of the local government act no. 2 of 2019. it is disbursed using a formula based on the population residing within the jurisdiction of each council, adjusted by poverty levels to ensure an equitable allocation of the funds across councils. local authorities are expected to use at least 20% of the funds received in any financial year to finance capital expenditure, 21% on service provision and 59% on personal emoluments ((local government [amendment] act of 2014). in spite of this financial intervention, residents have seen continued tragedy in inadequacy service delivery. the question arises on the effects of the equalisation fund on service delivery. therefore, the aim of this research was to analyse the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia. general objective the aim of this research was to analyse the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia. specific questions what is the expenditure composition of equalisation funds in local authorities? what methods of service delivery are currently in use by local authorities? what are the technical, financial and administrative effects of the local government equalisation fund? significance of the study by analysing the effects of the local government equalisation fund on service delivery in selected local authorities in zambia, the study has contributed to a better understanding of the causes of poor service delivery by local authorities in zambia. it has helped development stakeholders and government to understand how local authorities utilise the equalisation fund and better appreciate its technical, financial and administrative effects. it has revealed important information on the state of local authorities and their capacities, which are very useful in informing sound policy. literature review functions of local government the zambian parliamentary committee on local government accounts of 2019 acknowledges that local authorities are key in socio-economic development as their operations are meant to promote the interests of the local community and ultimately transform the living standards of the people. they are viewed as agents of the government at the grass-root level and are uniquely positioned to enhance and sustain national development. in order to ensure effective service delivery, there is a need for local authorities to have adequate and diversified sources of revenue. this is in addition to other sources of revenue for local authorities provided for in the constitution, such as levies and local taxes. however, pest (2017) warns that equalisation funds cannot lead to egalitarianism across the country. the assignment of functions to various spheres of government is fundamental to effective and efficient public service delivery. it is the precondition for good local governance. assignment of functions to local authorities normally focuses on three basic typologies: administrative functions, political functions and fiscal functions. in deciding which functions to relinquish, countries are guided by several principles, such as economies of scale, externalities, equity and heterogeneity of demands (von hagen & hepp 2000). chernick (2000) contends that the assignment of functions across spheres of government has been very difficult to resolve for most countries, including zambia. however, most countries largely use the principle of subsidiarity. this principle implies assigning functions to the lowest level of government. this is supported by castells (2001), who argues that local authorities are responsible for the provision of an extensive range of public services in communities, such as transportation, water supply and sanitation, education and health. service provision in zambia the continued presence of heaps of uncollected garbage, unkempt burial sites, irregular statutory inspections in market stalls, restaurants and butcheries and poorly maintained local roads manifests the tragedy of inadequacies of local authorities to deliver services. according to lolojih (2008), the capacity of councils in zambia to deliver adequate and quality services in an effective, efficient and transparent manner has remained below the expectation of local communities. he argues that councils lack managerial abilities, appropriate technology and financial capacity to deliver services in zambia. consequently, local authorities have failed to provide essential services at acceptable standards in addition to perpetual defaults on payments to workers, suppliers and statutory bodies. methods of public service provision bell (2011) points out that the provision of public services includes healthcare, education and sanitation, which are key tasks for the central government. he argues that people care about public services and depend on them being delivered well because they underpin human welfare and economic growth. the way local authorities work has an impact on people’s confidence or lack of it in the central government. revenue and expenditure assignments for local government most local authorities, especially cities in developing countries, face the challenges of availability of financial resources and service provision demands (borge 2011). similarly, martinez-vazquez et al. (2006) noted that most cities in developing countries depend on central government transfers, with lesser revenues derived from property taxation and service charges. similarly, the policy monitoring and research centre (2019), in their submission to the committee on local government accounts, argues that some local authorities have a low resource base as well as a limited capacity to support revenue generation. this has resulted in local authorities being overdependent on government financing through the local government equalisation fund. this has led to the failure to adhere to the percentage requirements, which state that 80% of the funds must be utilised by councils for the payment of salaries and provision of services in communities, whilst 20% must be utilised on capital projects. equalisation transfers and service provision stauss (2005) argues that, to solve the problem of inadequate public services, governments make equalisation payments, which are cash payments made by the central government to local authorities, usually with the objective of offsetting differences either in available revenue or in the cost of providing services. shah (2014, p. 9) identified equalisation objectives and standards in selected countries. for example, australia uses equalisation to raise the capacity of local authorities to provide services at the same standard with the same revenue effort and same operational efficiency, whilst canada’s objective is to have reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation across provinces. in switzerland, equalisation is used to ‘provide minimum acceptable levels of certain public services without much heavier tax burdens in some cantons than others’. vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalance according to turley et al. (2018), horizontal fiscal imbalances exist between local authorities in ireland, and equalisation transfers are used to reduce the disparities in fiscal capacities between bigger councils with more business activity and those with weak economic bases. the authors further state that ‘[i]nternational best practice recommends that transfers should be transparent, adequate, stable and predictable’. turley and mcnena (2019) propose that the grants should be ‘formula based, using quantifiable and objective indicators that measure either expenditure needs or fiscal capacity, or both’. herczyński (2018) reports that ‘sweden introduced a very complicated, highly professional and just equalisation system, but over time decided to move towards a much simpler approach’. in terms of horizontal fiscal imbalances, ‘some local authorities, because of the nature of their socio-economic profile and demographic characteristics, have greater expenditure needs or less revenue capacities, or both’ (herczyński 2018). as with other systems of intergovernmental fiscal relations, ireland has an equalisation fund or pool, out of which equalisation transfers are allocated in order to reduce local government fiscal inequalities (oecd 2018; turkey & mcnena 2018). turkey and mcnena (2018) confirm the existence of horizontal fiscal imbalances in local authorities. they further claim that the use of equalisation transfers is aimed at reducing the ‘fiscal disparities between the more urban and bigger councils, where business activity is most prevalent, and the smaller rural councils with weak economic bases’. with this form of horizontal equalisation, funding comes from local authorities with relatively strong revenue bases as opposed to funding coming directly from the central government as a form of vertical equalisation (boex 2009; turkey & mcnena 2018). gaps the literature body on equalisation funds has established that equalisation funds seek to redress inequities that exist along two dimensions of vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalance. the reviewed literature on equalisation transfers and service provision exhibited gaps, which provided rationale for this study; in particular, martinez-vazquez et al. (2006), in their analysis, did not factor in the role of differential fiscal capacities and efforts in revenue mobilisation and service delivery. in spite of the documented significance of local authorities in national development, there has not been adequate empirical investigation on the effect of equalisation funds on service delivery. however, works by dafflon (2012), lolojih (2008), martinez-vazquez et al. (2006) and momba (2002) are quite informative and provide useful insights on local government administration and service delivery in general. theoretical framework the theoretical framework of this study is based on the cost of service theory of taxation, benefit theory and efficiency service theory. the selected theories helped to explain the problem of inadequate service delivery and inherent challenges in the fiscal architecture of local authorities in zambia. cost of service theory of taxation this theory implies that the government should tax the citizens according to the cost of service rendered. the government renders certain services to citizens, and the cost of such services should be collectively met by the citizens. the tax an individual should bear must be equal to the cost of benefit they receive (samuelson 2012). the local government association (2018) asserts that ‘[t]he failure to properly fund these services puts the wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable residents at risk’. under this theory, the central government makes equalisation payments to local authorities to overcome threats of secession and to create a sense of national unity. furthermore, equalisation fund transfers under this system will inevitably advance social justice and efficiency in market resource allocation because the cost of service will be subsidised and quality guaranteed, ceteris paribus. this theory is relevant in the analysis of the effects of equalisation funds on service delivery as it provides grounds for local government taxation, the amount of taxes and the level of services to be provided by the council using an economically just mechanism. efficiency service theory this theory postulates that the main purpose of local government is to provide services to the people on the ground, – and it is the most efficient agent for providing those services that are essentially local. proponents argue that the efficient delivery of some local services is so compelling that, if local government does not exist, something else will have to be created in its place, implying that local government is indispensable (ebel &yilmaz 2002). in light of this, equalisation transfers will supplement local revenue and enhance efficient service delivery by local authorities. knowledge of local preferences will allow local authorities to design service provision arrangements that embed efficiency considerations in terms of cost and quality. methodology this research used a concurrent mixed-methods approach to collect, collate, analyse and integrate quantitative and qualitative data. by mixing qualitative and quantitative methods, the research drew interpretations based on the combined strengths of both sets of data in order to understand the research problem under study. the population comprised registered property owners within the political boundaries of lusaka, luanshya, chisamba and luangwa local authorities and council officials, as demonstrated in table 1. the sample was drawn from residential and business property owners, council-appointed officials and councillors using stratified sampling. a total of 636 questionnaires were administered to property owners in lusaka, luanshya, chisamba and luangwa. of the total sample, 91% were responsive whilst 9% were non-responsive. the registered property owners were partitioned into strata; then, a simple random sample was obtained from each stratum. thereafter, data were collected from each sampling unit. table 1: sample size and strata. the cochran formula was used to calculate an ideal sample size given a desired level of precision, desired confidence level and an estimated proportion of the attribute present in the population (robson 2002). the cochran formula is as follows: where, e is the desired level of precision (i.e. the margin of error), p is the (estimated) proportion of the population that has the attribute in question and q is 1 – p. the z-value was obtained from the z-table. the research used both primary and secondary sources of data. primary data were collected from the field through questionnaires. the data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. a narrative approach within qualitative data was used in order to ‘tell a story’. regression analysis was conducted using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25 and excel package when determining the effects and trends in service provision and the fiscal capacities of local authorities. results expenditure composition of equalisation funds in determining the expenditure composition of the equalisation funds in local authorities, table 2 shows that out of the total local government equalisation transfers received, lusaka city council, luanshya municipal council and luangwa and chisamba town councils spent 5%, 16%, 0.3% and 5%, respectively. these amounts were all below the minimum prescribed 20% of equalisation grants purposed to finance capital projects. a large proportion of that expenditure (65%) for lusaka city was spent on construction and rehabilitation of schools and clinics, whilst 35% was spent on the purchase of motor vehicles for managers. in 2017, capital expenditure by lusaka city council was 18.7%; this was a 0.7% reduction from the 2016 expenditure. similarly, the luangwa and luanshya councils spent 13% and 26% in 2017, showing a reduction of 7.3% and 10%, respectively, whilst chisamba spent 25% in 2017. table 2: capital expenditure for2016 fiscal year in nominal terms (zmw/million). comparatively, expenditure on capital improvements was higher for lusaka city council than the other councils. chisamba and luangwa councils, however, constructed more schools and clinics and drilled and installed more boreholes and pit latrines than lusaka and luanshya councils. in terms of service provision, lusaka city council, luanshya municipal council and chisamba town council spent 0.2%, 18.4% and 0.7% more than the prescribed 21% on service provision, respectively. on the contrary, luangwa town council spent 2% below the prescribed minimum of 21% of the total equalisation fund transfer on service provision in the year 2016. in 2017, lusaka city council and luanshya municipal council spent 11% and 8% above the prescribed 21% of equalisation funds on service provision, respectively. however, there was a reduction in real expenditure on service delivery from 2016. chisamba and luangwa councils spent 1% and 2% below the prescribed threshold of 21% of the equalisation transfers, respectively. in 2018, lusaka city council spent 13% above the minimum percentage of 21% on service provision and significantly increased its expenditure in real terms in comparison to 2017. similarly, chisamba, luangwa and luanshya municipal council spent 0.6%, 0.2% and 0.9% above the minimum threshold, respectively. to determine the effect of equalisation transfers on service delivery, a regression analysis was conducted. the overall regression model was significant at the 5% level. an analysis of variance test performed using an alpha level of 0.05 yielded f (1, 391) = 89.86, p < 0.001, r = 0.187. the analysis revealed that 18.7% of all variations in service provision is a result of changes in equalisation transfers. this was evident in town councils that had a nearly non-existent revenue base. without equalisation funds, local authorities can barely provide essential services to its residents. regarding methods of service delivery in the provision of council services to the public, table 3 shows that lusaka city council and luanshya municipal council employed various methods: the use of local government enterprise, contracting out, franchise, volunteers, self-help groups and in-house provision. chisamba and luangwa town councils used in-house provision, which was supplemented by local government enterprise and the use of volunteers and self-help groups. table 3: methods of service delivery used. technical, financial and administrative effects of equalisation funds in its quest to determine the technical capacity of councils, the study revealed that lusaka city council acquired the most service equipment for road maintenance and construction as well as for erection and maintenance of street lights. furthermore, the council has a maintenance schedule that they do not adhere to. similarly, as can be seen in table 3, luanshya municipal council has basic equipment for construction and maintenance but no equipment for the erection and maintenance of street lights, and it does not have an existing maintenance schedule. chisamba and luangwa town councils only have a motor grader and dump trucks for service provision and do not have any maintenance schedule in place for these machineries. furthermore, the dump truck for luangwa town council has been not been operational since 2017. in determining the fiscal effort by councils following the introduction of equalisation transfers, the study revealed that the fiscal effort by lusaka city council has been increasing since 2016; out of its total budget, 78% was internally generated revenue in 2016, whilst in 2017 and 2018, 88% and 88.3% were internally generated revenue, respectively. in the case of chisamba town council, the fiscal effort in 2016 was 51%; this decreased to 44% in 2017 but increased in 2018 to 61%. the internally generated revenue for luangwa town council in 2016 was 33% of the total revenue but decreased to 30.98% in 2017. in 2018, the council improved its efforts to reach 51% of all revenue. similarly, luanshya municipal council internally generated 88% of all council revenue. however, the fiscal effort declined in 2017 to 76% but rose again in 2018 to 80%. administratively, lusaka city council has 11 civil engineers, 4 electrical engineers, 3 water engineers, 14 health inspectors, 9 physical planners and 6 socio-economic planners. at least one engineer, health inspector and physical planner service a constituency in lusaka. luanshya municipal council is serviced by three civil engineers, one water engineer, four health inspectors and three physical planners, with two socio-economic planners. chisamba and luangwa town councils are serviced by two civil engineers. there is no electrical engineer, one water engineer, one socio-economic planner and two health inspectors in each town. chisamba has two physical planners, whilst luangwa has one (table 5). table 4: equipment for service provision. table 5: number of technical employees. discussion expenditure composition of equalisation funds the study showed that most local authorities did not adhere to the prescribed guidelines on the utilisation of equalisation funds. regarding personal emoluments, the study showed that councils have been increasing their expenditure on personal emoluments since 2016. this rise in expenditure is a result of increased recruitment of personnel by the local government service commission and an increase in salaries and other conditions of services for council employees that were awarded in 2016 and 2017. this can be seen in the expenditure by lusaka city council of 53.8% of the total equalisation funds in 2016 on emoluments and 49.3% in 2017. the council increased its expenditure in 2018 to 53.3%. luanshya municipal council spent 24.6% in 2016 and increased its expenditure in 2017 and 2018 to 45% and 65.1%, respectively. similarly, in 2016, chisamba and luangwa town councils spent 53.3% and 56%, respectively. in 2017, chisamba council increased its expenditure by 1.7%, whilst luangwa council increased its expenditure by 12%. luangwa council reduced its expenditure to 65.4% in 2018, whilst chisamba increased its expenditure to 59.4% in the same year. even though expenditure on personal emoluments increased in all selected local authorities, the study revealed that delayed payment of salaries and statutory pension contribution is so prevalent in these councils that employees do not know their next pay day. similarly, the policy monitoring and research centre (2019), in its submission to the committee on local government accounts, has argued that some local authorities have a low resource base as well as limited capacity to support revenue generation. this has resulted in them being overdependent on government financing through the local government equalisation fund. this has led to the failure to adhere to percentage requirements, which state that 80% of the funds must be utilised by councils for the payment of salaries and provision of services in communities, whilst 20% must be utilised for implementing capital projects. most local authorities are utilising the whole amount of the equalisation fund on the payment of salaries and operations, which negatively affects their expenditure on capital projects. furthermore, delayed disbursement of the equalisation fund by the treasury to the ministry of local government for subsequent disbursement to local authorities negatively affects their ability to meet their financial obligations as well as the implementation of projects. to establish the effect of payment of user fees on service delivery, the study conducted multiple regression analysis. the overall regression model for payment of user fees and garbage collection was statistically significant. the results revealed that 2.7% of all variability in service provision vis-à-vis garbage collection can be explained by payment of user fees. implicitly, service provision by local authorities is inversely related to payment of user fees, which are supplemented by the service component of the equalisation funds. local authorities charge user fees to ensure effective supply and demand of services. only those who pay for the service will have access to the services. this ensures that the right quantities are produced by the local authorities. user fees should not be beyond the reach of most service users because they may inefficiently crowd out consumption of a service. smart (2001) adds that there must be an economic link between the user fee and the cost of the services. considering user fees with respect to economic and legal concerns is important to ensure their validity and success. local authorities may be interested in funding a municipally provided good or service through user fees rather than through property taxes in order to shift spending to other goods or services, to meet new financial obligations, to encourage users to modify their use or to evaluate the popularity of a specific good or service. it should be noted that user fees can only be imposed when the services can be priced, such as with water, sewage and electricity. user fees become poor instruments for pricing as they inefficiently crowd out consumers. objections to user fees are also sometimes espoused because they are regressive, and low-income households may have little access to the services (bird & vaillancourt 1998). methods of service delivery in determining the methods of service delivery, the study showed that lusaka city council and luanshya municipal council employed various methods of service delivery: the use of local government enterprise, contracting out, franchise, volunteers, self-help groups and in-house provision. on the other hand, chisamba and luangwa town councils employed in-house provision, supplemented by local government enterprise and the use of volunteers and self-help groups. the methods of service delivery employed have proved to be very effective in the case of chisamba and luangwa, owing to the small population in these areas. even though lusaka and luanshya have tried to employ a number of alternative methods of service delivery, the effectiveness of these methods is still below residents’ service expectations. this is in part due to the growth of zambia’s population, which has outpaced local authorities’ capacity for service delivery in terms of management, infrastructure and financing. the problem of inadequate service delivery has been compounded by the growing number of residents living in informal settlements, which are characterised by inadequate basic services such as decent housing, clean water, sanitation, refuse collection and roads. technical, financial and administrative effects of equalisation funds in terms of the machinery necessary for service provision, lusaka and luanshya councils have acquired most of the service equipment needed for road maintenance and construction as well as for street light assembly and maintenance. however, all the selected councils have a maintenance schedule that they do not adhere to. with the introduction of equalisation funds, estimates of revenue and expenditure for local authorities have been increasing. the study showed that between 2016 and 2017, lusaka city council increased its budget by 1% and by 7% in 2018, whilst chisamba increased its budget by 8% between 2016 and 2017, with a 46% increase in 2018. similarly, luangwa increased its budget by 8% between 2016 and 2017 with another 8% in 2018. on the contrary, luanshya reduced its budget by 49% between 2016 and 2017. the council then increased its budget by 85% in 2018. the study revealed that revenue collection by the councils is too low and still remains a challenge. most service users do not pay charges or levies for the services they receive from the council or their agent. when respondents were asked who should bear the cost of council services, 62.4% reported that the local authority should finance its operation and cost of service provision, whilst 37.6% of the respondents said that the users of council services should bear the cost of service provision. what the residents do not know is that service provision depends on the presence of effective demand and the willingness and patriotism of individuals to pay taxes. the study results are similar to the findings of the policy monitoring and research centre (2019) on revenue mobilisation by local authorities. it has been argued that zambia has an adequate legal framework governing domestic resource mobilisation. however, raising sufficient revenue is one of the most intractable problems facing most local authorities, and the majority of councils are unable to meet their statutory functions and obligations. although local authorities have vast powers to raise and generate their own revenues, few are able to take advantage of this provision because of the fact that their resource base is too small to sustain their operations. as a result, local authorities have accumulated crushing burdens of debt or arrears and are now faced with financial crises. similar results were obtained in a survey in tanzania and uganda, which indicated that citizens have a general appreciation of the necessity of taxation to support local service provision, but chose non-compliance because of a lack of confidence in the local government. based on survey data from 2003 to 2006, fjeldstad et al. (2010) found that people were much more positive towards the tax system in 2006 compared to 3 years earlier. this was partly because of the improvements in service delivery, particularly education, health and law and order, and partly because of the reforms that led to less oppressive revenue collection. administratively, the study showed that councils are now managed by qualified manpower. generally, all directors and heads of departments in all selected councils have acquired degrees, including middle managers. conclusion the study concludes that the selected local authorities do not adhere to the prescribed guidelines for the utilisation of equalisation funds. generally, local authorities have been spending a large proportion of the equalisation funds on personal emoluments and councillors’ allowances, leaving little or nothing for capital improvements. this is partly because of the recent mass recruitment of council employees by the local government service commission in the period 2016–2018 and an increase in salaries and other conditions of service for council employees. in determining the methods of service delivery, this study has shown that lusaka city council and luanshya municipal council employed various methods of service delivery: – the use of local government enterprise, contracting out, franchise, volunteers, self-help groups and in-house provision. on the other hand, chisamba and luangwa town councils employed in-house provision, supplemented by local government enterprise and the use of volunteers and self-help groups. the employed methods of service delivery have proved to be very effective in the case of chisamba and luangwa owing to the small population in these areas. even though lusaka and luanshya have tried to employ a number of alternative methods of service delivery, the effectiveness of these methods is still below residents’ service expectations. the study has revealed that with the introduction of equalisation funds, estimates of revenue and expenditure for local authorities have been rising steadily; whilst councils have been increasing their expenditure, their fiscal effort has been declining, with the exception of lusaka. this has been compounded by weak collection efficiency, as most service users do not pay charges to the council. through this analysis, the paper has established the underlying causes of inadequate service delivery by local authorities in zambia. it has provided relevant information on the expenditure composition of local authorities vis-à-vis the utilisation of equalisation transfers. local authorities have not been adhering to the guidelines on utilisation of equalisation funds as espoused by the central government. the research has identified inherent inadequacies in service delivery models used by local authorities in zambia and the functional assignment of expenditure and revenue by the central government. arising from these inadequacies, the study recommends that the central government and local authorities redesign the current revenue structure and strengthen financial management. in addition, local authorities should increase their reliance on their own revenue with meaningful discretion. this will strengthen the link between benefits and costs of local services, making local officials more accountable to taxpayers and more fiscally responsible. recommendations arising from the service inadequacies, the following recommendations are given to make councils functionally and financially vibrant: the central government and local authorities should redesign the current revenue structure and strengthen finance management. local authorities should enhance their collection efficiency and link collected revenue with expenditure. local authorities should increase their reliance on their own revenue with meaningful discretion. this will strengthen the link between benefits and costs of local services, making local officials more accountable to taxpayers and more fiscally responsible. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions h.c. conceptualised the research study and contributed to data collection, analysis and drafting of the article. e.k. contributed to the drafting of data collection instruments, analysis of data and structuring of the article. e.n. contributed to the drafting of the data collection instruments and drafting of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. ethical consideration informed consent was obtained from respondents in order to ensure that all respondents participated freely and voluntarily. confidentiality was guaranteed before embarking on data collection from respondents. furthermore, the respondents were free to withdraw from the study if they felt uncomfortable. ethical concerns were taken into consideration in the study. ethical approval was sought from the university of lusaka research ethics clearance committee (unilusrec). the study received unilusrec approval number iorg0010092-002. references bell, g., 2011, ‘local government size and efficiency in capital-intensive services: what evidence is there of economies of scale?’, in s. lago-peñas & j. martinez vazquez (eds.), the challenge of local government size, pp. 148–170, edward elgar, cheltenham. bird, r.m. & vaillancourt, f., 1998, fiscal decentralization in developing countries, cambridge university press, cambridge. boex, j., 2009, fiscal decentralisation and intergovernmental finance reform as an international development strategy, idg working 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sciences, fort hare university, alice, south africa citation ruzungunde, v.s. & zhou, s., 2021, ‘attitudes towards migrant workers in south africa: a critical discourse analysis’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a36. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.36 review article attitudes towards migrant workers in south africa: a critical discourse analysis vongai s. ruzungunde, sindiso zhou received: 15 apr. 2021; accepted: 08 oct. 2021; published: 10 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the influx of migrants from neighbouring countries has contributed to diversity in south africa. this has caused on-going clashes between local residents and migrants. this article explores the role of discourse towards enabling a cohesive society. there has been much focus on migrants working in south africa over the 2020 december festive season as many faced challenges in travelling to their respective countries because of the covid-19 pandemic. this limelight exposed the underlying discrimination towards migrants in south africa remain regardless of the south african progressive constitution that values and respects individuals as well as protecting them from discrimination. aim: this article adopts threat theory and uses critical discourse analysis to highlight the existing and continued discrimination towards migrant workers. the article exposes the causes of social inequalities, which can assist the government in decision-making towards reducing the inequality gap in service delivery. setting: public viewer comments on the news updates on migrants’ travel that were posted on the national news websites over the 2020 festive season were analysed. methods: critical discourse analysis (cda) was employed as a method of analysis in this article. results and conclusion: the article intends to add to the existing body of knowledge and to also inform local government towards canvasing agenda that incorporate all human rights and enable a cohesive society by considering the role of discourse as an enabler of the problems experienced in societies. the results show that discourse contributes to negative attitudes, hate speech, discrimination and stereotyping towards migrants in south africa. keywords: migrant workers; critical discourse analysis; diversity; attitudes; labour migration. introduction south africa (sa) is often referred to as a rainbow nation because of its diverse nature. diversity in sa can be witnessed through the different ethnic groups and different official languages that the nation has embraced. in south africa, four major ethnic groups, namely the sesotho-setswana, the nguni (which consists of zulu, xhosa, ndebele and swazi), the venda and the shangaan-tsonga group, make up the majority of the black population (south africa’s diverse culture artistic and linguistic heritage 2020). the south african population also comprises the white population with the majority (60%) being afrikaans speaking and the remaining 40% being english speakers (south africa’s diverse culture artistic and linguistic heritage 2020). the south african population also comprises mixed-races, who have a mixed lineage. there are 11 official languages in south africa namely english, afrikaans, ndebele, sepedi or northern sotho, xhosa, venda, tswana, zulu, southern sotho, swazi or siswati and tsonga (south africa’s diverse culture artistic and linguistic heritage 2020). to compound the diversity challenge, sa has embraced different nationalities within its boundaries as evidenced by the migration of many individuals mostly from the neighbouring countries such as zimbabwe, mozambique, malawi, zambia and so on, in pursuit of better opportunities for economic advancement (ilo report 2019). according to mukumbang, ambe and adebiyi (2020), an estimated 2 million foreign-born migrants of working age (15–64) were living in sa in 2017, representing 5.3% of the south african labour force, and to date, the foreign-born migrant population in sa is estimated to be around 4.2 million (garba 2020). for this article, focus is on the diverse nature of sa in relation to migrants. south africa is an attractive destination for people escaping their home countries in the pursuit of a more dignifying and humane survival because of its commitment towards upholding human rights and the rights of foreign migrants. the south african economy is one of the most advanced economies in africa and it has made a notable contribution with regard to the influx of migrants from other countries. the extraordinary flow of migrants into sa has put the south african government in a challenging position with regard to its stand to comply with its pledge towards upholding human rights, whilst at the same time delivering its promise to uplift the socioeconomic welfare of its citizens. the south african government is also faced with challenges in trying to balance delivery of its promises towards its own citizens as the nation still fights in reducing socio-economic gaps created through apartheid, such as racial discrimination (garba 2020). regardless of the political will and efforts by the government to accommodate migrants in sa, the increasing economic and financial hardships in the country have led to the government implementing and often adjusting laws that impact negatively on the lives of foreign-born migrants in multiple ways (mukumbang et al. 2020). the 2030 agenda for sustainable development of the international labour organisation (ilo 2019) acknowledges the positive impact of migrants towards inclusive growth and sustainable development and also places focus on achieving decent work as one of its goals. the objectives to be achieved under the decent work goals include: (1) empowering migrants and societies to realise full inclusion and social cohesion, (2) minimise the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin and (3) facilitate fair and ethical recruitment and safeguard conditions that ensure decent work. of significance to the ilo’s decent work and fair migration agendas is also the target 8:8 ‘protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants and those in precarious employment’. a report by the world bank (2018) revealed that migrants had a positive impact on jobs and wages in sa. the report highlighted that migrants are highly entrepreneurial, with most being self-employed, which carries a positive effect on the economy as their entrepreneurship, if successful, also provides multiplier effects in the south african economy. according to the world bank report (2018), migrants and locals can hold jobs that complement each other instead of competing. by exploring the role of discourse in enabling negative attitudes, this study intends to contribute towards local governance by highlighting the role discourse can play in administration and policy implementation towards changing the current narrative. the government needs to highlight the job opportunities that exist and discredit myths and participate in discourse and policymaking that mirrors a more complex reality than the ‘theft of local jobs’ by migrants and refugees. the social and economic inequalities that exist within the sa economy coupled with issues such as institutionalised racial discrimination pose challenges for foreign migrants as the local citizens’ frustrations can be channelled towards them regardless of the government’s efforts to uphold human rights for both locals and foreigners (mukumbang et al. 2020). economic frustration, joblessness and competition over scarce resources are foundations often used to create a setting that can give rise to anti-migrant sentiments and attitudes. many south african workers seem to consider foreign co-workers to be responsible for low wages and poor working conditions as supported by many managers’ claims that foreigners are willing to work hard at low costs (di paola 2013; the new humanitarian 2020). in some cases, south african nationals often ascribe the economic frustrations, joblessness and the competition over scarce resources in sa as the foreign migrants’ responsibility (the new humanitarian 2020). this breeds negative sentiments towards foreign migrants from the south african nationals. as such, foreign migrants may be subject to prejudice, discrimination and unfair experiences regardless of the south african government’s efforts to uphold human rights across all levels (garba 2020). many studies have focused on assessing attitudes towards migrants in sa through different dimensions including focusing on the four dimensions of attitudes towards foreigners based on social tolerance, interpersonal trust, employment preference and attitudes towards migrants. some of these findings (cozien 2015; garba 2020; schippers 2015) revealed intolerance from south africans towards foreigners, growing levels of distrust amongst south africans towards foreigners. conversely, some findings also revealed the shift in the mindset of some south africans from previously held mentality that employment preference is to be awarded to south african citizens over foreigners as more individuals are becoming either neutral or dismissive about the awarding of preference. some of the studies (masuku 2020) also revealed that south africans were fostering positive attitudes towards migration although the greatest portion of respondents agreed that foreigners are to be allowed into sa on the condition that certain criteria are met. evident in all the studies, are the negative attitudes held towards migrants. whilst many studies have been conducted on attitudes towards migrants, studies that focus on the role of discourse in perpetuating these attitudes are rare. this article addresses the identified gap by exploring the role of discourse in the continuous enactment of negative attitudes and how it can be used to enable social cohesion. as a result of the lockdown restrictions implemented following the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic outbreak in early 2020, the december 2020 holidays were met with commotion as people travelled to their respective homes after a long time without spending time with their loved ones and families. the easing of these restrictions to accommodate travel brought much limelight on migrants as they travelled to their respective homes (places of origin) for the festive season and the border posts were abnormally congested. the discussions around the congestion and suffering experienced during this period brought to light subtle issues that still exist in terms of migrants and local citizens’ relations. this article contributes to the existing body of knowledge in local governance in understanding the role of discourse in the continued tensions in relations with and sentiments towards migrant workers by south african nationals. the article also carries a significant contribution for local government administration as it focuses on exposing some of the root causes of social inequalities, which can aid the government in making more informed decisions in the fight to narrow the inequality gap in service delivery across all spheres. definition of key terms migrant: [a]n umbrella term, not defined under international law, reflecting the common lay understanding of a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, for a variety of reasons. (international organization for migration 2019:132) methodology critical discourse analysis (cda) was employed as a method of analysis in this article. the cda approach has its base on language and text being influencers of how values and perceptions are enacted and reproduced in people (van dijk 2006). the cda approach concentrates on analysing the veiled structural connections of supremacy, discrimination, power and control as revealed in language (van dijk 2006). it preserves the outlooks that society contributes significantly in the way language, text and communication are moulded, designed and understood and how these impact values, ethics, morals, views and perceptions of different concepts. the cda approach intends to make discourse more noticeable and translucent within societies as it is regarded as a blurred object of power. lexical analysis, one of fairclough’s (1995) methods of analysis was used to analyse public viewers’ comments on the news headlines that were broadcasted focusing on migrant travel during the festive season of december 2020. fairclough’s (1995) model for cda consists of three processes, which are inter-related and linked to three inter-related dimensions of cda, namely the object of analysis, the process on which the object is produced and the socio-historical conditions, which govern the processes. in lexical analysis, text is analysed with focus on description, processing is also analysed with focus on interpretation and lastly there is also social analysis focusing on explanation. this approach enables focus to be placed on the signifiers that make up the text, the specific linguistic selections. this approach acknowledges that the choice of text or utterances is tied to the conditions of possibility of that utterance. texts are instantiations of socially regulated discourses and the processes of production and reception are socially constrained. the news articles used in this paper were obtained online on one of the main and official websites of the public broadcaster, south african broadcasting corporation news, which provides news from within and across the world to the south african nation. focus was on the news articles that were published during the festive season mainly between 23 and 27 december 2020 when the issues at the different border posts in particular, the beitbridge border post. in this regard, the sampling was purposive. the news website and its official facebook page are public platforms, which allow for viewers to publicly express themselves on any issue published on the page. it allows for some validity in analysing as actual views can be observed from the interactions amongst viewers and viewer comments on the platform. history of migration the migration of people from southern african countries into sa dates back to the 1800s (consortium for refugees and migrants in sa 2008). it can be noticed that the migration of black migrants has been a part of the south african urban and rural areas for over a century (peberdy n.d.). foreign migrants have lived in sa as contract workers, documented and undocumented migrants, contributing to the construction of the south african economy into one of the strongest in the region (mukumbang et al. 2020). most migrants have functioned as circular migrants retaining homes and families in their countries of citizenship, with others having established other family ties in sa too (peberdy n.d.). labour migration is one of the main influencers of migration into sa. the industrial development in sa and its strong economic position in the continent are the magnets attracting high volumes of migration for both skilled and unskilled labour migrants from within the region and across the globe, in pursuit of work opportunities in the mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries (office of the united nations high commissioner for refugees, global trends 2013). south africa is also considered to be the easy mediator and stepping stone for migration to europe and america, hence most foreign migrants will opt to relocate to sa first en route to countries abroad. according to a report by the office of the united nations high commissioner for refugees, global trends (2013), over 4 million migrants (excluding irregular migrants) were recorded in southern africa in the year 2013, with sa holding the largest number of migrants (2.4 million including 1.5 million from zimbabwe) within its borders. according to the african centre for migration and society (2020), a legal migrant who possesses the same qualifications, age, gender and belonging to the same ‘population group’ and residing in the same place as a south african citizen, has a higher prospect of being employed than a south african. as such, within most communities in sa where migrants reside and work, the conception held is that foreigners deprive south africans of employment and other business opportunities and therefore pose a strain on the limited social services and amenities (masuku 2020). these conceptions held in turn constitute the main drivers of xenophobia and other related experiences of foreign migrants in sa (choane, shulika & mthombeni 2011; the new humanitarian 2020). migrants issues documentation some of the benefits awarded to foreign migrants include the right to study, work (where certain skills are required), access to medical services within sa. these benefits may have contributed to the influx of migrants into the republic of south africa. the large number of entries into the republic make it difficult for the government to regularise the national asylum system (mukumbang et al. 2020). other challenges such as administrative inefficiency and corruption added on to the mounting pressures in trying to deal with the volume of migrants, results in backlogs in processing and adjudication of documents, leaving some to stay without documentation or be forced to search for survival as undocumented migrants (masuku 2020). exploitation and abuse many migrants in sa find themselves undocumented and residing illegally as they flee their countries in pursuit of better living conditions in sa. as a result of the large numbers of migrants entering sa, the government finds it difficult to match up the long queues and filing in paperwork for the documentation of all migrants (mukumbang et al. 2020). out of desperation, most find themselves looking for employment without proper documentation. according to di paola (2013), it has become a norm amongst employers that foreign migrants work hard for less and as such they become vulnerable to exploitation and abuse working below the minimum wage out of desperation. this can also be evidenced in the domestic worker industry. a report by the ilo (2013) showed that many of the domestic workers in sa homes were migrants and mostly undocumented migrants, which increases their exposure to exploitation, abuse and poor working conditions. many migrant workers are found in low and semi-skilled positions, which are often physically demanding and involve dangerous working conditions in terms of non-respect of minimum wages, withholding of wages, illegal deduction of fees and costs from migrant workers’ wages, excessive working hours, insufficient lunch breaks, daily, weekly and holidays’ rest periods, no payment of overtime and annual leave, withholding of passports and other identity documents, unjustified demands to carry out tasks other than those specified in the contract and unjustified terminations (ilo 2019). unequal access to services the social support structure for migrants in sa is relatively weak as compared with the native nationals (business insider south africa 2020). the inequalities in social support structures were further revealed in the addressing of covid-19 pandemic containment measures. different economic and hunger alleviation measures were implemented in an effort to address some of the socio-economic hardship that the covid-19 pandemic has left on the nation. most foreign migrants were not included in the relief grants offered by the government yet they are also affected. most of these businesses are owned by asylum-seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants (mukumbang et al. 2020). although their operations are equally affected by the covid-19 crisis, they are not considered for the business relief fund as they are automatically excluded based on the qualification criteria, which emphasises that businesses must be 100% south african owned, with at least 70% of employees being south africans and also recipients must be tax compliant (mukumbang et al. 2020). according to business insider south africa (2020), some migrants employed in the formal sector and who were paying the necessary taxes before lockdown measures were imposed, did not receive their uif (unemployment insurance fund) payments whilst the south african workers received their uif, with the argument being that the system used by the uif to process payments does not recognise foreign passport numbers. xenophobia and negative social attitudes the migration process has a bearing on both the native and the migrant population. according to schippers (2015), the effects of the migration process can be seen in the different views and attitudes held by the native population towards the migrants and these can be negative or positive. negative attitudes towards foreigners have been nurtured across the world where the rise of xenophobia directed towards migrants has been one of the more unambiguous displays (carter 2010; schippers 2015). according to adam and moodley (2013), 62 individuals (41 migrants from around africa and 21 sa nationals mistaken for foreigners) were killed by mob groups across sa. may 2008 marked significant anti-migrant violence in sa according to the mail & guardian (2008) as cited by schippers (2015). violence against foreigners continued in sa as evidenced by the 2013 occurrence in the zamdela township in sasolburg (adam & moodley 2013). there were protests initiated after residents displayed their dissatisfaction with regard to a proposed merger between two municipalities by looting foreign-owned shops. as cited by schippers (2015), the mail & guardian (2008) contended that the violence enacted on foreigners in sa was a response to the perceptions held by the south african nationals that foreigners take away their job opportunities. a report by the international organization for migration (2009) on the 2008 xenophobic attacks stated that the use of violence against foreigners was a means used by south african citizens to reduce their competition for resources by sending foreigners away from their country. a recent example of attacks against foreigners was witnessed in july 2020 when sa truck drivers protested against the employment of foreign nationals, shutting down roads and setting trucks on fire resulting in fatalities in the process (sabc news 07 july 2020a). the reason south africans foster xenophobic and negative sentiments towards foreigners has gathered much attention since the violence in 2008. integrated threat theory integrated threat theory proposed by stephan and stephan (2000) has its basis on explaining the aspects of alleged threat that can result in prejudice between social groups. this theory is applicable to any social group that may feel susceptible to mistreatment in one way or the other by another group in the same space. the integrated threat theory deals with perceived threat not actual threat (stephan & stephan 2000). perceived threat involves any threat that the members of a group can assume or believe that they can encounter from the other group (the threat) regardless of the existence or non-existence of those threats. an example relevant to this article would be the feeling held by local south african citizens that migrants from other countries take their jobs, as evidenced by the attack on foreign truck drivers in july 2020 (sabc news 07 july 2020a). these perceptions held against the group perceived as a threat can result in prejudice amongst groups, which is often manifested in stereotypes and negative attitudes held towards migrants in this case. the integrated threat theory envisages that undesirable pre-set verdicts about another group can result in prejudice and this prediction is based on research that established links between higher levels of prejudice towards a stereotyped group and the beliefs held in negatively rated stereotypical traits (stephan, ybarra & morrison 2009). discussion and analysis news on migrant travel made headlines over the 2020 festive season. much news revolved around the challenges faced at the main border posts, as travellers found themselves stranded in long queues, congestion at the borders and roads leading to the borders. much focus was on the beitbridge border post which is one of the main border posts that link sa with other countries and is used for economic travel purposes and leisure for zimbabwean residents and those travelling to malawi, zambia and democratic republic of congo. the headlines trending on the news included ‘calls for intervention at the beitbridge border as several die in congestion’ (sabc news 26 december 2020d), ‘cross border travel: thousands stuck at beitbridge waiting to cross into sa’ (sabc news 06 january 2021), ‘truck drivers frustrated as they remain stuck at the border’ (sabc news 25 december 2020c), ‘four truck drivers have died at beitbridge border post’ (enca news 24 december 2020). on the different news headlines posted on facebook on south african broadcast news pages and videos of the proceedings at the border post, viewers would express their views with regard to the situation in the comments section. it is these comments that were analysed for this article employing richardson’s (2007) different methods of analysing newspapers as applicable. richardson (2007) proposed different ways of analysing text that vary from syntax, modality and transitivity analysis (these place emphasis on sentences and the construction of propositions in sentence structuring), lexical analysis (analyses words with emphasis on the structuring of propositions) (see table 1). table 1: viewer comments on migrants situation in south africa. analysis of public viewer comments on the news headlines negative-other representation and positive-other representation the hate against my foreign brothers is real, death could have been avoided by all means. some of your comments are unnecessary. i know some are bad, but we can’t paint all with the same brush. i have met good foreign people. (sabc news 2020a) the given statement was a comment by one of the viewers after observing most of the comments made by others in respect of the situation faced by migrants at the border post. this comment suggests that most of the comments carry negative attitudes towards migrants hence saying ‘the hate against my foreign brothers is real’. acknowledging that ‘some are bad’ presupposes the negative-other representation is true as it suggests that migrants are associated with doing bad and ‘we can’t paint them all with the same brush’ presupposes that although they are associated with bad, but if room is given, a few good can be picked from ‘them’, which refers back to uniformity and stereotyping. the given statement also demonstrates foregrounding, which focuses on making conclusions of a person based on what has been put on the foreground: they were supposed to stay in their own country, when we said they overpopulated our south africa they said something about hatred! we don’t care! (sabc news 2020b) van dijk’s ideological square concept as explained by richardson (2007) can be observed in the given statement. positive self-representation and negative-other representation are characteristics of the ideological square. outsiders are represented in a negative way whereas insiders are portrayed in positive way. the given statement shows emphasis on negative characteristics towards migrants as sentiments are echoed, which show that migrants are overpopulating sa and if ‘they’ stay in ‘their countries’ then sa would not be overpopulated. in addition, the use of words such as ‘they’ ‘our’ ‘we’ highlights how migrants are associated with a certain social status or group, which is different from the one for south africans as they refer themselves as ‘we’ and migrants as ‘them’. according to blommaert (2005) in richardson (2007), the use of such terminology signals intended social meanings. foregrounding ‘they deserve what they are facing’ (sabc news 2020c) foregrounding can also be observed in this statement. migrants are viewed in negative light and as such, there is no empathy towards the situation that they are facing and conclusions and judgements are made in negative view. this highlights the social values held by some with regard to migrants. naming and referencing perhaps they will learn to remain in their own countries and build conducive environment to strengthen african economy. (sabc news 2020a) the naming and referencing using terms such as ‘they’ ‘their’ highlights that migrants are viewed in uniformity and suggests a stereotype associated with migrants. the statement also presupposes that the migrants deserve the suffering experienced at the border and this will make them to stay in their own country and focus instead on developing their home country instead of thinking about returning to sa, which signals some relief for south african citizens. ‘fact is people are dying at the border and it’s sad. we all deserve to live’ (sabc news 2020c) the referencing used in this sentence suggests oneness. it echoes the sentiments of one who understands that whether migrant or non-migrant, ‘we’ all deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity and no one should suffer because of their nationality: lesson learnt, stay in your own country to avoid such. (sabc news 2020a) this comment was made by one individual following the news that many were dying at the border because of congestion, excessive heat and no sanitation and resources. it can be observed from the comment that the statement carries negative attitudes towards migrants as the viewer who made the comment strongly believes that the migrants dying at the border are learning their lesson by undergoing the unsettling conditions faced at the border during the festive season, which will make them aware that they should not come into sa. the statement presupposes that the migrants deserve what they are experiencing and maybe by going through it they will learn to stay in their countries and not return to sa. there was unrest on the comment section as it also became a war zone with some migrants responding and fighting back on some of the comments. in response to the given statement, one viewer commented ‘we are not going anywhere. death is everywhere’ the statement in the response ‘we’ suggests that the respondent is a migrant as they responded in counter attack to a comment that suggested that migrants should return to their home countries. ‘we can’t continue to take care of foreigners. we are also tired and have enough problems. they must not come back’ ‘why can’t they boost their own economy instead of painting other people’s houses when yours is a mess’ (sabc news 2020c) to which others responded asking if they had physically taken care of a foreigner. this statement and counter statements presupposes that local south african citizens view migrants as burdening their economy in line with some literature (garba 2020; masuku 2020), which highlights that local citizens negatively assume that migrants are responsible for unemployment and shortage of resources in sa. some migrants commented on the facebook platform that they were paying taxes and boosting the economy of sa and other local south african citizens responded back saying they should boost their economy instead. multimodal analysis on the sabc news webpage on the facebook platform, there is also an option to react with an emoji-image to any news posted. these images range from faces showing happiness, laughing face, a like button, angry face (a person chooses to react with the image that best describes his or her feelings to the post). with regard to the news posted about the challenges encountered by migrants in travel, there are a number of viewers who reacted with a laughing image to the post. according to kress and van leeuwen (2001)’s analysis of images under the multimodal critical discourse analysis (mcda), discourse can also be communicated through images, which are often by passed in our everyday lives but carry messages (dicks 2019). as can be observed in this case, a person reacting with a laughing image to a story portraying suffering can be interpreted as having no remorse and in this case, hints on elements of hate existing towards migrants. some of the migrant travellers who were interviewed by the sabc news, 26 december 2020d expressed their frustrations regarding the economic situation in their home country and emphasised that they would rather endure the long queues and congestion as they pursue better living conditions. in news broadcasted by the newzroom afrika, 06 january 2021, the footage revealed people in long queues, other sitting down showing signs of fatigue and others sweating. a few who were interviewed expressed their concerns with the lack of adherence to social distancing or any of the measures implemented to fight the covid-19 pandemic. others raised frustrations regarding the lack of more personnel to assist at the border posts as the government knew that people would be travelling. the sabc news (2020d) had an interview with the parliamentary portfolio committee on 25 december 2020. the representative highlighted that the committee had taken measures to make the situation better, such as the local municipality to provide sanitation and water at the border points and the department of home affairs also increased personnel at customs and also proposals for a one stop shop implementation in the 2021 calendar. the views of political leaders on the issues around migrants in sa were also sought to enhance a wide base of information. in an online iol news (2020) article with the headline ‘xenophobic south africans can’t champion #blacklivesmatter-malema’ julius malema the leader of the economic freedom fighters (eff) political party expressed his concerns over some south africans’ support of the #blacklivesmatter global movement whilst remaining silent on the attack of foreigners: whilst you kill zimbabweans, mozambicans, nigerians and somalians here in south africa and you call them “makwerekwere” and all sorts of names, today you are holding a placard saying #blacklivesmatter? you supported the killing of your fellow brothers and sisters, … that is narrow nationalism. (iol news 2020) the given statement made by the eff leader reveals some of the negative actions of local south african citizens towards migrants. in the statement, the eff leader is clearly against the attacks and discrimination towards foreign nationals by local south african citizens. ‘we are one family. borders were imposed on us’ in this statement, it can be observed that the political leader is advocating for oneness and unity. with their influence, political leaders can play a major role to advocate for change in perceptions and hate towards foreign nationals. findings the results reveal that discourse does contribute to the continued evidence of negative attitudes manifested in hate speech, discrimination and stereotyping in many individuals towards migrants in sa. the echoing of these sentiments on a public platform can be leeway to the reproduction, reinforcement of such attitudes to others through these open platforms. the results show that many of south africans believe that their economy is being weighed down by foreigners and if they were to return to their countries, then things would be better for them. these findings confirm with the works of mukumbang et al. (2020) and schippers (2015). major themes emerging from the results through discourse were negative attitudes and stereotyping. negative attitudes based on the comments from the comment section of the news report on facebook, it was observed that many individuals felt that the migrants deserved the harsh conditions that they were facing at their border posts as a result of congestion and long queues at the border posts. others felt that the borders were supposed to be opened for the migrants to go to their countries, and then closed and not be opened to to allow them to return back, which would be a relief to the citizens of south africa stereotyping stereotyping was echoed in most comments as migrants were grouped into a certain class different from that of local citizens in their address. migrants were stereotyped as poor and a threat to locals’ jobs. the negative attitude towards migrants can be observed in the hate speech, the negative-other representations and discrimination. however, there were others who showed respect for humanity regardless of nationality, who sympathised with the situation experienced at the border and felt that no human being deserved to experience such challenges and frustrations. these comments that showed empathy were met with negative reproach in some aspects. other individuals expressed their awareness of socioeconomic realities by highlighting how much migrants contributed towards the socioeconomic development of the nation hence the need to unite and stand as one. they also emphasised on how migrants also benefit the economy and hence are not taking from the economy. some of the comments between migrants and sa native nationals resembled a war zone as harsh words were exchanged and this revealed the differences that still exist between the two groups, echoing the views of garba (2020) and masuku (2020). conclusion negative attitudes and hate towards migrants are still evident in sa and discourse plays a role in their continued existence. although the government has amended their policies to promote locals first through affirmative action and employment equity acts, beliefs are still held amongst individuals that migrants are the reason behind unemployment and scarcity of resources in sa. there is need for the government and policymakers to raise awareness with regard to such issues through their policy implementations and work policies on the clear criteria that result in employment of migrants in the absence of local qualified personnel. awareness should also be raised about human rights and the rights to humanity, which everyone should understand and respect. as discourse plays a role in the enactment or reproduction of these attitudes, using the platforms that the majority familiarise with to raise this awareness on oneness, unity and respect for humanity can be one way to dispel negative perceptions and attitudes held in the minds of people one step at a time. this will in turn allow for a smooth flow in implementation of local government policies and benefit from the diverse opportunities presented by locals and migrants, as issues are addressed in a holistic manner. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.s.r. contributed towards the conceptualisation of the article, research methodology, formal analysis and the writing of the original draft s.z. contributed towards the conceptualisation, supervision and writing-review and editing of the article. funding information this article did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data will be available on the link provided from the journal publishers. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or 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mahwah, nj. the world bank, 2018, new study finds immigrants in south africa generate jobs for locals, viewed 26 february 2021, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/publication/new-study-finds-immigrants-in-south-africa-generate-jobs-for-locals. van dijk, t.a., 2006, principles of critical discourse analysis, university of amsterdam, amsterdam. abstract introduction methods conceptual and theoretical framework review findings the capable state implications and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) thozamile r. mle department of public administration, university of fort hare, bhisho, south africa xolisile g. ngumbela centre for transdisciplinary studies, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation mle, t.r. & ngumbela, x.g., 2020, ‘building a capable state through proper human resource management’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a15. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.15 review article building a capable state through proper human resource management thozamile r. mle, xolisile g. ngumbela received: 26 apr. 2020; accepted: 03 oct. 2020; published: 07 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article examines the possibility of building a capable state within an appropriate ethical framework and the required human capital spectrum available to a government. south africa currently faces shortcomings in capability and systemic stasis because of weak political management. the existing research has pointed out the state’s capacity deficit as a major factor that undermines the social and economic progress of south africa. aim: the aim of this article was to look at government’s capability of building a capable, ethical and developmental state which is a crucial facilitator for the successful execution of government’s goals of achieving the targets of the 2030 national development plan. a developmental state that is going to develop the economy, create jobs and improve the conditions of society standard of living through proper human resource management. methods: as the main tool for doing this research, this article relied heavily on secondary qualitative and quantitative data analysis. secondary analysis is a study technique that uses pre-existing quantitative data or pre-existing qualitative research data to analyse or validate previous studies on new issues. results: the findings point that capacity building is crucial. fixing political control at the core should be the starting point. conclusion: there seems to be a complete failure of a build-up towards a capable state in south africa as the public service shows unevenness with local, provincial and national government capability challenges. a capable state can exist only when an affordable, effective and development-orientated public service can only grow and have a transformative function in order to correct past failures, where government is making drastic changes, enhance and have the requisite effect on society on its bad results. keywords: efficiency; effectivity; economically; skills and professionalism; accountability; responsibility efficiency. introduction the parliament of the republic of south africa (1994) white paper stated that south africa inherited a public service whose role in bringing about economic and social justice is critical but the capacity to do so is severely constrained by obsolete and inappropriate human resource management practices. consequently, transforming the way human resources were managed was the catalyst for the public service’s transformation itself. a professional and impartial public service that is representative of all sections of society was essential for an effective government and for achieving the democratic, economic and social goals of south africa. according to the public service and administration department, turning the public service into an instrument capable of fulfilling its role in bringing about the new south africa depends on many things, but mainly on the dedication and effectiveness of its employees, which in turn depend on how those employees are handled. however, the national development plan (ndp) notes that capacity inequality is one of the main challenges in building a capable and developmental state. this results in inconsistent performance in local, provincial and national governments. in historically disadvantaged countries, weaknesses in capacity and performance are most serious zones. yet, it is here that state action is most needed to improve the quality of life for people. the ethos of this article will be to look at the building of a capable state through the capacity of the public service to properly manage human resources and set out a comprehensive framework for change, in line with those constitutional principles. the transformation agenda should be informed by a quest to improve service delivery and close the gap of inequality as identified in the white paper and advanced through a closer look at policy initiatives that should guide the building of a properly capable state through proper management of human resources. one such key area is the management of local government’s human resources and the developmental nature. methods the study relied heavily on the secondary qualitative and quantitative data analysis as the main method for doing this research. secondary analysis is ‘a research strategy that uses pre-existing quantitative data or pre-existing qualitative research data to investigate new questions or to verify previous studies’ (heaton 2004:16). consequently, as a source of raw and processed data, various sources of secondary data available on the web pages of national and international organisations, governmental organisations and non-governmental organisations dealing with food and nutritional security were used. besides this, electronic and non-electronic, published and unpublished periodicals, books, reports, conference proceedings and newspapers were also used. the researcher was expected to review the literature on the subject in order to better understand the issue of capable state and how it influenced service delivery in south africa. most of the literature was collected from publications in the journal relating to the state of being willing. many of these journals referred to the developmental state survey, which then led the researcher to the website of the public service and administration department and the numerous publications it has on improved quality of service delivery. many of these articles referred to other journals, which we found in a web search afterwards. the literature review looked at and critically evaluated the existing works relevant to this subject. the more you study a subject, the better you can understand it, and thus can gain insight into the issue (leedy 1989). the literature review allowed the researcher to explore how views of the developmental state have changed over the past few years. as this emerges as a central issue in addressing the state’s capacity towards the fourth industrial revolution, there is an increasing body of literature on the subject. three semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with developmental state experts to develop a broader perspective on quality service delivery capability systems. each of these interviews was purposely selected on the basis of the concerned person’s area of expertise. conceptual and theoretical framework the theoretical framework serves as the structure and support for the study justification, the description of the issue, intention, significance and research questions. the theoretical structure provides the literature review, methodology and analysis with a grounding basis or anchor (grant & azadeh 2014:12). bureaucratic theory in the case of this analysis serves as an adequate tool to build on the analysis. this study is anchored on the theory of bureaucratic management that generally claims to increase the productivity of a company. max weber, a german sociologist, concluded that bureaucracy was the most effective and rational model under which private companies and government offices could function. the theories of bureaucracy inspired generations of business executives and politicians well into the 20th century. although weber’s theory prioritises performance, leaders do not automatically enforce best practice. while efficiency is prioritised by weber’s theory, it is not inherently the best practice for leaders to enforce. today, weber was unlike other leaders in the workplace. his management theory, also called bureaucratic theory, stressed on strict rules and a strong distribution of control. he should have scolded today’s executives for their leadership style, most of whom are open to fresh ideas and flexible work arrangements. ‘precision, speed, unambiguity, file information, consistency, flexibility, cohesion, strict subordination, friction and material reduction and personal costs are raised to the optimum point in purely bureaucratic administration’, weber wrote. weber concluded that the most effective way to set up and run an enterprise was by bureaucracy, and that it was absolutely important for larger organisations to achieve full efficiency with many workers and tasks. everybody is treated fairly in an ideal workplace, and the job roles are clearly separated by areas of expertise of each staff member. this is supported by a well-defined hierarchical management structure, which provides clear lines of communication and division of labour based on the management layer in which one works. organisational progress is determined solely by qualifications and achievements, rather than by personal connections. weber believed that the work environment should be professional and impersonal ‘work relationships’ are strongly disincentive. overall, weber’s ideal bureaucracy promotes efficiency, uniformity and clear power distribution. public sector innovation can play a critical role as a true enabler and catalyst of better service delivery and socio-economic development. consequently, as the south african government is working hard to reform the public sector and the economy, it is imperative that we ensure its role as a key ingredient. according to dlodlo (2018), and now in the light of the fourth industrial revolution and its imminent implications, the attention of the south african government on the outlook of government is moving to the competent state that offers quality services to all its people. dlodlo (2018) further argued that government is feeling the enormous pressure to eventually change the approach to revolutionary capable state in line with the influential fourth industrial revolution for countless reasons. the government of south africa is part of the global village and is currently facing the same problems related to rapid growth with respect to the state of modern capability. modern society explores divergent options for addressing current problems using information communication technology (ict) amongst other items and enhancing service delivery quality. it is in this sense that modern governments are under immense pressure to provide rapid and adequate solutions to meet ever-increasing demands for the efficient and successful delivery of socio-economic services whilst keeping pace with technological advances at the same time. review findings qobo (2020) defines a capable state as a system of government that functions from narrow ideological interests with relative autonomy. the parts function in a co-ordinated manner to achieve clearly defined objectives. it performs its work efficiently and is effective in delivering critical economic infrastructure and services. qobo (2020) further argues that a state’s core role is to mobilise capital to address its structural challenges and to navigate social and economic transition over the long term. a capable state is ideally positioned to respond to changes and leverage opportunities for growth, with autonomy from political factions. for any state to be deemed capable, qobo believes that it must be innovative, have human capital as its main development agenda item and recruit competent respected capable managers who are able to take decisions without fear or favour. if qobo’s assessment of the capable state is any factor to go by, then the big factor that threatens the social and economic growth of south africa is the state’s capability deficit. the national planning commission recognised this void long ago, first in its 2011 diagnostic report and again when it released its final ndp in 2012. the plan is a blueprint for the country to fix its problems. they place particular emphasis on economic performance, education, healthcare and infrastructure. the south african state currently operates in a fragmented manner and with no shared vision. the reason it is unable to fulfil its social and economic obligations is because of poor policy choices and faulty political management. part of the issue is the link between the ruling african national congress (anc) political machinery and the state’s bureaucratic machinery. added to this challenge is the fact that the anc rules through a tripartite coalition with the communist party of south africa and the south african trade unions congress. these seek to influence the policies and decisions of government. without overcoming these tensions, it is impossible to build the state’s capabilities sustainably. this requires a solid nerve centre that should be the presidency in essence. president cyril ramaphosa as a president of the country has massive political capital, which is guaranteed by the constitution of the country (chapter 10: administration) and so far it seems that he is underusing as a result of nursing the tripartite alliance that influences the ruling party on cadre deployment rather than following the manifesto promises made to the citizens. what the president needs here is to leverage government-wide resources to accomplish a given set of strategic goals and priorities. and he needs to look down on factional and ideological interests surrounding the state and its agencies. he should then use his executive authority to translate his strategic goals into measurable results that make a noticeable difference in the economy and society that will sharply transform society and diminish inequalities from the past of apartheid. the process of signing performance agreements with government ministers currently under way is a step in the right direction. however, the process seems to be, without any whip cracking scheme, this could fall apart as it did under president ramaphosa’s predecessor jacob zuma. the severity of resource and capacity constraints varies across various levels of government. some of these concern the underlying political appointments. as is clear from the reports of the auditor general over the years, capacity deficiencies at the local government level are largely because of a lack of technical skills and failures in execution. furthermore, groups also systematically ignore advice. once again, qobo (2020) agrees with palmer et al. (2017) that there are expertise deficiencies found in almost all core fields, such as project management, recruitment, contract management and financial management. the capacity for implementing mandates and delivering services to communities is also low. what is crystal clear then is that when it comes to creating great institutions, the other half of a competent state’s equation always matters to political management. the parlous condition of state-owned companies, such as the power provider eskom and south african airways, makes poor political management apparent. it also became evident in some institutions that are responsible for upholding the rule of law that the capable state is becoming a pipe dream because they showed some defects in upholding the responsible to book. this led to the zondo commission’s tortuously slow investigation into massive injustice caused by the state entities’ failure to uphold efficient and effective management practices as discussed by qobo, which has yet to lead to any prosecutions. policy decisions in key economic sectors, such as information and communications technology, oil and mining, also have ambiguities. according to the conversation newspaper (2020), the quality of officials who preside over the state defines the norms and standards under which the state’s bureaucratic apparatus works. as modern singapore’s founding father, lee kuan yew, pointed out, you have to have good people in charge of government to get good governance. a nation may look good in terms of institutions and policies. yet if they are not supported by capable and responsible leaders, they are destined to be ineffectual and not achieve their full potential. a capable state cannot be established outside an appropriate ethical structure and the required range of human capabilities at the disposal of a government. currently, as argued by qobo and conversation newspaper (2020), because of poor political management, south africa is suffering from capacity deficiencies and institutional stasis. seemingly, qobo and parnell agree that president ramaphosa, the key lever of state craftsmanship for achieving results in a democratic society, has to act decisively in making things happen. it includes knowledge of his power and authority, expertise in reading the political climate and a strong desire for decisive action. certainly, the state president as the state’s nerve centre must mean acceptable standards and be hard on errant public officials regardless of party affiliation. this should begin with executive members who are underperforming and corrupt. at the municipal and provincial levels, the centre needs to use fiscal tools to stop wastage and poor performance in the other two government spheres. effective government leaders who lead through moments of crisis should immediately grasp the goals and use of power. with astute political strategy and collective decision-making, they will do even more. they should focus on delivering results instead of fixing on long consultation processes as is the case in south africa. finally, there are places where government can achieve rapid wins by well-structured alliances to address capability gaps. it can tap into private sector capital. for example, a number of mining companies could assist with capacity building at local government level. this could help tackle limitations in places where their workers are employed. such mutual interest may help boost those companies’ credibility. however, we should be careful of private sector firms and business leaders who only want to pursue their narrow interests through proximity to political leadership. partnerships with both the private sector and civil society should be focused on addressing real and clearly identified problems. building capabilities is essential for higher performance retooling of the economy. fixing political management at the centre should be the starting point in this regard. fitzgerald further believes that tackling issues related to management leadership place an inadequate emphasis on providing stimulating career pathways that could ensure the replication of skills and promote a sense of shared professional intent. nevertheless, in terms of the path to a capable state, the main issues raised in chapter 13 of the ndp (2012) are thus presented up front, honestly and openly. earlier on as noted by the ndp there seems to be a lack of a clear vision, poor managerial ability and a lack of direction is made. the problem of the political-administrative interface is one of the primary lengthy debates in the theory of public administration. apparently, chapter 13 of the ndp tends to take the classic position, as epitomised by the discipline’s alleged founder, woodrow wilson, that a clear distinction should be drawn between the political and administrative roles. although there is no mention of the famous (or infamous) term ‘deployment’, there is a strong comment on situations where public servants are recruited on the basis of political connections rather than skills and expert access to state resources and services is defined by political affiliation rather than by citizenship. what is not mentioned is the growing phenomenon by which recruitment (or promotion) is justified on alleged political grounds, whereas the reality is pure favouritism, or nepotism or even monetary kick-back in some cases. various steps are being suggested, including the creation of a head of public service. this is an obviously positive idea as this position acts as a mediating force between the political and administrative spheres in some countries and helps to shield qualified civil servants from unilateral decisions by ministers or other politicians. this suggestion, however, does not seem to have gained much traction over the past 5 years and seems to have fallen away entirely. a further suggestion, made from several sources over the years, is to reinforce the position of the public service commission (psc). again this may be a positive idea, but the question must be raised whether the psc needs to be enhanced, having legislative independence and far-reaching powers enshrined both in the constitution and in legislation. an independent and assertive psc could indeed improve public service performance immeasurably, but this may have to do with making much better appointments rather than fiddling with existing legislation. some of the reports of the psc are quite useful and hard-hitting, but are routinely ignored by the major players involved in governance of the state and the psc has generally found it fit to leave matters there. another perspective would be that the psc is potentially quite strong enough as an institution, according to fitzgerald and qobo, but the appointments to the psc were largely made by people unwilling to change or challenge political office holders’ wishes or otherwise unsound decisions and practices. in terms of the political-administrative interface in south africa, a notable problem is that at one level legislative and regulatory lip service is paid to the classical doctrine of a merit public service and a distinction between political and administrative functions, whereas in reality it is a completely open secret that most senior appointments are politically driven. qobo, parnell and fitzgerald agree on widespread political intervention in administrative activities allegedly occurring: to put it more clearly than the ndp writers of chapter 13 do. according to the above-mentioned authors, it is advisable either to change the practice in order to comply with our current constitution, legislation and set criteria and procedures or to change the legislation on doctrine and regulatory procedures in order to align with the actual custom, practice and culture of public service that south africa has developed post-apartheid. the latter alternative, that is, getting our ideology and laws in line with our modern society, would seem to be a more viable option, not in the sense of merely enshrining bad practice but through recognising and making the nature, scope and modalities of political appointment transparent. this is what happens in a number of countries that practise political appointment quite openly, and through set procedures – but with the potential harm mitigated and controlled by legislative measures. think of the united states of america, for example, where government appointments are checked by appointees interviewed in the senate or congress; or france, where each president selects a brace of advisors called the ministerial cabinet that counteracts the technological influence of the qualified public service; or germany, where senior public servant are internally rotated and redeployed after each election to ensure that ministers with politically sensitive portfolios have senior civil servant whom they can trust. because appointment politicisation (some may say over-politicisation of appointments) is so deeply ingrained in south african tradition and practice that there might well be a case for developing a new doctrine and co-legislation to make it clear and reduce the risks of seemingly bad and inappropriate appointments. although not providing any specifics, the same chapter 13 of the ndp clears the way for this course of action in terms of its suggestion of a ‘hybrid solution’ which it hopes ‘will allow political and administrative objectives to be reconciled’. the capable state during the period of reconstruction and development the seeds of the new south africa were planted. good governance has been a focal point of the long abandoned programme of reconstruction and development, which was commonly known as reconstruction and development programme (rdp 1994). although local government in the late 1990s had dominated national attention and post-apartheid spending, the ‘transition to good governance’ gradually combined local governance legitimacy with constitutional processes. determined not to replicate the recent past mistakes, policy leaders engaged in intensive dialogue with ‘partners, sponsors, civil society groups and the private sector’ to establish a developmental local government system through the ndp, an ambitious progress agenda aligned with the millennium development goals of the united nations. according to qobo (2020) and pempel (1999: 139), developing countries ‘define their missions mainly in terms of long-term national economic enhancement’ and ‘intervene actively and frequently in economic activities with the aim of enhancing the international competitiveness of their domestic economies’. according to this concept of qobo and pempel, the imperative to handle structural change domestically, for example, is followed alongside policies to promote the country as an investment destination for foreign capital, to boost the economic growth profile, diversify the production base and generate jobs. in certain cases, the focus put on the notion of capable state by the ruling party, according to qobo, emphasises a more teleological thrust articulated in a certain state of completeness and generally in relation to the typology of east asian nations. beyond rhetoric, in the post-1990 south african background, a time marked by growing globalisation and the emergence of ‘footloose’ capital preferring locations where the state is seen as less interventionist, it is worth investigating what exactly does capable state mean. it is against this context that the ideology of ‘capable state’ was embraced by the south african political elite as a slogan for social and economic policy, although the content of economic policymaking was more in line with the way of thinking of the washington consensus. however, johnson (1999:53), who is widely acknowledged for coining the idea of ‘developmental state’, noted that ‘[t]he source of authority in the state of development is not one of max weber’s “holy trinity” of conventional, rational-legal and charismatic authority …’. according to johnson (1999:53), capable states are distinguished by the presence of ‘the revolutionary power: the power of a people committed to the transformation of social, political, or economic order’. johnson further suggests that there is little that distinguishes the leaders of a developing state from those that lead the mass movements. the national planning commission noticed the unevenness in state capacity, which leads to mediocrity performance in local, provincial and national governments. there are a number of factors that lead to this state of affairs. such factors that entail the management of human resources are, inter alia, discussed in the following sections. politics-administration dichotomy according to the psc, the mediocrity in performance in the public sector can be attributed to tensions in the political-administrative interface (psc 2007). the result is instability and internal conflicts in senior posts in the public service and reduced confidence in the leadership. all this grossly affects the delivery of services that undermines the morale of public servants and reduces citizens’ confidence in the state. provision of goods and services gets affected by this human resource issue, which requires proper management. according to mle, maclean and kanyane (2015:6), in the work environment, decisions that fall within the ambit of officials and within that of politicians should be made clear. both the politician and the administrator should focus on their respective roles to avoid encroaching on the each other’s territory. it is critical that there should be the element of trust and agreement on who should do what, where, when and how. it is argued that politics can theoretically be separated from administration, but it is practically impossible in the real world of work. politicians and administrators are supposed to trust, co-operate and work in harmony and in attempting to manage the interface, matured, talented and committed people must occupy both offices. thus, in terms of the municipal amendment act 2011 municipal managers are prohibited from holding political office in a political party, which suggests recognition of the need to achieve a clearer demarcation between the administration and the political environments. according to the ndp vision 2030 (2011:365), there is a need to focus on building a professional public service that serves government but is sufficiently autonomous to be insulated from political patronage. a point is further made in the ndp that standards can be undermined when public servants are not recruited on the basis of skills and expertise. skills deficit professor patrick fitzgerald (2016) of wits school of governance argued that there is a deficit in skills and professionalism that affects most elements of the public service. there is not enough focus on providing stimulating career paths that could ensure the reproduction of skills and foster a sense of professional common purpose. there is a lack of a clear vision as to where the next generation of public servants will come from and how specialist professional skills will be reproduced. because of weak managerial capacity and a lack of leadership these human resource issues are not being addressed. a need, therefore, exists that human resource management focuses on training and development that will lead to the public service having the best skilled workforce. the state must produce specialist technical skills that are necessary to fulfil its core functions and provide relevant career paths for technical specialists. according to the ndp, where skills are not available internally, departments rely on outside consultants, but this is a short-sighted approach that does not address where the next generation of senior public servants will come from. the focus should not just be on the skills that employees have presently, but also on those they could develop whilst working for the department or municipality, and recruitment and promotion processes need to place emphasis on skills and competence based on merit. to this end, the public administration management act 2014 proposes the establishment of the national school of government. the school must, through education and training, promote a progressive realisation of the values and principles governing public administration and enhance the quality, extent and impact of the development of human resource capacity in institutions. to ensure that candidates qualify for the positions they are appointed to, the act mandates that the minister for public service and administration may, after approval by the cabinet, direct that the successful completion of specified education, training, examinations or tests is: a prerequisite for specified appointments compulsory in order to meet the development needs of any category of employees (section 13 [1]) over and above the national school of government, the ndp suggests the following initiatives: a formalised graduate recruitment scheme for the public service a career path for local government making adequate experience a prerequisite for senior posts a long-term perspective on training and development lack of professionalisation of public service and local government in south africa the focus should be on building a skilled and professional public service from the top to the bottom. the public service should attract and retain highly skilled people, cultivate a sense of professional purpose and a commitment to working towards development goals. the pool of skilled people should be increased by ensuring that the public service and local government become careers of choice for graduates who wish to contribute to the development of the country. jam (as quoted in the ndp 2011) states: [i]f we are to develop and maintain a professional, people and service orientated public service we need to ensure that the public service becomes a calling of excellence and a career which should be sought after, not for its financial gains and security, but because it is the haven for passionate patriots who want to serve all south africans. (p. 371) public servants must be knowledgeable about the sections of society within which they work, and they must be connected to the communities they serve. intergovernmental relations there are three spheres of government in the republic of south africa: national, provincial and local, which are interrelated (south africa being a unitary state, with powers devolved to provincial and local spheres). there is, however, confusion about how responsibilities are divided, shared and monitored across the three spheres. functionaries sometimes find themselves at a loss because at times there is no clarity in roles and functions. it is unavoidable that there will be disagreements about how roles and responsibilities are divided or shared but there should be some interventions to mediate. in this regard, recently the launch of the new integrated service delivery model ‘khawuleza’ by president cyril ramaphosa is welcomed as a step in the right direction towards ironing out uncertainty in roles by the various spheres (ramaphosa foundation 2017). also, the question of variation in capacity needs to be looked into, more so in municipalities where some have more capacity than others. a system needs to be developed whereby municipalities would share skills and capacity to the extent that more responsibilities would be devolved to those that have the skills and capacity. consideration should also be given to have a written document that lays out every single step of the intergovernmental system. similar to a manual – this is because the constitution only sets out the distribution of powers and functions between the three spheres. currently, according to fitzgerald (2016), the strength and the role of the psc seem to be weakened if the current challenges that the public sector is facing are anything to go by. the commission seems to be heading towards being a toothless dog. the current number of cases involves public sector corruption and cases that are never resolved within the 30 day turnaround time. the pss is established in terms of the constitution 1996 to, inter alia, give directions aimed at ensuring that personnel procedures relating to recruitment, transfers, promotions and dismissals comply with the basic values and principles of the constitution. it exists to advise and oversee how public institutions manage their human resources, without being involved in the selection process. however, it may be prudent to consider strengthening the role of the psc to make it a champion of a meritocratic public service by promoting and monitoring key norms and standards in recruitment, especially for the most senior posts. this will ensure that recruitment into the public service is based on merit. it may, for example, be prudent that the psc is involved in selection panels for senior management services (sms) positions. this could ensure a transparent selection process that could reinforce confidence in the way that senior posts are filled in the public service. poor organisational design in terms of the public service act 1994, a number of human resource functions relating to organisational structure are in the hands of political heads of departments, who, at their discretion, may delegate these to administration heads. it happens at times that political heads choose not to delegate these powers and functions, some of which, if not all, have financial implications. tensions arise when, in accordance with legislation, administrative heads have to account or answer for financial issues over which they have no control. this human resource issue is a recipe for conflict in any public institution and needs to be managed properly. matters such as appointments, transfers, rights and privileges of employees have financial implications and should really be the responsibility of the administration head who, in terms of the public finance management act (1999), is officially responsible for financial issues. career and talent management on the international front, the kenyan psc’s guide for career management in the civil service issued in april 2018 defines career management as the provision of opportunities for employees to develop their abilities and careers in order to ensure that the organisation has the flow of talent it needs and to satisfy its own aspirations. whilst talent management is an organisation’s commitment to recruit, hire, retain and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the job market, an individual employee is responsible to plan his or her career whilst the employer’s role is to provide opportunities for career growth. to achieve this an organisation has to have an effective performance management and skills development programme that is geared towards the achievement of set objectives and its sustainability. the public service in south africa offers job security, a variety of careers and opportunities for development. however, there are other factors that negate against the public service becoming an employer of choice, for instance, leadership instability coupled with the inability to recruit and sustain scarce skills in the public service. this has been more prevalent in the provincial administrations, particularly in rural and poor provinces. added to this is the cadre deployment policy as practised by the governing party as is evident in the revelations of south african revenue services commission of inquiry headed by the retired judge robert nugent. the preference of local people for senior positions against merit during recruitment of personnel has a demoralising effect on the aspirant workforce. in any organisation the litmus test for career management will be measured according to its ability to place the correct person in the correct position at the right time and who is capable to perform his or her allocated functions and responsibilities. the wellness of employee a critical human resource element that is almost always ignored or neglected by public institutions is the wellness of employees. when employees arrive at the office they bring with them their personal family problems, which have a bearing on their performance. if not managed properly, such problems may negatively affect the realisation of goals by an institution because a ‘sick’ employee will be unproductive. managers need to consider the potential benefits of a system that is focused on pro-actively promoting and maintaining the mental and physical well-being of employees. the introduction of functional programmes, for example, employee assistance programme (eap), to address this issue may be necessary. strengthen accountability and responsibility of public servants accountability is answerability for one’s actions. the actions of public servants must be above reproach, carried out in the open and not covered by a veil of secrecy, which may give rise to suspicion as against the batho pele principles (1997)/labour relations act (66 of 1995). public servants should be made legally answerable for their actions (ndp 2011:402); procurement details, for example, should be made available to citizens. the state capture by individuals and companies the public protector in the state of capture report revealed that employees, both political and administrative, in the south african public service, carry out their functions under the influence of individuals and companies who are outside the public service. this is referred to as state capture. such conduct on the part of state employees is unethical and as a component of human resource management, employees who are found to be involved in it should be subjected to disciplinary action. at the heart of the strategic priorities of any administration is the strengthening of public service and the developmental state to more effectively serve the needs of the people and act as a driving force for socio-economic transformation. the key priority in this regard is the strengthening of partnerships for development and ensuring more efficient and caring service delivery. over the term, the government prioritises service delivery renewal, cooperative governance, shared services and organogram, reorganisation of the state, provision of access to broadband networks and building an active local government. government’s biggest efforts are to build a democratic developmental state, which is not without its fair share of challenges, and many of our well-intentioned strategies have been hamstrung by inertia and the absence of agility in our poorly trained civil servants. in strengthening the developmental state and good governance, the government’s medium term strategic framework (gmtsf) objectives need strong monitoring mechanism through the programme of action that focuses on improving local government performance, provincial financial performance, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and public sector transformation. so far since the dawn of democracy in 1994, south africa has made significant progress in building the structures of a democratic state. the fragmented governance structures of apartheid have been rationalised into a system designed to serve developmental objectives. the composition of the public service and local government has been transformed to meet the needs of the entire population equally. significant progress has been made in the provision of basic services, such as water, housing and electricity. the foundations for a state that is capable to provide for the welfare of its citizens have been laid, but there are concerns about the inability of these structures to function efficiently and effectively, which constrain the state’s ability to pursue key developmental purposes. human resources are an indispensable means to the provision of goods and services efficiently, effectively and economically. it is thus important that specific steps are carried out to obtain, develop and utilise personnel. implications and recommendations the state must foster strong collaborations with the institutions of higher learning for attracting young ‘talent’s with scarce skills before being snatched by the private sector and other provinces. through these collaborations, the state must be able to influence the curriculum taught at the institutions of higher learning and advise on the courses that are on demand for the capable developmental state. there is also a need for the state to strengthen and market its recruitment and retention strategies to attract and keep particularly young, vibrant and highly qualified professionals in the public sector. make the public sector an employee of choice. avoid brain drain and migration to other provinces. having the right people for the right functions helps the state to ensure that the exercise is undertaken by all government departments and outcomes are implemented. this has a potential of causing some tensions; however, it is necessary to ensure that human resources are utilised to the maximum. some government departments are still functioning with obsolete organisational structures, despite the dynamics, paradigm shift and complexities in government. have a clear succession plan and get to the next level ready for the takeover when the time comes. encourage the uptake of the government’s offer of voluntary early retirement. conclusion in conclusion, if south africa needs to be successful in transforming society into a state of capability and development, capable of formulating and implementing policies that serve the national interest, it needs to be developmental in that it should focus on those policies that would overcome the root causes of poverty and inequality and build the capacity of the state to fulfil that role. in parnell’s words, for south africa to call itself developmental government must refer to being able to play a transformative role in tackling poverty and inequality. this requires well-run and effectively coordinated state institutions with competent public servants who are committed to the public good and able to deliver consistently high-quality services whilst prioritising the development goals of the nation. finally, the ndp makes it clear that cooperation and communication are necessary for south africa to transcend social and economic divides. this extends in all three integrated and concise policy domains, and in cooperation with the civil society and business sector. individual initiatives, a tendency to move from one quick fix or tendency to another and frequent changes have generated uncertainty in organisational structures and strained power. it is needless to say that the nation needs to make local government stronger. build an enabling structure for local government (e.g. it may include organisational guidance for routine tasks) with strong national and provincial government support and oversight. it includes clarification of position, and prioritisation of participation by people. create delegation, transparency and oversight. make it easier for people to hold accountable for public servants and politicians, particularly for the quality of service delivery. there is a need for streamlined processes which maintain checks and balances and explain accountability whilst making decisions easier. civil society can also play a role in monitoring government data, whilst government encourages this by ensuring that data are available in appropriate formats (open data). acknowledgements the authors would like to extend their appreciation and profound gratitude to all those who directly or indirectly participated in and contributed to this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.r.m. was responsible for data analysis and refined the article for submission. x.g.n. was responsible for literature review and worked on the draft version. ethical consideration ethical clearance was not required for this study. the research took into consideration key ethical issues such as the freedom of respondents to participate in the study or not. the objectives of the research were clearly explained to them. the respondents were not coerced to join the study. to keep respondents’ privacy, identification was not necessary. the interviews were conducted in the languages the respondents understood the best. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adelzadeh, a. & padayachee, v., 1994, ‘the rdp white paper: reconstruction of a development 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m.h., mle, t. & maclean, s., 2015, policy decisions and their implications on service delivery in south africa, in c.o.k. allen-ile, m.h. kanyane & i.u. ile (eds), governance and resource management in southern africa: challenges and opportunities for advancement, reach publishers, durban, pp. 2–15. leedy, p.d., 1989, practical research: planning and design, collier macmillan publishing company, london. meiring, m.h. & parsons, c.r., 1994, fundamental public administration: a guide for a changing south africa, university of port elizabeth press, port elizabeth. national development plan vision for 2030, 2011, national planning commission, republic of south africa, government printers, pretoria. national planning commission, 2012, national development plan 2030: our future-make it work, government printers, south africa. palmer, i., moodley, n. & parnell, s., 2017, building a capable state: service delivery in post-apartheid south africa, zed books ltd., london. parliament of the republic of south africa, 1994, white paper on reconstruction and development, ministry in the office of the president, creda press, cape town. public service commission, 2007, psc annual report to citizens for the 2006/2007 financial period, government printers, south africa. qobo, m., 2020, what it will take to build a capable state in south africa, the conversation, braamfontein. republic of south africa, 1996, the constitution of the republic of south africa act, government printers, pretoria. south african government, 1997, transforming public service delivery (batho pele white paper), department of public service and administration, government printers, south africa. the public administration management act 11 of 2014, 2014, government gazette no. 1054, the presidency, cape town. abstract introduction literature review research methodology research results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) abba w. masungini department of accountancy, faculty of management science, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark, south africa gauda j. maseko department of accountancy, faculty of management science, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark, south africa natasha robbetze department of accountancy, faculty of management science, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation masungini, a.w., maseko, g.j. & robbetze, n., 2023, ‘evaluating the implementation of a municipal credit management policy’, journal of local government research and innovation 4(0), a101. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v4i0.101 original research evaluating the implementation of a municipal credit management policy abba w. masungini, gauda j. maseko, natasha robbetze received: 22 aug. 2022; accepted: 05 june 2023; published: 31 july 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in south africa, the growth in the amount owed to municipalities for municipal services rendered, is at an all-time high. the culture of non-payment of rates and taxes for the municipal services is not a new phenomenon. this study is undertaken to determine whether a selected municipality applies its credit management policy to manage the phenomenon of non-payment. aim: the study investigated the effectiveness of a municipal credit management policy, from the residents’ perspective, within a municipality in the sedibeng district. methods: quantitative analysis was applied through a descriptive research design. primary data were collected from residents through a self-administered questionnaire. the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) (version 28) was applied to perform a descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis. results: the sampled municipality failed to enforce its credit management policy and was also unable to fulfill its service delivery responsibilities, according to residents’ responses. conclusion: this article recommends that a municipality must enforce its credit management policy to generate responsiveness from residents. this can be done through introduction of debt recovery policies and offering discounts for timeous payment. in addition, the municipality needs to improve its service delivery. contribution: this article proposes that residents’ responsiveness to the municipal credit management policy is affected by negative attitudes towards the municipality due to poor service delivery as well as challenges with affordability of municipal services. keywords: credit management policy; municipality; service delivery; sedibeng; resident responsiveness. introduction the local sphere of government involved in the development of communities is considered as the government that is closest to its citizens. consequently, there should be effective operations within intergovernmental spheres and a well-planned administration (mphasane 2012:2). the white paper on local government (1998) acknowledges, regarding credit management, that the long-term economic viability of a municipality relies on the municipality to collect income from its debtors (du plessis 2016:24). therefore, effective credit management mechanism needs to be established to enhance the financial sustainability of local municipalities. the white paper on local government touches on the fundamentals of income management, which is additionally referred to as the ‘price chain’ (du plessis 2016:24). the obligation load and specifically the expansion in sums owed to municipalities for services rendered (e.g., water, power and rates and taxes) is reaching unprecedented levels in south africa. the culture of non-payment for services rendered by municipalities is not a new development and has, in fact, developed since the 1980s (lubbe & rossouw 2005:784). the challenge is the continuous non-payment of municipal services and responsiveness to the credit management implementation on residents’ accounts, which are long overdue and consequent legal measures to enforce the fulfilment of their obligations. for any municipality to grow, create infrastructure and, in the long run, render quality administration, it needs its workforce to be outfitted with aptitudes that assist in running the public office, supported by paying residents (molaoa 2011:2). the sedibeng district municipality is a category c municipality in terms of the municipal structures act. the affiliated local municipalities are emfuleni, midvaal, and lesedi local municipality. near the vaal river, which serves as the boundary between the provinces of gauteng and the free state, the sedibeng district is located at the southernmost point of gauteng. the municipality is responsible for the region that was formerly known as the vaal triangle: the only region in the province to be located on the banks of both the vaal river and the vaal dam. the sedibeng district municipality also includes the historic townships of evaton, sebokeng, boipatong, bophelong, sharpeville, and ratanda (municipalities of south africa 2021). in this article, two different research questions are answered: do residents understand and respond to the credit management policy of a sedibeng district municipality? which factors affect the responsiveness of residents to the credit management policy of a sedibeng district municipality? literature review credit management policy according to fujo and ali (2016:448), a company’s credit management policy refers to various methods for collecting debts after they become due. setting up formal, legal policies and procedures for credit management will ensure that credit is given to the proper authorities, the proper person, for productivity or to technically and economically viable businesses; that credit is granted for the proper size, that credit is recoverable, and that there is an adequate management flow for credit management (asafo-adjei 2015). given that most major companies invest in major accounts, credit management policy decisions and practices have a significant impact on corporate value (khan 2019:16). the objective of a management policy is therefore to promote efficient practices in fiscal management and proper control over accounts receivable in the organisation (enwereji & uwizeyimana 2020:333–334). to gain the insight of municipal credit management, it is essential to discuss the credit management cycle. an ideal credit management cycle indicates that credit standards are effective. the credit management cycle is a representation of average collection time. these guidelines assist organisations including municipalities in evaluating the success of their credit management strategies (kumaraswamy 2016). according to osinowo (2018:90), the accounts receivable cycle is the average number of days it takes a business to receive payments from clients. the wider credit management cycle starts when the municipality has rendered the service and ends when the payment is received. sending invoices in the right format and on time is the first step in the credit management process. for both municipalities and rate payers, an invoice outlines the terms and conditions of the credit transaction that occurs. an invoice also specifies the amount and due date for payment to the clients. sending invoices as soon as possible will ensure that any outstanding accounts are paid right away (edwin 2019:12). it is also essential to evaluate the effectiveness of the credit management policy in the interest of all the stakeholders. according to nkabane (2016:32), the most crucial policy considerations for municipalities to consider when developing tariff policies are payment in proportion to the amount consumed, payment for service costs in full, affordability, payment capability, fairness and transparency, local setting of tariff levels, consistent enforcement of tariffs, and preserving local economies’ competitiveness. according to mazibuko and fourie (2013:131), local government rates and taxes – which are viewed as fees paid for municipal water and sanitation as well as other services – are the source of municipal revenue. the local government must review these principles in order to develop a sound model of revenue management, but local government authorities have not given this much thought (matovu 2018:17). municipal credit management the municipal system act 32 (republic of south africa [rsa] 2000) dealing with credit control and debt collection, in south african municipalities, mandates that municipalities collect all money owed to them. as a result, municipalities are required to adopt, maintain, and carry out a credit control and obligation accumulation strategy (rsa 2000:65–66). in accordance with the municipal systems amendment act (msa) (rsa 2003) in section 95, a municipality is given the authority to use the act to levy and improve fees, prices, or tariffs in relation to any feature or service provided by the municipality as well as to recover costs on any exceptional amount subject to the national credit act’s provisions (rsa 2000). the msa act of 2003, also specifies the requirements for municipal cash management and debt collection practices (rsa 2003). systems for collecting debt are essential to a municipal’s success. in the current global economic downturn, unfortunately, unpaid invoices and unpaid credits are becoming more prevalent (onar, oztaysi & kahraman 2018:1845). the income is more stable when accounting and pricing are performed correctly (wichman 2017:17). municipalities are not permitted to lose money by failing to put in place a reliable billing system, a robust tariff structure, or by failing to collect money from the water produced and sold, claim namaliya (2017:6) and wichman (2017). according to namaliya (2017:6), accurate revenue measurement, billing, and collection could increase the revenue generation of public water utilities. it is explained how the structures of tax, billing, metering, and illegal links affect this subcomponent’s revenue in the following sections. as the accounting officer, the municipal manager must see to it that the municipality adopts a credit control and debt collection policy (rsa 2003). the municipal manager is also accountable for managing the municipality’s revenue as an accounting officer and for taking action to ensure that the municipality has income series systems in compliance with section 95 of the municipal systems act and the municipality’s credit control and debt collection policy (rsa 2003). in addition, unless the council has granted exemptions in accordance with its budget-related policies, the municipality should charge interest on late payments (rsa 2003). municipal revenue according to brown, ofosuhene and akenten (2019:2), municipal revenue is money collected by the municipality from service rendered and can also include intergovernmental grants; for example, taxes (property, income, sales, and excise taxes), user fees, and intergovernmental transfers are all sources of revenue for local governments. one of the key elements that the government heavily depends on to improve the development of its social services is revenue collection because it determines how much money is available for spending (mbufu 2013:24). for the purposes of development and service provision, local governments have the power to generate their own revenues. each council must look for business opportunities to increase its revenue in addition to providing official incomes. among the most significant sources of income for local governments are local taxes, the development levy, property taxes, house rent for council buildings, fines, fees, licences, and grants from the federal government (edwin 2019:12). in essence, revenue from various taxes, fees, grants from the government (both conditional and unconditional), donor funds, equalisation funds, fees, fines, and penalties – all have a big impact on how well services are provided in district local government (mbufu 2013:24). revenue collection, however, is not always as accurate as it seems. it is possible that a municipality’s method of collecting taxes is ineffective (imuezerua 2014:133). according to bruwer and rossouw (2019:51), the inability to collect unpaid debt, a lack of financial management expertise, and the inability to pay creditors are all potential contributing factors to south african municipalities’ financial issues. as part of their responsibility to promote local development within their respective jurisdictions, local government bodies are expected to generate enough revenue to provide infrastructure and public services. local governments receive funding from a variety of sources, including property, income, sales, and excise taxes, user fees, intergovernmental transfers, operating revenues from borrowing, fees assessed to developers, and public–private partnerships (ppp) (brown et al. 2019:2). property rates municipal property rates are calculated in rand (zar) and are based on the market value of immovable property, such as land and buildings (department of corporate governance and traditional affairs 2016; tivavone 2018:31). rates must be paid by all owners of immovable property. as a result, all property owners – commercial, residential (homes), agricultural, governmental, among others – are included in the definition of property. property also includes rights of permission to occupy (pto), which are frequently found in public spaces. municipalities must make sure that unit owners in sectional title schemes are registered with them because they can no longer rate the body corporate (rsa 2004). levies and service charge according to mazibuko (2014:133), levies and service fees are directly influenced by the municipal billing system as they relate to metering data input into the system, and the data should be error-free, accurate, and correct so that when bills for services rendered are issued to the customer, there are no complaints or protests against such bills (sedibeng district municipality 2017). user fees accounts make up a sizeable chunk of municipal revenues, especially in developed economies, according to schreiner and hassan (2011:39). despite their widespread use, their return in developing nations has typically lagged behind the operating and amortisation costs of infrastructure systems because many governments have set rates below their economic level to aid the underprivileged (pieters 2015:21). conditional grant direct conditional subsidies, according to the department of national treasury (2011:55–56) and ziervogel (2019:503), are transfers that municipalities may use only for the purposes specified in the conditional subsidy framework. collectively, these grants are almost as valuable as fair share transfers. the municipal infrastructure grant (mig), which funds municipal infrastructure primarily to increase the number of low-income households with access to water and sanitation, is the primary conditional grant. unconditional grant the department of national treasury (2011:43) and cameron (2022:128) state that the vertical division of national collected revenues has established a pool of money that will be given to the local government as unconditional subsidies. this transfer aims to equalise the disparate distribution of the fiscal capacity of the federal government and local governments. municipal borrowing in south africa, municipalities are mandated by the constitution to oversee the provision of services, such as electricity, water and sanitation, roads and waste management, that are essential for both social equity and economic growth (department of national treasury 2017) and (makhathini, mlambo & mpanza 2020). in addition, they are in charge of managing neighbourhood facilities (such as sports facilities) and, to a lesser extent, social services (such as health clinics) (department of national treasury 2017) and (krige 2019). to finance other projects, more money might therefore be required. in order to pay for a portion of the economic infrastructure in their capital, municipalities can, according to pieters (2015:23), borrow money from the financial market. municipal services residents must feel satisfied in order for service-oriented public sector organisations, like municipalities, to deliver high-quality services that meet or exceed citizens’ expectations. the main focus of a municipality is on offering municipal goods and services. creating a better future for communities through the support of local socio-economic development projects and programmes is what madumo (2015:159) refers to as developmental local governance, or local governance for development. municipalities are therefore required to use the resources at their disposal to provide high-quality services (sibonde & dassah 2021:1). mamokhere (2021:81) claims that the major objective of south african municipalities is to provide residents with access to a wide range of municipal goods and services, improving their capacity to contribute economically, socially, politically, and culturally. recently, the south african government commemorated 27 years of its democratic regime. south africa is dealing with a rapid rise in violent and destructive service delivery protests that have a negative impact on socioeconomic development, despite recently celebrating its democratic dispensation (mamokhere 2021:82). according to masiya, davids and mangai (2021:99), more service delivery protests take place in areas where there are severe shortages of one or more basic services, such as water, electricity, sewerage, sanitation, and refuse collection. they also claim that protests are linked to inadequate municipal provision of basic services. in addition, research indicates that the overall transition from apartheid to democracy was brief (chilenga-butao 2020). the majority of those who had previously been disadvantaged did not receive concrete transition benefits, which led to a resurgence of poor people’s resistance in the form of service delivery protests. furthermore, mphahlele and zandamela (2021:157) assert that protests are often the result of dysfunctional municipalities. revenue collection and non-responsiveness to the credit management policy although the constitution of the republic of south africa (1996) makes clear provisions for the structure operation, and growth of local municipalities, it seems that these organisations fall short of expectations when it comes to securing payments from residents who use these services (enwereji & potgieter 2018:227). the delivery of consumer services as required by the constitution of the republic of south africa (1996) is significantly impacted by municipal consumer debt, which also negatively impacts the municipal fiscal position. according to enwereji and uwizeyimana (2020:333), the level of municipal consumer debt in south african municipalities is quite alarming. despite the judicial precedents that serve as a guide for municipal revenue collection, enwereji (2019) affirms that municipalities find it difficult to raise the funds necessary to carry out their obligations. municipal role-players still have the responsibility of obtaining sufficient funding to manage the municipality’s affairs. according to section 64 (1) of the municipal finance management act 56 of 2003 (rsa 2003), the management of municipal revenues is the responsibility of the municipal financial accountant. furthermore, section 64.4 (2) of the same act outlines the following obligations for municipal accountants: the collection of municipal revenue in accordance with other municipal debt collection policies and section 95 of the municipal system act 32 of 2000 (rsa 2000). compiling and submitting monthly reports on municipal revenue. unless the municipality indicates an exemption, ensure that surcharges and interest are applied to municipal payment arrears or debts. ensure that a weekly reconciliation of the money collected by the municipality and/or other money collectors is carried out. make sure that the municipality’s revenue is calculated and presented each month. ensure that the money collected from each section of the revenue target is deposited into the working account of the municipality. ensure that the accounting and information systems for the municipality are kept up to date, and that revenue is recognised as it is earned, received, and owed. despite a culture of non-compliance among residents, it is the municipality’s sole duty to collect payment for the services it provides to the residents. the role of the south african local government association and the national treasury on municipal debt or credit management south africa’s local government oversight is carried out by the south african local government association (salga), which is a constitutionally required body. within the political system, salga fulfils two crucial strategic roles: one as a protector, zealously upholding the rights of local governments; and the other as a constructive disruptor, obstructing those aspects of the current framework that prevent local governments from carrying out their mandate (salga 2020). effective management of revenues and expenses is another aspect of its function in local government. in addition, it helps to enhance the financial administration of local governments. last but not least, it supports municipalities with the demands of the auditor general, billing, updating the municipal fiscal model, and debtor reduction (salga 2011:2). when it comes to local government, the national treasury supports and strengthens municipal capacity, monitors and supports local government, and regulates municipal performance in accordance with the duties outlined in schedules 4 and 5 of the constitution. it also assists municipalities with the development of legislation and legislative compliance (department of national treasury 2017:746). local government generates roughly 70% of its own revenue, according to the department of national treasury (2019:62), but could generate more if municipalities improved revenue collection. in 2017–2018, less than 80% of the billed revenue was received by nearly half of all municipalities. research methodology the study applied a descriptive research approach and collected primary data by means of a self-administered questionnaire. the questionnaire consisted of four different sections. section a collected data regarding demographical information of participants. section b collected data around the effectiveness of the municipal credit management policy, while section c intended to measure the residents’ responsiveness to the credit management policy. the final section, section d, collected data to explore the relationship between credit management policy responsiveness and service delivery. for section b through to section d, questions were based on a four-point likert scale (strongly disagree through to strongly agree). a total of 510 responses were collected from residents who stay within the bounds of the sedibeng municipal district. a description of the population estimation, sampling method and data analysis approach, follows in paragraphs hereafter. estimation of the population the target population of the study is made up of residents residing within the sedibeng district, as illustrated in table 1. table 1: population size and housing dynamics. from table 1, it should be noticed that population data more recent than 2016 has not been made available by the selected municipality. thus, 2016 data were used to estimate the population. as residents who live within formal dwellings are obliged to pay municipal fees, the population was estimated to be equal to (253 488 × 87%) 220 535 households. sampling method and data analysis knowledge or judgement of the researcher is applied to select the sampled objects or participants (bell 2015). to select the sample, the researchers considered that: participants should be sampled from different areas within the sedibeng district and that the sample selection could not be limited to a single area. this ensured that participants were recruited from diverse socio-economic environments participants had to be home owners or business owners, who are expected to engage with the municipality, through paying municipal accounts. the sample size was determined by using the sloven’s formula (n = n/1 +ne2) based on the following: a population size of 220 535 (refer to table 1) confidence interval is at 0.05 proportion of 0.5 sample size is determined to be 510. the data collected were analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 28. descriptive analysis requires several statistical techniques. these include frequency distribution, location measures (mean, median, and mode), and measures of dispersion (standard deviation, range and variance, skewness, and kurtosis). descriptive analysis was performed on the measuring instruments where means and standard deviations are interpreted. exploratory factor analysis is used to investigate and model correlative relationships between manifest variables using one or more latent variables. only items from sections b to d were used in the factor analysis, as section a contained items about demographic information. eigenvalues (latent root criterion) greater than one are statistically significant (goretzko, pham & bühner 2021). therefore, to determine the number of factors within each section, eigenvalues equal to or greater than one, was applied. the questionnaires contained a number of questions of which not all can be analysed. therefore, in this case, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to reduce the number of variables to a smaller number of dimensions called ‘factors’. factors explain commonalities between sets of variables. specifically, bartlett’s sphericity test was used, as it tests the probability that significant correlations exist among at least some of the variables in the data set. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test was performed, as it determines whether the data were suitable for factor analysis (shrestha 2021:6). the test computes the probability that the correlation matrix has significant correlations among at least some of the variables in a data set. research results the research results were obtained through the execution of two different statistical phases. the first phase entailed descriptive analysis (table 2), while the second phase entailed the bartlett test result (table 3) and factor analysis (table 4 to table 6). table 2 illustrates the descriptive analysis results for the measuring instrument. table 2: descriptive analysis results for the measuring instrument (section b, c and d). table 3: the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure and the bartlett test results. table 4: factor analysis of the effectiveness of municipal credit management. table 5: factor analysis for the responsiveness to credit management policy. table 6: factor analysis for the relationship between credit management policy and customer service. table 2 reports that the effectiveness of municipal credit management overall scale (section b) had the highest mean score of 2.702, followed by the responsiveness to credit management policy overall scale (section c), which had a mean rating of 2.525. the relationship between credit management policy and customer service scale (section d) had the lowest mean rating of 2.101. the standard deviation is frequently associated with the mean because it is a measure designed to resolve the average distance of interpretations from the measurement of the arithmetic mean interpretation. the relationship between credit management policy and customer service scale had the highest standard deviation (0.5936), followed by the effectiveness of municipal credit management scale (0.5579), and responsiveness to credit management policy had a standard deviation of (0.5079). as a result, there was a greater degree of variation in responsiveness and service delivery. the questionnaires contain a number of questions of which not all can be analysed. therefore, in this case, efa was used to reduce the number of variables to a smaller number of dimensions called factors, which explain what the original set of variables have in common. specifically, bartlett’s sphericity tests were used. to determine whether the data were suitable for factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) test was performed. the kmo test is a tool for determining whether or not data are suitable for factor analysis (shrestha 2021:6). table 3 was constructed to illustrate such test results. the results of the kmo measure and the bartlett test are summarised in table 3. the effectiveness of municipal credit management was addressed in section b, responsiveness to credit management policy addressed in section c, and the relationship between credit management policy and customer service was addressed in section d. the sampling adequacy of the municipal credit management processes, credit management policy and credit management policy and customer services measures were 0.804, 0.845 and 0.938, respectively, according to the kmo test. all of these kmo indicators were greater than 0.6, indicating that the data collected for this study are suitable for other efa procedures. table 3 indicates that the bartlett’s test of sphericity results for the various scales revealed significant chi-squares of 2929.259 (df = 45) for effectiveness of municipal credit management, 3590.939 (df = 91) for responsiveness to credit management policy, and 9551.740 (df = 153) for relationship between credit management policy and customer service. all of these values were statistically significant at p = 0.000; 0.05, implying that factor analysis is appropriate for the data set. table 4 displays the factor analysis of the effectiveness of municipal credit management. table 4 displays statistical findings relating to two different factors. in order to understand municipal credit management (factor 1), it is posited that this factor consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (4.660) and a percentage of variance explained by factor 1 is 46.600%. these items covered by this factor can assist in determining whether residents understand the municipal billing and the credit management in the municipality. questions b7, b8, b9 and b10 best reflected the potential to measure the understanding of credit management. from these findings, it can be suggested that the participants have an understanding of municipal credit management. with regard to the second factor (implementation of municipal credit management policy), this factor consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (1.875) and a percentage of variance explained of 18.747%. the items contained in this factor assist the researcher to determine the implementation of municipal credit management policy. because questions b3, b4, b5, and b6 best reflected the potential to measure the implementation of municipal credit management, the study focuses on the results of the four selected questions. from these findings, it can be concluded that there is poor implementation of credit management in the municipality. table 5 displays the factor analysis for the responsiveness to credit management policy. table 5 displays data relating to three different factors. the first factor (reaction to credit management policy) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of 5.558 and a percentage of variance explained of 39.701%. the residents can be unresponsive to the credit policy because of several factors; one of these can be the enforcement of the policy, service delivery, accuracy of billing, affordability, the stigma of entitlement because of their historic experience and so forth. questions c1, c2, c3, and c13 best reflected the potential to measure reaction to credit management policy, and therefore the study concentrates on the results of the four selected questions. the findings indicate that the participants were reactive to the credit management policy of the municipalities in the level of its implementation by the municipality. the second factor (attitude towards credit management) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (2.115) and a percentage of variance explained of 15.106%. this factor focuses on the outcomes of the four selected questions, c4, c5, c10, and c12, because they best indicated the capacity to gauge attitude to credit management policy. the finding suggests that the participants had an uncooperative attitude towards the municipality’s credit management policy. as indicated by the first factor tested, the reason for such uncooperativeness could be the lack of enforcement of the policy, poor service delivery, inaccuracy of billing, unaffordability, the stigma of entitlement because of their historic experience. the third factor (residents’ affordability) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (1.342) and a percentage of variance explained of 9.583%. this section focuses on the results of the four selected questions, c6, c8, c9, and c11, because they best reflected the potential to measure residents’ affordability. the findings propose that affordability can have a bearing on responsiveness to credit management. how the residents perceived unaffordability emanates from the effects of socio-economic factors such as poverty and unemployment. this was confirmed by fjeldstad (2004) that the prevailing view is that non-payment results from poverty and the presence of an entitlement culture. also, worku (2018) found that employment status, level of formal education and race group are the factors that affect reluctance to pay for municipal services. unaffordability can also be exacerbated by relatively low-income households or individuals who are unable to manage their personal finances and live beyond the affordability rates. the neighbourhood where a home is located can influence its perceived affordability (gibbons 2021). the most direct indicator of unaffordability is the cost of housing such as rates and taxes. there can be a gap between perceived housing unaffordability and actual costs that is informed by neighbourhood context (gibbons 2021). the research was conducted in the township where it is perceived to be a relatively poor neighbourhood and majority of residents consider rates and taxes as unaffordable. table 6 displays the factor analysis for the relationship between credit management policy and customer service. table 6 displays statistical findings relating to three different factors. the first factor (customer satisfaction) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (11.248) and a percentage of variance explained of 62.489%. this section focuses on the results of questions, d10, d11, d12, and d14, because they best reflected the potential to measure customer satisfaction. the results propose that the participants were not satisfied with the quality of municipal services. the second factor (implementation of service delivery) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (1.458) and a percentage of variance explained of 8.099%. this section examines the answers to questions d1, d2, d5, and d6, because they best reflect the potential to measure implementation of service delivery. the findings propose that there is poor implementation of service delivery in the municipality. poor service delivery includes late billing for services, not collecting refuse, poor sewerage maintenance and a lack of electrical substation maintenance. the third factor (resource deployment) consisted of four items with an eigenvalue of (1.014) and a percentage of variance explained of 5.635%. the focus is on the answers to questions d17 and d18, as they represent the most potential to measure resource deployment. there is poor resource deployment in terms of human capital to implement the credit policy management and service delivery. conclusion the purpose of this article was to answer the research questions: do residents understand and respond to the credit management policy of a sedibeng district municipality? and which factors affect the responsiveness of residents to the credit management policy of the sedibeng district municipality? the study has shown that there is understanding of credit management policy by residents; however, the municipality has failed to enforce it. non-enforcement may include late billing for services, not billing for services and not following-up on non-payment. the residents respond to credit management policies to the extent that the municipality enforces it. unfortunately, the municipality has not met its responsibility regarding credit management enforcement. factors that influence responsiveness included: negative attitudes because of poor service delivery and challenge with affordability of municipal services. thus, residents either refuse to pay municipal fees, as the services they pay for are not delivered by the municipality, or they cannot afford to pay the fees charged by the municipality. when non-payment by residents occurs, poor quality services by the municipality follows. in south africa, communities have been constantly frustrated by the poor service delivery by the local authorities. for the municipality to be financially sustainable and be able to offer quality services, the rate payers must pay for services. fjeldstad (2004) established that the major financial problem in many municipalities in south africa is the ineffective collection of service charges because of widespread non-payment. as a result of financial constraints, caused by non-payment of municipal rates and taxes, municipalities are not able to afford operational obligations of delivering quality services. inadequate service delivery also encourages non-payment of municipal rates and taxes and vice versa. the municipality needs to urgently implement debt recovery policies and give residents rebates and discounts, in order to stimulate payment. in addition, the municipality should improve on the quality of services in terms of billing, refuse removal, electrical substation maintenance and sewage maintenance, to ensure the residents’ willingness to pay for such services. lastly, employee training and development programmes can be introduced, while community awareness programmes to engage with residents regarding the credit management policy, can also be helpful. it should be noticed that this research did not include any responses from the sampled municipality’s management corps. thus, it remains unclear why the municipality is not enforcing its credit management policy. it is suggested that further research is undertaken to determine the internal reasons for municipal non-enforcement of a credit management policy. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and all the editors involved in the process of manuscript revision. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.w.m. contributed through data and literature collection. g.j.m. contributed through handling administrative tasks and reviewing literature. n.r. contributed through reviewing of statistics and recruiting a language editor. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the vaal university of technology faculty research ethics committee (frec) (no. frecms17062020-039). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding 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accepted: 18 sept. 2020; published: 09 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the south african power utility is facing several challenges with regards to providing sustainable electricity to consumers. the power utility is also currently not demonstrating adequate efficiency or productivity, with high levels of leadership turnover. aim: the aim was to assess servant leadership, including features of servant leadership in the power utility. the assessment also aimed at examining gender and age group perspectives in order to obtain a better understanding of servant leadership in the specific business unit of the power utility. setting: a specific business unit of the south african power utility which is situated in the free state province. methods: a quantitative cross-sectional study collected 771 responses from a convenience sample. respondents completed measures of servant leadership. statistical analysis included descriptive, reliability, validity and anova calculations. results: servant leadership opinions indicate a lack of servant leadership features within the sample. male respondents reported higher opinions with regards to stewardship, whilst statistical and practical differences were observed when comparing servant leadership across age groups. conclusion: literature indicates servant leadership can be a worthy contributor towards productivity and efficiency. the power utility has struggled to demonstrate adequate opinions of servant leadership and would require a well-formulated and well-implemented leadership development plan. keywords: servant leadership; age groups; gender; south africa; power utility; leadership. introduction research has attempted to highlight the importance of good leadership for organisational success. leadership has, to this end, become so pivotal that both success and failure of any organisation are attributed to the leadership style of the person, or body of persons, that pilot the activities of that system (nwankwo, ocheni & atakpa 2012:119–130). according to nwankwo et al. (2012:119), the quality, mission and vision of the leadership determine the degree of success or failure of an organisation to a large extent. the power utility under investigation is faced with daily electricity constraints and organisational challenges such as fuel shortages, maintenance problems, capital expansion project delays, environmental concerns and a high rate of leadership turnover. sound leadership is necessary to keep the power utility running at optimum capacity. the goal of the power utility is to maintain a top quartile performance amongst utilities worldwide. this will be accomplished by protecting the health and safety of employees, systematically pursuing incident-free operations, improving organisational processes, maximising electricity generation, optimising related costs, correcting weaknesses and sharing and applying operation experience. however, what will be required in order to achieve these goals would be effective and efficient leadership. the impact of leadership style on the progress of any organisation manifests through the performance of the workforce shown by the productivity level of the outfit towards the attainment of its corporate objectives (nwankwo et al. 2012:119–130). the concept of leadership has progressed and has changed in modern-day society. early research on leadership focused on personal traits such as intelligence, energy and appearance, and later research attention shifted to leadership behaviours that are appropriate to the organisational situation (daft & marcic 2011:395). the authors further said that leadership concepts have evolved from the transactional approach to charismatic and transformational leadership behaviours. leadership further progressed to incorporate values instead of behaviour. according to agard (2011:345), servant leaders assert important placement of values, beliefs and principles in leadership, and those values are the core elements of the practice which, eventually, incite servant leadership behaviour in others. agard (2011:346) further postulated that the concept of servant leadership was one that had attracted substantial interest amongst many followers over the past few decades. at this early stage, an intriguing question arises: why is it relevant for modern-day organisations to focus on servant leadership? according to research conducted amongst high-performance organisations (hpos), there is a direct positive relationship between the hpo factors and organisational performance (de waal & sivro 2012:179). as servant leadership deals with behaviours and attitudes of managers, it is a reasonable assumption that servant leadership has a certain influence on management quality, one of the factors of high performance included in the high performance organisation framework (de waal & sivro 2012:174). servant leadership is demonstrated by empowering and developing people; by expressing humility, authenticity, interpersonal acceptance and stewardship and by providing direction (van dierendonck & nuijten 2011:267). the purpose of examining a topic of this nature at the specific power utility is because of the massive capital expansion project that is under progress and the major organisational and operational changes that are currently occurring in the power utility. being a parastatal, the core strategy is on shifting performance and growing sustainability, while the strategic imperatives are focused on becoming an hpo. the power utility needs to align its strategic direction by focusing on its human capital to ensure improved business performance. with a negative media attitude and the accelerated operational and human performance challenges (plant maintenance, employee behaviour and employee morale and leadership ineffectiveness) experienced, it is the opinion of this research that hope amongst employees in the organisation is diminishing and the need for servant leadership is becoming more desirable. by establishing the desire for servant leadership, employees will determine to the organisation’s success or failure in this dynamic environment. literature review the following section is dedicated to current literature views on servant leadership, including servant leadership in the south african context. servant leadership literature shows that the concept of servant leadership is explained differently by different authors and organisations. servant leadership is a leadership philosophy focused on follower development and represents a plausible leadership paradigm for the 21st-century organisation (dehaven 2007:114). the very concept of servant leadership is based on the values of humility and respect for others (oforchukwu 2013:53). the emerging approach to leadership and service is called ‘servant leadership’ (greenleaf 1998:2). servant leaders are those who make a deliberate choice to serve others and to put other people’s needs first (french et al. 2011:451). the concept of servant leadership emphasises increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, a sense of community and shared decision making (bodenhamer & barrows 1994:1202). servant leadership is a question of inner motivation, of a deeply felt mission; and everyone can become a servant leader regardless of whether he or she already is a leader because the combination of opposites lies within everyone’s reach (trompenaars & voerman 2009:13). servant leadership includes deliberate actions that strive to enhance the best of others. servant leadership is a humane effort that is people-focused instead of profit-driven. the central theme of servant leadership is working to improve others (baron 2010:1–87). a servant leader lives, loves and leads by conscience – the inward moral sense of what is right and what is wrong (sipe & frik 2009:17). the servant leader leads people in a manner that helps them grow and increase their capacity to contribute (useful products and services) and in the process gain the satisfaction of making a greater contribution to the success of the organisation (neuschel 2005:12). servant leaders feel that their role is to help people achieve their goals; they constantly try to find out what their people need to perform well and live according to the vision (blanchard 2010:262). the servant leader ensures a constant connection between experience and learning and tests these according to the next planned steps (trompenaars & voerman 2009:54). the natural instinct of a servant leader is to provide information freely and readily to workers which helps create a work climate based on inclusivity and partnership, which are key facets of a spiritually rich workplace (giacalone & jurkiewicz 2010:133). developed upon greenleaf’s original findings, a list of 10 characteristics of a servant leader were identified as being of critical importance and central to the development of servant leaders (spears & lawrence 2002:5). the authors listed and explained the characteristics as follows: listening: listening encompasses getting in touch with one’s own inner voice and seeking to understand what one’s body, spirit and mind communicate. listening, coupled with regular periods of reflection, is essential to the growth of the servant leader. empathy: the servant leader strives to understand and empathise with others. the most successful servant leaders are those who have become skilled, empathetic listeners. healing: the healing of relationships is a powerful force for transformation and integration. one of the great strengths of servant leadership is the potential of healing one’s self and one’s relationship with others. awareness: general awareness, especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant leader. persuasion: the servant leader seeks to convince others rather than coerce compliance. conceptualisation: the ability to look at a problem (or an organisation) from a conceptualising perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. foresight: foresight is a characteristic that enables the servant leader to understand lessons from the past, the realities of the present and the likely consequence of a decision for the future. stewardship: stewardship emphasises the use of openness and persuasion rather than control. commitment to the growth of people: servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contribution as workers. servant leaders are deeply committed to the growth of each and every individual in his or her institution. building community: servant leadership suggests that true community can be created amongst those who work in business and other institutions. servant leadership and organisational performance all leaders, in particular servant leaders, have an unwavering commitment to their values (baron 2010:4). values are the core elements of servant leadership; the values of servant leaders not only yield observable attributes, but they also affect the leader’s organisation (oforchukwu 2013:53). leader values significantly affect followers and ultimately influence organisational performance (oforchukwu 2013:53). servant leaders facilitate the growth, goals and development of others to liberate their best qualities in pursuing the organisation’s mission (daft & marcic 2011:395). in organisations these leaders’ top priority is to service employees, customers, shareholders and the general public (daft & marcic 2011:176). servant leadership helps create a high-performing organisation (blanchard 2010:282). furthermore, servant leaders want to make a difference in the lives of their people and, in the process, create an impact on the organisation (blanchard 2010:262). blanchard (2010:262) further said that ‘servant leadership can occur in any organisation’. the essential quality of a servant leadership culture will be evident by the way employees embrace the vision, live out the core values and relearn key virtues. the servant-led organisation is completed with the knowledge that the financial bottom line is not the essential bottom line (baron 2010:134): servant leadership is just not another management technique. it is a way of life for those with servant hearts. in organisations run by servant leaders, servant leadership becomes a mandate, not a choice, and the by-products are better leadership, better service, a high-performing organisation and more success and significance. organisations led by servant leaders are less likely to experience poor leadership. (p. 262) servant leadership succeeds or fails based on the personal values of the people who employ it (oforchukwu 2013:53). the most persistent barrier to being a servant leader is a heart motivated by self-interest that looks at the world as a ‘give a little, take a lot’ proposition (blanchard 2010:271). servant leadership in the south african context south african researchers have identified similar important servant leadership characteristics which are critical to the field of servant leadership. these characteristics include authenticity, humility, integrity, listening, compassion, accountability, courage and altruism (coetzer, bussin & geldenhuys 2017:19). servant leadership has also been identified as an important role player in terms of creating positive employee attitudes and improved organisational performance (coetzer et al. 2017:19). furthermore, south african research has indicated that servant leadership is a critical type of leadership required because of our unique political landscape (kgatle 2018:8). according to kgatle (2018:8), servant leadership can provide a solution to improve governance, trustworthiness and accountability within the south african environment. with south africa’s unique landscape, it would also be critical to consider how different demographical groups view servant leadership. a recent south african study found that africans view servant leadership differently when compared to their white counterparts. african’s reported higher levels of aggregate servant leadership observations, including different opinions about interpersonal support, building community, altruism and moral integrity when compared to their white colleagues (mccallaghan, jackson & heyns 2019:1029). with regards to gender differences, mccallaghan et al. (2019:1029) found that males reported higher observations for the interpersonal support and egalitarianism servant leadership variables. differences are not only reported for gender and race groups but also include differences amongst age groups and generational cohorts. researchers have found evidence that we may experience changes in how individuals view leadership, especially between intergenerational groups (haeger & lingham 2013:299). however, previous south african examinations could not find any evidence that servant leadership and employee age would be related (dannhauser & boshoff 2006:11). problem investigated examinations of servant leadership in diverse settings are an important method to gain a further understanding of how servant leadership operates (rodriguez-rubio & kiser 2013:144). individuals with different cultural backgrounds and age differences might view values that are related to servant leadership differently. for example, findings from rodriguez-rubio and kiser (2013:131) indicate that female mexican participants demonstrated higher indications of service towards others when compared to mexican males. in the same study, american females reported higher opinions of family importance when compared to american males. the findings from rodriguez-rubio and kiser (2013) demonstrate that perspectives of servant leadership may differ between gender groups in a culturally diverse environment. similarly to gender, value perspectives of servant leadership per age group also demonstrated differences. more specifically: work was more important for mexican respondents between the ages of 30 and 49; service to others was more important for mexicans age 50 or older; younger mexicans felt that they have less freedom of choice and control over their lives than those who were over the age of 50. (p. 131) south africa is a very diverse country in terms of gender and age. gender diversity in a south african environment will also remain a priority, as previous studies found evidence to indicate that gender diversity is strongly related to organisational performance (zhuwao et al. 2019:6). age diversity in the south african context should also remain important, especially for the purpose of succession and transfer of knowledge (van der walt & du plessis 2010:8). it is evident that gender and age diversity is an important aspect in south africa, and to gain a better understanding of how servant leadership would operate in a diverse environment such as a south african power utility would require further examination. with regards to the south african power utility, leadership and performance, the dynamic nature in which the parastatal operates, and the need for continuous uninterrupted electricity supply, have added pressure to enhance organisational performance. being a key role player in the industry and an essential services provider, acknowledged by all stakeholders for exceptional standards, performance and professionalism, it is imperative that the power utility remains ethical, well-governed and builds trusted relationships with all stakeholders. this can only be sustainable if the power utility leads through excellence and enhances its organisational performance. one could argue that servant leadership is therefore a logical preferred leadership style because of the fact that it is strongly associated with positive organisational performance (oforchukwu 2013:53). however, it has not been established what leadership style(s) are dominant in the power utility. by establishing the employees’ perceptions of the extent to which leaders demonstrate this leadership style, which may or may not be accurate, perceptions are, however, very strongly related to their decision making and consequent behaviour as a result of what they perceive to be true. servant leadership, for one, had never been assessed; therefore, it was important to conduct this study to do an assessment on servant leadership in the power utility and determine the perception of servant leadership amongst employees and management. research objectives taking into consideration the preceding paragraphs, the study considered the objectives as discussed further. primary objective the primary objective of this research is to gain an understanding of servant leadership in a south african power utility. secondary objectives the specific secondary objectives of this research are: to establish the relevance of servant leadership by conducting a literature review; to empirically assess employee perceptions of the level of servant leadership as demonstrated by their leaders at the power utility and to explore the nature of servant leadership amongst gender and age groups at the power utility by conducting statistical analyses of empirical data. method research design and approach this study followed a quantitative approach. a cross-sectional survey design was used to reach the stated objective. according to spector (2019:130), cross-sectional studies are especially valuable to determine a specific observation at a single point in time. the study further made use of a self-administered questionnaire. permission was obtained from the south african power utility. the agreement stipulated that the identity of the business unit in the power utility may not be disclosed and should be referenced as a power utility in the scope. the questionnaires were distributed to the participating respondents. two methods were used to distribute the questionnaires. a hard copy questionnaire and an electronic questionnaire were administered. the rationale behind using both a hard copy and electronic questionnaire was to avoid exclusion should an employee not have access to a computer. the type of method chosen by the respondent was based on the convenience of the respondent. all completed questionnaires were then sent to the researcher via e-mail, facsimile or in hard copy format. ethical considerations were made by attaching a covering letter to the questionnaire. the cover letter explained the objectives of the research and confirmed the anonymous, confidentiality and voluntary nature of the study. participants, sampling and data collection the target population or study sample comprised all of the employees at a specific business unit of the power utility under investigation. a total of 771 respondents from a convenience sample completed questionnaires. respondents were employed at a specific business unit of a power utility situated in the free state province. table 1 represents the demographical characteristics of the respondents who participated in the study. table 1: demographical information. a closer of inspection of table 1 reveals the fact that the majority of the participating respondents fall in the age group category of 25–34 years (45.26%), with the second largest group comprising people aged 55+ years (22.82). the majority of the respondents were male (75.4%), followed by the females (24.25%), while the majority of the employees (34.89%) were sesotho speaking, followed by afrikaans (19.33%) and english (14.66%). the majority of the workforce (55.6%) has completed their tertiary education with only 25.81% of the respondents having qualifications below grade 12. measuring instrument the measuring instrument comprised two sections. the first section collected data on the demographical information, and the second section collected data on servant leadership. a 30-item instrument on servant leadership, which includes eight dimensions, namely standing back, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, accountability, authenticity, humility and stewardship (van dierendonck & nuijten 2011:249–267), was applied to collect opinions on servant leadership from a follower perspective. the specific instrument has been validated by van dierendonck and nuijten (2011:249–267), who explained that the correlations between the different items on the instrument were good. according to van dierendonck and nuijten (2011:249–267), the results demonstrate that the servant leadership survey (sls) has convergent validity with other leadership measures and also adds unique elements to the leadership field. the sls uses a 4-point likert scale ranging from ‘disagree strongly’ (1), ‘disagree’ (2), ‘agree’ (3) to ‘strongly agree’ (4), regarding the inclusion of the eight dimensions. a typical statement from the sls reads as follows: ‘my manager holds me and my colleagues responsible for the way we handle a job’. statistical analysis the data were analysed by using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 26 (ibm corp. 2020). internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by calculating cronbach alpha coefficients and inter-item correlations. internal consistency as measured with cronbach alpha was considered sufficient at a moderate level (α = 0.60) (taber 2018:1278). according to pallant (2007:95), measuring scales with low scale items may present lower cronbach alpha scores, and therefore inter-item correlation analysis should also be conducted. inter-item correlations were considered sufficient at r = 0.30 (field 2013:821). once reliability was determined, the variables that met the minimum thresholds were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (efa). according to pallant (2007:190), sample adequacy would be acceptable when the kaiser–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) is above 0.60 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant (p < 0.05). the principal axis factoring was used as the extraction method with the oblimin kaiser normalisation as rotation. criteria for factor selection was set at 1.00 for eigenvalues (pallant 2007:190). factor loadings were considered adequate at 0.30 (pallant 2007:196). once the internal structures were confirmed, we conducted an analysis for convergent validity as part of construct validity. composite reliability (cr) may be examined for this purpose (hair et al. 2010:619). critical values for cr should be above 0.70 (hair et al. 2010:619). frequency distributions, mean values and standard deviations were calculated for every leadership variable in order to determine central tendencies with regards to servant leadership, including servant leadership features. analysis of variance (anova) was calculated in order to determine statistical differences between group. post hoc tests were conducted where more than two groups were present. the welch’s test for significance was also considered as this test is robust and does not assume equal variances. additionally, cohen’s theory was used to interpret the effect-size (d-values): small effect or practical non-significant differences (d-value ≈ 0.2), medium effect or practical visible differences (d-value ≈ 0.5) and large effect or practical significant differences (d-value ≈ 0.8) (ellis & steyn 2003:51–53). ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained from the nwu business school. results the results will be reported in four sections. the first section will report on findings pertaining to reliability, the second section will report findings pertaining to the efa and the third section will report on descriptive statistics per variable, including cr, while the final section will report on findings related to anova examinations. reliability table 2 contains the reliability results from all variables under investigation. table 2: reliability scores per variable. the results in table 2 indicate that the variables empowerment, standing back, forgiveness, courage, humility and stewardship demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α > 0.60; r > 0.30). the authenticity variable with only two scale items recorded a cronbach alpha of α = 0.52 and inter-item score of r = 0.35. therefore, taking into consideration the suggestions from pallant (2007:95), authenticity was deemed to demonstrate sufficient internal consistency and was included in the remaining analysis of the study. accountability recorded reliability scores below all thresholds and was therefore removed from further analysis. exploratory factor analysis an efa was conducted in order to examine the internal structure of each individual variable that met the minimum reliability thresholds. examinations of scree plots and eigenvalues confirmed that all variables were unifactorial. for empowerment, the first factor extracted explained 53.47% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 3.74 (kmo = 0.84; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05) with factor loadings ranging from 0.57 to 0.82. the first factor extracted for the standing back variable explained 70.51% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 2.12 (kmo = 0.70; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05) with factor loadings for standing back ranging from 0.81 to 0.85. in terms of forgiveness, the first factor extracted explained 71.84% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 2.16 (kmo = 0.71; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05) with factor loadings ranging from 0.84 to 0.86. for courage, the first factor extracted explained 82.30% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 1.65 (kmo = 0.60; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05), with factor loadings ranging from 0.90 to 0.91. for authenticity, the first factor extracted explained 50.18% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 1.51 (kmo = 0.61; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05). for authenticity, factor loadings ranged from 0.60 to 0.76. with regards to humility, the first factor extracted 64.11% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 3.21 (kmo = 0.85; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05), with factor loadings ranging from 0.67 to 0.87. for the final variable, the first factor extracted for stewardship explained 60.30% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 1.81 (kmo = 0.52; bartlett’s test of spherecity, p < 0.05), with factor loadings ranging from 0.40 to 0.92. descriptive statistics and composite reliability table 3 contains the descriptive and cr results from the variables under investigation. table 3: descriptive statistics. forgiveness recorded the highest mean score of m = 3.26 and sd = 0.53, which is within the scale’s ‘agree’ range. this result implies that respondents are of the opinion that their managers or leaders demonstrate forgiveness. the variable standing back recorded the lowest mean value of m = 1.31; sd = 0.54 which is within the scales disagree range. this would indicate that participants disagreed that their manager or leader gives credit to others, is not chasing recognition and appears to enjoy his colleagues’ success more than his own. the scores for empowerment (m = 1.77; sd = 0.45), authenticity (m = 1.52; sd = 0.52) and humility (m = 1.50; sd = 0.51) are also within the measurement scales ‘disagree’ range. in reality this result indicates that respondents are of the opinion their managers or leaders are not demonstrating empowerment, authenticity or humility. both the courage (m = 3.07; sd = 0.45) and stewardship (m = 2.51; sd = 0.55) variables were in the measurements ‘agree’ range. the specific result indicated respondents were of the opinion their managers or leaders are demonstrating courage and stewardship. the cr scores were also above the 0.70 threshold, which indicates adequate composite reliability. group comparisons – servant leadership the final section examined the view of servant leadership across demographical groups. the statistical analysis in terms of group comparisons was restricted to only the gender and age groups. table 4 contains the results of comparisons between the male and female respondents. the lavene’s test for homogeneity was not significant for any of the variables, and therefore anova was conducted for the gender groups assuming equal variances. table 4: servant leadership recordings for gender groups. the results from table 4 indicate that only stewardship reveals a statistical difference when comparing means between the male and female groups (p < 0.01). the male group recorded a higher observation for stewardship (m = 2.56; sd = 0.51) when compared to the female group (m = 2.38; sd = 0.27). the result was considered as a medium practically visible difference. the remaining gender comparisons did not yield any significant difference when comparing mean scores between the male and female respondents. the final group comparison was conducted for the age groups. the test for homogeneity was significant for age group anova’s. subsequently, the post hoc analysis was conducted by making use of the tamhane multiple comparison test as this method does not assume equal variances. a closer inspection of the table 5 indicates that only stewardship did not yield a significant result (p = 0.09) when comparing servant leadership observations between age groups. the remaining variables, including the aggregate servant leadership variable, revealed a statistical significance when comparing means between age groups (p < 0.01). consequently, post hoc tests were conducted on empowerment, standing back, forgiveness, courage, authenticity, humility and servant leadership. table 5: servant leadership observations per age group. the post hoc test for empowerment revealed a statistical difference when comparing the mean scores for age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.57; medium effect), group 2 and 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.40; medium effect). in both cases, age group 3 (35–54) recorded higher observations for empowerment. in reality, respondents who are between 35 and 54 years old reported higher opinions of empowerment when compared to employees who are 34 years old and younger. similarly, a significant result was observed when comparing age group 1 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.42; medium effect) with age group 4 (55+) reporting higher opinions of empowerment. for standing back there was visible difference between age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.65; medium effect) and between age group 1 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.40; medium effect). in both cases, age group 3 (35–54) and age group 4 (55+) recorded higher observations for standing back when compared to age group 1 (18–24). in reality this result meant that older respondents reported higher observations of standing back when rating their immediate leader or manager. there was also a difference between age group 2 and age group 3 for standing back (p < 0.01; d = 0.40; medium effect), with age group 3 (35–54) reporting higher observations of standing back. with regards to forgiveness, there was difference between age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.50; medium effect) and between age group 1 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.43; medium effect). in both cases, age group 1 (18–24) reported higher observations of forgiveness. similarly, there were visible differences when comparing age group 2 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.37; medium effect), and between age group 2 and age group 4 (p = 0.04; d = 0.28; small effect). age group 2 (25–34) reported higher observations for forgiveness in both situations. in reality, employees 34 years old and younger would be inclined to report higher recordings of forgiveness when rating their supervisor or manager when compared to employees older than 35 years old. in terms of courage, there were reported differences between age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.63; medium effect) and between age group 2 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.46; medium effect). in both comparisons age group 3 (35–54), reported lower observations of courage when compared to the other age groups. this result suggests that employees between 35 and 54 years old report lower recordings of courage for their immediate supervisor or manager when compared to employees 34 years and younger. there was further a difference between age group 3 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.40; medium effect), with age group 4 (55+) recording higher opinions of courage when rating their immediate supervisor or manager. for authenticity, there was differences between age group 1 and age group 2 (p = 0.03; d = 0.30; medium effect) and between age group 2 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.43; medium effect). in both comparisons, age group 2 (24–34) reported higher annotations of authenticity when rating their respective leader or manager. furthermore, there was a difference between age group 3 and age group 4 (p = 0.04; d = 0.34; medium effect) with age group 3 (35–54) indicating higher observations for authenticity when compared to employees older than 55 years old. the comparisons for the humility variable also revealed differences when comparing observations between age groups. there was a difference between age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.50; medium effect) and between age group 2 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.48; medium effect) with age group 3 (35–54) indicating higher opinions of humility in respect of their immediate leader or manager in both situations. furthermore, there was a difference for humility between age group 2 and age group 4 (p < 0.01; d = 0.21; small effect), with age group 4 (55+) reporting a slightly higher opinion for humility. in terms of the aggregate servant leadership recording, we found differences between age group 1 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.48; medium effect), with age group 3 (35–54) reporting higher observations of servant leadership when compared to age group 1 (18–24). in reality, this result would mean that employees aged between 35 and 54 years old were inclined to record higher observations of servant leadership when rating their immediate supervisor or manager when compared to employees aged between 18 and 24 years old. there were also differences between age group 2 and age group 3 (p < 0.01; d = 0.35; medium effect) with age group 3 (35–54) also reporting higher observations of servant leadership when compared to employees aged between 25 and 34 years old. conclusion the primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of servant leadership in a power utility. to achieve the primary objective, a theoretical study was done as a benchmarking exercise. servant leadership focuses on the positive attributes of those who lead over the self-interest of the leader. servant leaders are those who make a deliberate choice to serve others and to put the needs of others first (french et al. 2011:451). according to laub (1999:74), servant leadership is an understanding and practice of leadership behaviour that promotes the value and development of people. servant leaders build their community and practice authenticity and power sharing for the benefit of the organisation. the concept of servant leadership emphasises increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, a sense of community and shared decision making (bodenhamer & barrows 1994:1202). servant leadership is a question of inner motivation and of a deeply felt mission, and everyone can become a servant leader because the combination of opposites lies within everyone’s reach (trompenaars & voerman 2009:13). analysing the characteristics of servant leadership, as explained in the literature review, the power utility has failed to display any of these characteristics through the organisational culture. from the responses received, this leadership style is currently not valued or practised at the power utility. this is not a healthy servant organisation and, considering this, it has failed to put the needs of others first. ultimately the organisation has now lost the strength and power that servant leadership stands for. health of an organisation is directly related to the nature and function of leadership (inbarasu 2008:57). an extremely low perception was reflected when analysing the mean values. the highest calculated mean value was for the dimension forgiveness while the dimension standing back had the lowest mean value. this demonstrates that most participants either agree or strongly agree that their manager is unforgiving, displays a criticising, hard attitude and finds it difficult to forget things that have happened in the past. the low mean values for the dimension on standing back show that a majority of the participants disagreed strongly that their manager gives credit to others, is not chasing recognition and appears to enjoy his colleagues’ success more than his own. in terms of gender differences, stewardship was the only variable demonstrating a statistical and practical differences. the male group recorded higher observations for stewardship when compared to the female group. this finding is consistent with previous research, whereby males recorded higher observations for servant leadership, interpersonal support, altruism, egalitarianism and moral integrity (mccallaghan et al. 2019:1029). with regards to age group comparisons, the study found differences amongst age groups for empowerment, standing back, forgiveness, courage, authenticity and humility. with regards to the aggregate servant leadership comparison across age groups, the results also indicate statistical and practical differences. this finding confirms previous findings that age diversity would demonstrate differences when comparing views of servant leadership values across age groups (rodriguez-rubio & kiser 2013:131). to attempt to provide reasons for the age group differences for servant leadership features in the current study would be speculative. this might pose a managerial problem in itself, as subcultures might form based on age. subcultures could have considerable negative consequences for organisational performance, and therefore such a situation should rather be avoided (leslie 2017:449). limitations and recommended future research the convenience sample was limited to one specific business unit of the power utility. therefore, the results should not be generalised. a national study that would include all business units should provide a better understanding of servant leadership across the entire power utility. with regards to the measuring instrument, results of the survey indicate the accountability variable did not demonstrate adequate internal consistency and was removed from further analysis. it is therefore recommended that future studies should consider the development of new questions in order to assess the accountability dimension. these questions should be grounded in a south african context. the leadership assessment was restricted to only servant leadership. future studies should consider the inclusion of other types of leadership styles in order to gain a full understanding of the leadership environment within the power utility. the assessment of ethical and authentic leadership would provide further insight. for the current study to provide an explanation for the quantitative findings pertaining to age group differences would be speculative as only a qualitative study would be able to provide insight on this particular finding. unfortunately, south african organisations have been plagued with unethical behaviour and mismanagement which has become a daily occurrence for south african organisations (budhram & geldenhuys 2018). organisations, which include state-owned enterprises (soes), and local governments have shown a great need for a type of leadership with moral authority, humility, service and sacrifice that can lead to trust and respect, to improve on organisation governance, trustworthiness and accountability within the south african environment (kgatle 2018). servant leadership can therefore assist with the improvement of south african local governments. however, further examinations of servant leadership and how it operates in local governments would be required in order to fully benefit from servant leadership’s beneficial factors. managerial implications it is evident that the current business unit of the power utility is not able to demonstrate adequate opinions of servant leadership. this would be a clear indication that servant leadership is not a preferred leadership style in the business unit of the power utility. subsequently the utility would also not benefit for the organisational and productivity advantages traditionally associated with servant leadership. in order to stimulate servant leadership behaviours, the specific management could consider improving trust and communication, as these areas have been associated with improved observations of servant leadership (laub 1999:74). a well-developed and well-implemented servant leadership development program would also be beneficial. according to milner and joyce (2005), it is leadership and not good management that transforms organisations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have no competing interests to declare. authors’ contributions d.n. conceptualised the study, compiled the literature review and collected the data. m.h. assisted with conceptualising the study, provided commentary, assisted with the research problem and analysing the data. s.m. performed the write-up for this article, assisted with statistical calculations and data analysis. this article is an extract from d.n.’s master’s degree dissertation. funding information this study did not receive any internal or external funding. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed during this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references agard, k.a., 2011, leadership in non-profit organisations, sage publications, united kingdom. baron, t., 2010, the art of servant leadership: designing your organisation for the sake of others, wheatmark, tucson, arizona. blanchard, k.h., 2010, 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seven pillars of servant leadership, paulist press, mahwah, nj. spears, l.c. & lawrence, m., 2002, focus on leadership: servant-leadership for the 21st century, wiley & sons, new york, ny. spector, p.e., 2019, ‘do not cross me: optimising the use of cross-sectional designs’, journal of business psychology 34(3), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-09613-8 taber, k.s., 2018, ‘the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education’, research in science education 48(6), 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 trompenaars, f. & voerman, e., 2009, servant leadership across cultures, infinite ideas, united kingdom. van der walt, s. & du plessis, t., 2010, ‘age diversity and the aging librarian in academic libraries in south africa’, south african journal of libraries and information sciences 76(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.7553/76-1-81 van dierendonck, d. & nuijten, i., 2011, ‘the servant-leadership survey (sls): development and validation of a multidimensional measure’, journal of business and psychology 26(3), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9194-1 zhuwao, s., ngirande, h., ndlovu, w. & setati, s.t., 2019, ‘gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a south african higher education institution’, sa journal of human resource management 17(4), a1061, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1061 abstract introduction method results and discussion of findings recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) david j. fourie school of public management and administration, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa gerrit van der waldt focus area: social transformation, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation fourie, d.j. & van der waldt, g., 2021, ‘participative integrated development planning praxis in local government: the case of selected south african municipalities’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a43. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.43 original research participative integrated development planning praxis in local government: the case of selected south african municipalities david j. fourie, gerrit van der waldt received: 17 sept. 2021; accepted: 08 oct. 2021; published: 30 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: municipalities have a moral and legal obligation to involve communities in determining, prioritising and realising socio-economic development needs. to achieve this aim, municipalities should use integrated development planning, which implies a sequential, phased process. municipalities should engage the local communities in each phase. for this purpose, and based on unique demographic realities, various means of participation should be used. aim: the aim was to present and reflect on the results of a survey conducted in selected south african municipalities to ascertain the status of integrated development planning design and implementation in the sampled municipalities, with a particular reference to community participation praxis. setting: senior managers in 11 randomly sampled local, district and metropolitan municipalities. participants included municipal managers as chief accounting officers, chief financial officers, executive directors and functional heads of department. methods: a qualitative survey research design was followed utilising a desktop survey and semi-structured interviews as data collection methods. input was obtained from senior managers (n = 52) in 11 randomly sampled local, district and metropolitan municipalities. results: the survey revealed significant disparities between high capacity urban municipalities and deep rural low-capacity municipalities regarding the effectiveness of community participation mechanisms and development planning engagement. conclusion: integrated development planning is crucial to address the diverse and complex nature of development challenges experienced by most of the south african population. the idps of municipalities are critical instruments to guide municipalities in determining and addressing targeted needs in urban and rural communities. recommendations are proposed to address the planning participation deficit. keywords: integrated development planning; south africa; municipalities; community participation; consultation; engagement mechanisms; jel codes: r58; r11; z13. introduction the system of governance in south africa is characterised by three distinct, but interdependent tiers, namely the national, provincial and local government spheres. the local sphere of government consists of eight metropolitans, 44 districts and 205 local municipalities. there are significant disparities between these municipalities: they range from world-class, high-capacity metropolitan municipalities to deep rural, sometimes almost dysfunctional, local municipalities. these differences make uniform integrated urban planning praxis almost impossible. the extreme complexity of the situation on the ground makes it necessary for municipal councils to consider their unique conditions and circumstances very carefully in designing their integrated development plans (idps). according to section 152 of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, one of the key objectives of local government is to ‘promote social and economic development’ (rsa 1996). the developmental role of municipalities was already indicated in the development facilitation act, 67 of 1995 (rsa 1995) and is reiterated in the white paper on local government, 1998 (rsa 1998b). moreover, chapter 5 of the local government: municipal structures act, 117 of 1998 (rsa 1998a) stipulates the functions and powers of municipalities in fulfilling this obligation. additional details are specified in section 23(1) of the local government: municipal systems act, 32 of 2000, which emphasises the developmental role that municipalities should fulfil and prescribes the use of idps as the process through which a municipality should establish a development plan for the short, medium and long term (rsa 2000). this implies that all municipalities are obligated to compile and adopt a formal idp for a given 5-year period. this plan has to be reviewed annually and, if necessary, amended. the statutory framework governing integrated development planning strongly emphasises the participatory and consultative nature of such planning and requires municipalities to engage communities as key stakeholders in determining, prioritising and realising socio-economic development needs. to maintain a healthy local democracy and foster the legitimacy of municipal councils, such needs should be included in the idp and should be met by implementing detailed service delivery and budget implementation plans. the purpose of this article is to reflect on the findings of an empirical survey undertaken in a sample of municipalities in south africa to identify integrated development planning needs and challenges, with a specific reference to community participation praxis. particular deficiencies in the process and means of gaining participation are identified and recommendations are proposed in order to address the identified weaknesses and limitations. the study began with a literature survey of the applicable legislation and idp process, which is presented before the methodology and discussion of the results to contextualise the survey. contextualising integrated development planning in municipalities municipal planning as an official requirement in south africa commenced in the 1930s, but it was originally conducted mainly on a fragmented, racially segregated basis (friedman 2004:23). for decades, it was primarily aimed at accommodating the needs of privileged groups and was silent on matters such as poverty alleviation and social equity (hofisi 2014:1127; sebei 2013:3; petzer, oranje & van huyssteen 2000:12). during the 1970s and 1980s, politically motivated turmoil arising from race-based inequities gave rise to the emergence of civic movements that mobilised themselves in order to make communities’ collective voices heard. political transformation in the early 1990s led to several issue-specific negotiation forums (friedman 2004:24). observers such as harrison (2001) and gueli, van huyssteen and liebenberg (2007) maintain that these forums provided the main impetus for the emergence of notions of ‘integrated’ development planning. the shift towards a more integrated form of development planning was also strongly informed by well-established planning theory and international socio-economic development trends and events (sebei 2013:21). integrated development planning typically combines various sectoral concerns and aligns multi-sphere development interests. a formal integrated planning approach was established in south africa after democratisation in 1994. its main purpose was to create a national platform where national, provincial, municipal and other key stakeholders could deliberate and reach a consensus on ‘apex’ development priorities and could devise longer-term development strategies for the country (maake 2016:22). it was envisaged that such development needs and priorities should emerge at the grassroots levels, meaning that communities should participate directly in planning and in determining suitable strategic development interventions (gueli et al. 2007:6; hlongwane 2011:37; madumo 2015:155). the local government transition act, 209 of 1993 (rsa 1993), which was repealed 5 years later by the local government: municipal structures act, 117 of 1998 (rsa 1998a), the development facilitation act, 67 of 1995 (rsa 1995), which was eventually repealed by the spatial planning and land use management act, 16 of 2013 (rsa 2013) and the white paper on local government, 1998 (rsa 1998b) all strongly affirm the participatory nature of development planning. south africa has a co-operative system of governance, implying that the respective spheres of government must align, integrate and coordinate their planning efforts. national planning is mainly the responsibility of the national planning commission, located in the office of the presidency. national planning encompasses strategies and policies for the country as a whole. in this regard, the national development plan: vision 2030 (rsa 2012) currently serves as an overarching strategic framework for development planning. provincial planning is province specific and is based on the policies and principles formulated at the national level. each province should plan for the unique circumstances in its area of jurisdiction and annually revise its provincial growth and development plans accordingly. municipal planning is the most detailed operational level of planning, as it addresses socio-economic development realities and concerns at a community level. the official planning document of municipalities is the idp. each local municipality’s idp should be aligned with those of district municipalities, which must, in turn, be aligned with the growth and development plans of provinces. the idp should also guide the provincial and national sector departments when allocating resources to local government. the idp thus serves as an overarching framework that links issue-based policies required by national and provincial policy, legislation and sectoral plans to the development needs of the municipal community (ntlabezo 2013:11). moreover, municipalities should consider the sector departments’ policies and programmes in developing their own policies and strategies. it is thus in the interest of sector departments to participate in the idp process so as to ensure that their programmes and those of municipalities are aligned (musitha 2012:11). municipal integrated development planning processes the specific requirements, contents and processes of development plans on the respective spheres of government are outlined in the integrated planning framework bill, 2018 (rsa 2018). moreover, the local government: municipal systems act, 32 of 2000 (rsa 2000) clearly outlines the idp process and requirements. the idp of municipalities should, for example, include a long-term development vision for the municipality, an assessment of existing levels of development, the identification of development priorities, the design of development strategies, a spatial development framework, disaster management plans, a financial plan, as well as key performance indicators and targets. in the compilation of the plans, ward or community-based plans should also be accommodated to ensure that the wishes of the communities are taken into consideration in the formulation of the idp (afesis-corplan 2013:12). the idp manager is responsible, together with the idp representative forum, for compiling the plan. the composition of the representative forum is prescribed by section 15 of the local government: municipal planning and performance regulations, no. 796, 24 august 2001 (rsa 2001). the main responsibilities of these forums are to represent the interests of a given municipality’s constituency in the idp process. this implies that the forum should establish a platform for discussion, negotiation and decision-making involving all stakeholders. apart from senior municipal and provincial officials, the forum should be comprised of representatives of civil society (such as ward committee councillors), community-based organisations and representatives of organised business. the forum should represent sectoral interests, which can typically be divided into the following sectors: agriculture and rural development; economic growth; environmental sustainability; vulnerable groups and community safety; youth, education and higher learning and early childhood development and arts, crafts, sports and culture. a municipality can only claim to have successfully adopted an idp once it has conducted certain processes in an organised manner (maake 2016:68). the process follows a logical and sequential phased approach. hence, scholars such as motingoe (2011), ntlabezo (2013) and sebei (2013) argue that these phases are highly interrelated and interdependent. this means that changes in any one of the phases may influence one or all of the other phases. each phase requires the municipality to engage communities. therefore, it is necessary to elucidate each phase briefly below. phase 1: planning section 27 of the municipal systems act requires every south african municipality to adopt a planning framework for integrated development. the framework should be the result of a consultative process and must include the following (cited verbatim): the plans and planning requirements as contained in legislation; the matters to be included in the idp; the principles to be applied to determine the matters to be included; the approach to be used to include and adopt the matters; the procedures to be used for consultation between the district municipality and local municipalities and the procedure to be used to effect vital amendments to the framework (rsa 2000). section 28 of the municipal systems act stipulates that the community must be consulted on the process plan and must be informed once the plan is officially approved (rsa 2000). phase 2: analysis the second phase focuses on identifying the current situation in the municipal area. the idp should be informed by a detailed analysis of the development challenges experienced by the community (motingoe 2011:24). each municipality must know about the available existing and accessible resources in order to establish the municipality’s limitations in the creation of realistic solutions to identified challenges (ntlabezo 2013:23). the output of this phase should be a comprehensive assessment of the existing level of development, the details of prioritised needs, an understanding of the causes of development challenges and information on available resources (ntlabezo 2013:13). according to maake (2016:69–75), this assessment should be informed by the following types of analyses: legal framework analysis (e.g. statutory and regulatory compliance); leadership guideline analysis (e.g. political and administrative leadership directives); community and stakeholder analysis (e.g. status of service available in the community, input from ward committees, non-governmental and community-based organisations); municipality technical development analysis (e.g. infrastructure status, level of essential services); institutional analysis (e.g. strengths and weaknesses that can affect performance by scrutinising the capacity of the municipality); economic analysis (e.g. contributions of economic sectors within the municipal area); socio-economic analysis (e.g. demographical realities, social equity, prevalence of poverty and unemployment, income distribution and per capita income); spatial analysis (e.g. spatial constraints, problems, opportunities, trends and patterns in order to determine the need for spatial restructuring, land reform and the spatial dimension of development issues); environmental analysis (e.g. environmental factors that may hamper or support development strategies and programmes such as geology, air quality, topography, climate, soils and land, fauna and flora, surface water, ground water, water quality and water pollution) and in-depth analysis (e.g. consolidate and integrate different data sets to assess the overall development status of the municipal area). phase 3: strategies the completion of the previous phase, phase 2, provides the municipality with an understanding of the problems that affect the community and the causes of those problems. in phase 3 then, the municipality has to develop a priority list and solutions to the challenges that have been prioritised (musitha 2012:105). it is therefore essential to do a gap analysis, which involves evaluating the current reality against the envisaged destination. this exercise enables identification of key performance areas, objectives, key performance indicators, targets and action plans (maake 2016:74; motingoe 2011:24–25). phase 4: projects in the fourth phase, the municipality needs to determine the design, content and specifications of the projects identified in the third phase. the projects that are identified must be directly related to the issues determined and prioritised in phase 2 and the objectives identified in phase 3 (motingoe 2011:25). distinct targets must be set and performance indicators must be designed to ensure that all projects can be measured and assessed. for each project, the following details are required: the target group (beneficiaries); the location of the project; the date of commencement; the date of completion; the persons responsible for managing the project; the cost of the project and sources of funding. phase 5: integration the fifth phase entails integration and consolidation to ensure that the municipality ascertains the outcomes of projects measured against the development vision, objectives, strategies and resources allocated (motingoe 2011:26). this leads to consolidated and integrated programmes. ntlabezo (2013:25) defines this phase as an ‘operational strategy’, which should include the following (cited verbatim): a 5-year financial plan and capital investment programme; an integrated spatial development framework; integrated sectoral programmes such as gender equality, economic development and poverty alleviation; consolidated performance management systems; disaster management plan; institutional plan and reference to relevant sector plans. phase 6: approval the previous phases should have resulted in the compilation of a draft idp. prior to the adoption of the idp by a municipal council, it is essential that the community and other interested parties be provided with an opportunity to comment on the draft plan. this phase is meant to provide the approved plan with a sound basis of relevance, support and legitimacy (motingoe 2011:26). the final idp must be submitted to the municipal council for consideration and approval. the council should evaluate the plan and determine whether it accommodates the identified development challenges and whether the strategies formulated in the idp are suitable to address these challenges (ntlabezo 2013:25). participatory municipal development planning participatory democracy can be regarded as a form of governance in which citizens are actively involved in the decision-making processes of government (ababio 2004:277; fakir 2003:7). participatory democracy in the local sphere of government requires active engagement of communities in local decision-making processes (mogale 2005:136; pratchett & wilson 1996). freire (1972:23) points out that real participatory democracy depends on the ‘bottom-up’ work of citizens to build ‘critical communities’ that can enter political deliberations as ‘conscious and empowered forces’. community participation and broad civic engagement are essential requirements for participatory democracy in the context of developmental local governance (van der waldt ed. 2007, 2010). similarly, gaventa and valderrama (1999:4) indicate that community participation involves ‘direct ways in which citizens influence and exercise control in local governance’. in this regard, gonzalez de asis and acuna-alfaro (2002:3) explain that community participation ‘builds collective action between government authorities and citizens, it raises awareness on development responsibilities by civil society, and it fosters involvement in public policy design’. the democratic and developmental system of local government in south africa finds expression mainly through community participation. as has already been mentioned, the statutory and regulatory framework for local government strongly underscores the participatory nature of development planning. in particular, section 152(1) of the constitution (rsa 1996) establishes representative democracy and mandates participatory democracy as two objects of local government – it states that the objectives of local government are, amongst other things, ‘to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities’ and ‘to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government’ (rsa 1996). the white paper on local government, 1998 sets out the vision of developmental local government by characterising it as a: [s]ystem which is committed to working with citizens, groups and communities to create sustainable human settlements which provide for a decent quality of life and which meet the social, economic and material needs of communities in a holistic way. (rsa 1998b, p. 23) musitha (2012:102) and hlongwane (2011:13) also stress the fact that municipal councils are responsible for enhancing local democracy and promoting broad socio-economic development through active community participation. chapter 4 of the local government: municipal systems act, 32 of 2000 requires municipal councils to establish and inculcate a culture of community participation. it also sets out mechanisms, processes and procedures that councils should pursue to facilitate such engagement (rsa 2000). this includes mechanisms to communicate information and give notice of public meetings. chapter 4 of the act also deals with admission of the public to meetings and sets regulations and guidelines for consultations. section 21 of the act further stipulates the manner in which communication to communities should occur. this includes the use of local newspapers, radio broadcasts, official notices, submissions and representations to councils. in respect of establishing participation mechanisms, the act requires municipalities to take into account the special needs of the people who need to be reached, especially those who cannot read or write, people with disabilities, women and other disadvantaged or marginalised groups. as far as community participation in the idp process is concerned, the local government: municipal systems act, 32 of 2000 is supplemented with various official guidelines. one of these is the national policy framework for public participation (dplg 2007), which outlines the principles of public participation, including inclusivity, empowerment, trust, transparency, flexibility and accessibility. furthermore, the south african local government association’s (salga 2011) guideline document on the roles and responsibility of councillors, political structures and officials emphasises the need for a responsive, transparent and unbiased administration that fosters participation in local decision-making. then there is the department of public service and administration’s (dpsa 2014:16–17) guide on public participation in the public service, which makes provision for the design of institutional policies on public participation, the establishment of citizen forums, participation toolkits, satisfaction citizen surveys and the training of officials involved in public participation processes. with a particular reference to participation in the idp process, these guideline documents pinpoint the following participation mechanisms for municipalities: the idp representative forum; advertisements in local newspapers and radio stations; municipal websites; notices at municipal offices; loud-hailing; information sheets distributed by ward committees; the imbizo (public meeting); public hearings; ward committees and community development workers. there is, however, limited empirical evidence regarding the suitability and effectiveness of these mechanisms in the idp process. it seems that especially low-capacity local municipalities struggle to use these mechanisms and fulfil their obligations to promote community participation in the idp process. scholars such as hlongwane (2011), musitha (2012), madumo (2015) and thebe (2016) concur that the official idps of municipalities generally do not outline the extent to which the community is to be or has been involved throughout the idp process. official reports and research by madumo (2015:154), and maake (2016) confirm that communities generally only participate meaningfully during the first phase in the idp cycle. they are then only consulted again after the approval of the draft idp by council, mainly to inform them of the programmes and projects that will take place in the next financial year. furthermore, municipalities, in general, focus more on mere information-sharing mechanisms such as newsletters, annual general meetings, information points or help centres and on strategic partnerships with various stakeholders in the community (idasa 2011:5). some municipalities have initiated additional mechanisms for information-sharing purposes, such as the compilation of databases of all relevant community and stakeholder organisations, informing communities and stakeholders through campaigns and advertisements in local newspapers, notices in prominent locations such as pay points, direct mail, leaflets with service bills, distribution of pamphlets and posters to ward committees and radio announcements (hlongwane 2011). these mechanisms are generally sufficient to share information but do not suffice to engage communities constructively or to obtain their responses or feedback during the relevant phases of the idp (maake 2016). the result is that community consultations do not have enough of an impact on development priorities and decisions. this problem is highlighted by everatt, marais and dube (2010:236), who argue that the idp process normally extends over 8 to 10 months, but that public participation occurs only at a few discrete points during this period. this is counterproductive: sisk and ballington (2001:163) warn that participatory approaches will founder if people believe that they are being used to legitimise decisions that have already been taken or that the results of their efforts will not matter in the long run … citizens and civic groups will quickly recognise when a process is a mask for a top-down decision-implementation and when the views of participants are genuinely sought. other researchers who advocate local participation during all phases of the idp are gueli et al. (2007:104) and hofisi (2014:1132), who call for participation to be applied throughout, not exclusively for initial assessments and the prioritisation of development needs. the prior evidence on the absence of such participation warrants empirical investigation to confirm the status of community participation in municipal idps. method following a qualitative research design, a survey was undertaken to ascertain the status of idps and community participation praxis in a sample of south african municipalities. the survey followed a phased approach. the first phase entailed a conceptual, contextual and situational analysis. by means of a desktop survey, the statutory and regulatory requirements and prescripts for idps in municipalities were analysed (as set out above). the second phase concerned the design of an interview schedule to obtain information pertaining to idp challenges, with a specific reference to community participation and consultation. input was obtained from senior managers in 11 randomly sampled local, district and metropolitan municipalities (representative of rural low-capacity and urban high-capacity municipalities). municipalities located in different provinces were selected to gain a broader geographical and demographical perspective, specifically regarding issues related to culture and ethnicity. the sampled municipalities were the following: alfred duma local municipality (kwazulu-natal). amajuba district municipality (kwazulu-natal). ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality (gauteng). emalahleni local municipality (mpumalanga, local municipality which falls under the nkangala district municipality). emfuleni local municipality (gauteng, local municipality which falls under the sedibeng district municipality). fezile dabi district municipality (free state). frances baard district municipality (northern cape). greater letaba local municipality (limpopo, local municipality that falls under the mopani district municipality). newcastle local municipality (kwazulu-natal, local municipality that falls under the amajuba district municipality). sol plaatje local municipality (northern cape, local municipality that falls under the frances baard district municipality). tshwane metropolitan municipality (gauteng). the third phase entailed conducting face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with the target population. four (local) and five (district and metro) senior managers per municipality were sampled (n = 52). participants included municipal managers as chief accounting officers, chief financial officers, executive directors and functional heads of department. sampled participants signed a declaration indicating consent to participate voluntarily, and the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses was ensured. the interview schedule was pre-tested (piloted) with senior managers in one of the sampled municipalities. the fourth and final phase involved data analysis, including the final verification and cross-referencing of findings. content and narrative analyses were utilised for sense making purposes of the data obtained from the desktop survey and interviews. results and discussion of findings the first part of the survey (questions 1–5) was aimed at ascertaining the demographic profiles of participants. the majority (67%) occupied positions as municipal managers, functional heads and deputy directors. most participants (75%) had more than 10 years of local government experience and 88% of them held tertiary qualifications. the findings confirmed that the profile of the sampled target population was fully conducive to their providing relevant, accurate and informed responses. the second part of the survey was aimed at ascertaining the status of idp processes in the municipality and exploring the challenges and praxis pertaining to community participation in the idp process. various dimensions of the idp process were accommodated in the interview schedule. the data were obtained from eight open-ended and five likert-style questions. some questions were divided into sub-questions to facilitate the collection of rich data. question 6 asked ‘how would you rate the overall legitimacy of the municipal council in the community?’ the question was posed to determine the opinions of senior managers regarding the current level of engagement with the community and how healthy they perceive the interaction in the idp participation process between the municipality and the community. the combined rating of 81% for ‘adequate’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ seems positive. however, this response should be compared to and read in the light of the limitations and challenges identified as currently hampering the idp process, as identified in questions 11, 12 and 13, where participants singled out the lack of participation and limited stakeholder engagement as the most significant challenge. to ascertain the status of the analysis phase of the idp process, question 7 asked: ‘do you conduct regular community profiling endeavours to understand the demographical realities, and infrastructure and service delivery challenges?’ the relatively low affirmative response of 65% (n = 34/52) is concerning, implying that this foundational phase of the idp is not adequately managed and does not comply with the respective types of analysis to be undertaken. it should be noted that the success of the idp process hinges on strong evidence regarding the development needs and priorities of the municipal area. question 8a was designed to identify the mechanisms that municipalities use to determine development needs in the community, whereas question 8b requested participants to indicate the frequency of the determination of such needs. the findings are reflected in tables 1 and 2. table 1: question 8a: mechanisms for the identification of development needs. table 2: question 8b: frequency of the identification of development needs. most participants indicated that their municipalities use the idp review process as the primary mechanism to identify development needs. this finding supports the contention that municipalities generally comply with their legal obligations in this regard. the mechanisms that are mainly employed to engage with local communities include public meetings (21%), public representations in open council meetings (12%), roadshows (10%) and the imbizo (8%). it should be noted, however, that the success of the entire idp hinges on the quality of data and statistics regarding development needs. the various analyses that should be undertaken during phase 2 of the idp process should add a significant value in this regard. the other mechanisms identified should merely support these analyses and cannot be used in isolation (instead of analyses), because people will usually only communicate needs in their personal capacity or what they experience in their own wards. it is imperative that a more holistic perspective of the entire municipal area be obtained. the fact that only 40% of participants indicated that the idp review process is the main mechanism for data collection regarding the development needs of the community is thus a matter for concern. regarding the frequency of the identification of development needs, 63% of the participants indicated that the municipality does so annually; 29% claimed that their municipality undertakes this exercise on a quarterly basis. these responses make sense given the annual review cycle of the idp, as well as the compilation of quarterly performance reports that the respective municipal departments must submit to the municipal council. a further worrying issue is the fact that a relatively high percentage of participants were unsure about the manner in which the municipality identifies development needs (8%) and how often they conduct a process to identify such needs (10%). based on the seniority of participants, one would logically expect that they would be actively involved in the idp process and that the data on any development needs identified would be disseminated to, and remedies would be coordinated between municipal departments. however, this does not seem to be the case in all municipalities. it can be deduced that some administrations act and function in silos. question 9 and its sub-questions were formulated in line with section 29 of the local government: municipal systems act, 32 of 2000 (rsa 2000). participants were asked to rate the extent to which their municipality currently complied with the various requirements (see tables 3–5 for the responses). table 3: question 9a: level of community participation in development needs and priorities. table 4: question 9b: level of community participation in the drafting of the integrated development plans. table 5: question 9c: extent to which organs of state, including traditional authorities and other role players, are consulted in the drafting of the integrated development plans. the combined positive responses (88%, ‘adequate’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’) regarding level of community participation in identifying development needs and priorities (question 9a) are encouraging. however, these results reflect only the opinions of municipal officials and not those of community members. generalisations in this regard should thus be avoided. furthermore, this result should be contrasted with responses to questions 11–13, which reveal that responses to question 9 do not correspond neatly to the limitations and challenges identified (see figure 2 and table 6). the lack of participation or limited participation of community and other stakeholders was identified as the most significant challenge by 11 participants (21%). table 6: main integrated development plans challenges and limitations. regarding the level of community participation in the drafting of the idp (question 9b, table 4), the combined positive response of 79% confirms that municipal officials perceive themselves to comply adequately with their legal obligations to foster community participation. the level or extent to which they comply should, however, be explored further. table 5 shows that 82% held positive perceptions of the extent to which organs of state, including traditional authorities and other role players, are consulted in the drafting of the idp. again, the quality of this consultation should be confirmed by comparing and contrasting this finding with the opinions of these stakeholders. question 10 considered the perceived effectiveness of the community participation mechanisms in the idp process, using a five-point likert scale. the ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ responses on the scale combined reflect an overall positive rating of a particular mechanism. figure 1 reflects the perceived comparative effectiveness of these mechanisms. figure 1: perceived effectiveness of integrated development plans participation mechanisms. responses show that open council meetings and local newspapers are perceived as the most effective means to engage the community in the idp process. it would be interesting to juxtapose these findings with follow-up research in communities to ascertain whether community members agree regarding the most effective mechanisms to become involved in municipal decision-making in general and the idp process in particular. variables such as age, access to information, literacy levels and socio-economic conditions of various segments of municipal communities may have a significant influence on their preferred means of participation. it is thus essential that the choice of effective mechanisms for community participation be informed by the analysis phase (phase 2) of the idp process. question 11 enquired into the overall status of the idp process by focusing on the availability of planning support systems and mechanisms. participants rated the availability of or access to various types of support and reflected on how much the perceived absence of these support systems and mechanisms negatively influences the quality of the idp. figure 2 reports the results. again, the negative responses on the likert scale were combined. responses to these questions provide a more detailed insight into the perceived effectiveness of idp planning support systems and mechanisms. figure 2: absence of planning support systems and mechanisms detrimental to the integrated development plans process. inadequate planning alignment between local and district municipalities and between municipalities and provincial and national government was identified as the most significant idp support challenge. thus, more needs to be done to coordinate development planning efforts and forums aimed at fostering cooperative governance. intergovernmental relations should be used to support individual municipalities with the design of their idps. the responses to this question were cross-referenced with two final follow-up questions (questions 12 and 13), where participants were requested to list the main challenges and limitations to idp planning and say what they thought should be done to improve planning praxis for idp purposes in their respective municipalities. their responses are reflected in tables 6 and 7. table 7: recommendations to improve integrated development plans praxis. the results confirmed the responses obtained in the previous question. again, some challenges are municipality specific. not all municipalities experienced the same challenges. a targeted approach aimed at addressing specific challenges experienced by particular municipalities is thus advised. recommendations based on the findings of the survey, two sets of recommendations can be made. the first set pertains to improving idp praxis in municipalities in general, and the second set focuses on cultivating community participation in the idp process. three general recommendations to improve municipal idps are made: it is evident that there are significant disparities between different municipalities. the idp improvement interventions should thus follow a targeted approach aimed at specific practices in certain municipalities. a pragmatic approach should be adopted to suit the specific circumstances and demographic profile of some municipalities. aspects that should receive particular attention include municipal capacity building through the appointment and upskilling of competent and experienced managers responsible for idp planning and the filling of critical vacancies. it is strongly recommended that municipalities be assisted to use more sophisticated planning tools and technical instruments aimed at securing more accurate and relevant data and statistics during the analysis phase of the idp. unreliable management planning information, outdated statistics and incomplete data seriously jeopardise the development planning capacity of municipalities, especially community profiling demands. management information systems and general information technology support are essential to obtain and disseminate information to key stakeholders across all spheres of government. existing data bases from statistics sa, sa cities network, national treasury and various consultancy groups should be aligned by using online web-based platforms. mechanisms for effecting greater synergy between development planning processes undertaken by the different spheres of government should be established. greater alignment in respect of integrated development planning between the provincial and local spheres of government requires improved coordination and cooperation. provincial sector departments, district municipalities and other stakeholders should participate meaningfully in the formulation and implementation of the idps of local municipalities. five recommendations are made regarding the cultivation of community participation in the idp process: it is essential that municipal councils establish and cultivate a participation ethos and culture premised on recognised democratic principles, such as openness, transparency and responsiveness. such a culture should strengthen local democracy and contribute to the overall legitimacy of municipal councils by promoting service delivery excellence. the capacity of councillors as political representatives in their community engagement and consultation roles and responsibilities must be strengthened. discrepant responses from participants in the same municipalities suggest that municipal administrations often function in silos. the idp requires a multidisciplinary, multi-faceted and integrated approach. coordination, cooperation and alignment between municipal departments are thus vital to prevent ‘turf-protection’ and to promote acting as equal partners in designing and executing development strategies, programmes and projects. it is recommended that the performance management systems of municipalities be extended to more effectively serve as monitoring and evaluation instruments for community participation during the idp process. performance indicators and targets should be designed to measure the scope, level and quality of engagement in each phase of the process, and participation mechanisms should be adapted accordingly. community participation and consultation should follow a differentiated approach. the community is not a homogenous entity but consists of local businesses, the agricultural community, taxpayers’ and taxi associations, religious groupings, the elderly, marginalised groups and so forth. councils should use different participation mechanisms for each community segment, depending on demographic profiles and access to information. hence, the design of an idp community participation toolkit with appropriate and suitable participation mechanisms and how and when to apply them is strongly advised. such a toolkit should take cognisance of the different participation capacities of metropolitan, district and local municipalities, as well as urban and rural realities. a more holistic perspective regarding the status of community participation in the idp process is needed. additional research should thus compare and contrast the opinions of senior municipal officials on the scope, level and quality of participation and stakeholder engagement with those of different groupings in the community. conclusion integrated development planning is crucial to address the diverse and complex nature of development challenges experienced by most of the south african population. the idps of municipalities are critical instruments to guide municipalities in determining and addressing targeted needs in urban and rural communities. municipalities as developmental agencies are obligated to foster community participation in the entire idp process. it is evident that this obligation is not always sufficiently adhered to. disparities between municipalities and the demographic realities of communities call for the use of different participation mechanisms in the idp process. the unique demographics of urban and rural communities should be accommodated in the design of community participation toolkits for metropolitan, district and local municipalities. in this way, participative integrated development planning praxis in local government can be significantly enhanced. the implications of the study are twofold. firstly, it is evident that a more nuanced and differentiated approach should be followed in the design and implementation of municipal idps. the idps should be fully congruent with the particular institutional capacity and community realities of municipalities. secondly, it is apparent that more should be done to cultivate community participation in the idp process. more research pertaining to the interfaces between planning and community participation is required to explore the suitability of certain participation mechanisms in different rural and urban planning settings. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations the research was approved by the research ethics committee: faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria and an ethical clearance certificate was issued. ems 014/20. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ababio, e.p., 2004, ‘enhancing community participation in developmental local government for improved service delivery’, journal for public administration 39(2), 272–289. afesis-corplan, 2013, land and settlement development research study. report on municipal 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(ed.), 2007, municipal management: serving the people, juta, cape town. van der waldt, g., 2010, ‘core theories for the teaching of local democracy’, administratio publica 18(1), 12–29. abstract introduction background and municipal overview historical context of urbanisation in south africa the predicament of urbanisation causes of rural–urban migration the effects of rural–urban migration guiding theoretical framework research methods and design findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) douglas b. mthiyane department of public governance, school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa henry wissink department of public governance, school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa nyashadzashe chiwawa department of public governance, school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation mthiyane, d.b., wissink, h. & chiwawa, n., 2022, ‘the impact of rural–urban migration in south africa: a case of kwadukuza municipality’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a56. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.56 original research the impact of rural–urban migration in south africa: a case of kwadukuza municipality douglas b. mthiyane, henry wissink, nyashadzashe chiwawa received: 06 jan. 2022; accepted: 12 aug. 2022; published: 15 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the influx of people to urban areas has strained government resources, increased population-growth and increased housing infrastructure challenges. the government has been slow react in addressing the problems and as a result, crippling the service delivery. aim: this study aimed to assess the negative impact of rural-urban migration in kwadukuza municipality to improve the living conditions that have been compromised by rural-urban migration. methods: the researcher followed the qualitative method of enquiry and the main methods used in data collection were semi-structured interviews. sampling was done conveniently and purposively. data was analysed thematically. results: the high rate of population growth in ilembe district municipality is due to the lack of sound economic opportunities in the rural areas. the neglect in regard to the provision of basic infrastructure in the rural areas has also resulted in high rural-urban migration. rural economic hubs can create rural economic activities and assist in managing rural-urban migration. conclusion: south africa continues to see a rise in rural-urban migration due to a lack of suitable and sufficient investment in rural development. regrettably, due to the country’s economic imbalance, the urban influx of individuals looking for better economic opportunities and employment keep increasing. the study recognises the need of managing rural-urban mobility, which poses a substantial danger to rural development as well as burden on urban infrastructure. contribution: the study informs the policy makers on labour market adjustment and structural transformation, possibly resulting in economic implications in terms of growth and aggregate welfare of citizens. keywords: rural–urban migration; negative impacts; underdevelopment; urbanisation; south africa. introduction the concept of rural–urban migration is influenced by a variety of factors, ranging from voluntary immigration (responding to the desire for better life prospects and labour market conditions) to forced immigration (displacement from native region). the aim of this article is to assess the negative impact of rural–urban migration in kwadukuza municipality. this study is premised on the push–pull theoretical framework because of the theory’s ideological argument that the possibility of migration from rural areas to urban areas is based on specific socio-economic factors. according to bello-schunemann and aucoin (2016), urban migration is regarded as a rational decision weighing projected advantages against costs. rural–urban migration is therefore a response to factors that influence the desire for urban life over rural living, such as improved income, education quality, health services available in the city or negative income shocks in the rural areas. migration barriers, particularly policy-induced ones, restrict labour market adjustment and structural transformation and so are undesirable (cattaneo & robinson 2020). this article discusses the driving forces behind the increased informal settlement population and the concomitant impact thereof on south african municipalities. the discussion and conclusion sections of the paper highlight research gaps and policy lessons. the study was prompted by rising population numbers showing a 37% increase in kwadukuza municipality’s population, versus a backlog in fundamental community service provision (kwadukuza municipality integrated development plan 2020). considering this surge in population and the strain on existing municipality infrastructure, rural–urban migration poses detrimental environmental, health and welfare hazards in kwadukuza municipality. this research therefore sought to investigate the negative effects of rural–urban migration to municipalities in south africa. background and municipal overview the research was carried out in kwadukuza municipality, one of ilembe district municipality’s four local municipalities. the ilembe district municipality is one of the 10 district municipalities in the province of kwazulu-natal, south africa. the ilembe district municipality consists of four local municipalities, namely: mandeni, kwadukuza, maphumulo and ndwedwe. out of these four local municipalities under the ilembe district municipality, maphumulo and ndwedwe are completely rural, while mandeni and kwadukuza municipalities are peri-urban. the kwadukuza municipality is a coastal region 67 km away from durban along the indian ocean. figure 1 shows the kwadukuza municipality location within the ilembe district area. figure 1: location of kwadukuza municipality. the kwadukuza municipality (formerly known as stanger) occupies a coastal and inland stretch of approximately 734.971 km2 area of jurisdiction, with a variety of clustered and ad hoc settlements and small towns. the settlement patterns show that the urban development is primarily located in the formally established towns of: kwadukuza, shaka’s kraal; ballito; umhlali; blythedale beach; tinley manor; zinkwazi and portions of groutville. peri-urban to semi-rural settlements occur throughout much of the centre of the municipality, and these extend from the northern boundary via kwadukuza, groutville and umhlali to the southern edge bordering ethekwini. the name kwadukuza epitomises the historical background of the area being the home to king shaka and is built on the original site of king shaka’s royal settlement called dukuza. the population dynamics of kwadukuza municipality is highly diverse due its multi-racial composition and rich settlement history. the kwadukuza municipal area is characterised by areas where major service backlogs exist. the needs vary from a predominant need for safe drinking water, sanitation and electricity in the more rural to peri-urban areas, to basic sanitation and housing in the more urban informal and peri-urban areas. the municipality addresses the backlogs, while also maintaining the acceptable level of services in the already developed areas. historical context of urbanisation in south africa south africa has made tremendous legislative changes since 1994 in order to address its socio-political and economic challenges. the legislative changes were necessitated by the need to address poverty, racial inequality, unemployment and change the bureaucracy that was meant to serve only the minority in south africa (matzopoulos et al. 2020). south african municipalities needed somehow to balance the need to address issues such as the housing backlog (through the reconstruction and development programme) with environmental protection. matzopoulos et al. (2020) suggest that the laws that were designed to alleviate the mass poverty and injustice inflicted on the people by the past regime have had negative outcomes in terms of environmental degradation. urbanisation is a global phenomenon, with some 56% of the world’s population residing in cities and the figure is expected to reach 68% by 2050 (oecd 2020). urban migration is mainly driven by the economic prosperity in urban centres as people relocate to cities in search for employment or to take advantage of the urban market for trading and various economic activities. the world bank (2021) indicates that over 80% of the gross domestic product (gdp) of the world is generated in cities, as factories and industries are mostly found in urban areas, hence a pulling factor for urbanisation (ringwood 2016). urbanisation refers to the migration of populations from rural to urban settings and the consequent physical changes to urban settings (united nations 2022). according to stats sa (2021), urbanisation can be formally defined as the increase in the urban population of a country or area because of the following components of urban population growth: (1) urban natural increase, (2) urban net migration and (3) the reclassification of parts of the rural population into the category ‘urban’ (because of the sprawl of existing urban areas into their rural surroundings or the development of new towns in former rural areas). tacoli (2020) presents term ‘urbanisation’ as the population shift from rural to urban regions, the corresponding decline in the number of individuals living in rural areas and the manner in which societies adapt to this change. as more people move into urban centres to live and work, towns and cities primarily grow through this process. migration affects people with economic, social, educational and demographic peculiarities. eze (2016) highlights that migration follows a variety of patterns on space dimension such as ‘rural–urban; urban–rural; urban–urban; and rural–rural’. rural–urban migration results from movement from rural to urban in the search for opportunities because of rural–urban inequality in wealth and better quality of life found in urban centres. urbanisation can therefore be defined as the migration of people from rural areas to urban areas for socio-economic reasons. according to the world bank (2021), cities and towns should increase the speed with which they are providing facilities to cater for the demands of urbanisation. however, the large influx of people from rural areas has put tremendous strain on cities across south africa, causing traffic congestion, housing infrastructure backlogs, and, to some extent, a rise in crime rates. as a result, rural–urban migration has posed a significant challenge to both rural and urban communities in south africa. the speed and scale of urbanisation brings challenges, including meeting accelerated demand for affordable housing, well-connected transport systems and other infrastructure, basic services as well as jobs (world bank 2021). the aim of the study was therefore, analysing the negative consequences of migration in south africa, both in rural and urban areas. besides the job opportunities that are a reality in urban areas, the migration to the towns and cities is a result of the neglect of rural communities in terms of service delivery. urban areas are better supplied with social infrastructure than rural areas (united nations 2022). as a result, people who can afford to buy or rent accommodation migrate with their families to urban areas (amoo, wuraola & adebanke 2013). according to the united nations projections, by 2030, south africa’s population living in urban areas will be 71.3%, with possibilities of increasing to 80% by 2050 (united nations 2022). while this could be good for economic development, it also goes with developmental imbalances between the urban and rural areas. the increase in rural–urban migration may prejudice the rural development through loss of skilled labour, prolonging the poverty and underdevelopment cycle (mlambo 2018). urbanisation in south africa can be traced through its historical context. before the national party took over the government of south africa in 1948, discriminatory laws had already been passed by its predecessors. the most important laws that left south africa with the current urbanisation status were ‘the native act or urban areas act of 1923’ and ‘the native land act, 27 of 1913’ (saho 1913). this legislation impoverished black people as they were forced off their farms and became farm labourers. it was because of the implementation of these acts that black south africans are still migrating from rural areas to urban areas to find job opportunities. under the native land act, black people could own only 13% of the land in south africa, and the remainder was to be owned by colonial settlers (jili & masuku 2017). the new democratic government of south africa has had to embark on legislative changes to address the socio-economic gaps created by apartheid legislations (thompson & wissink, 2018). as a result, there is no doubt that the legislative changes have transformed the political landscape in south africa, but the question of whether post-apartheid legislation has brought about economic change is still a matter to be debated (kuddus, tynan & mcbryde 2020). nnadozie (2013) argues that the south african government has however not been able to ensure the accessibility of basic services to most of its citizens, which is part of the reasons why people leave rural areas for urban areas. hence, people migrate to urban destinations to access the available basic services that were initially established to serve the minority during the apartheid era. reddy (2016) alludes that basic services provide for community needs, and they include water, sanitation, electricity, refuse removal and other necessities as outlined in the constitution of the republic of south africa. the predicament of urbanisation the kwadukuza municipality population has experienced exponential growth because of several factors, with rural–urban migration as the main cause, especially among the labour force (antal & bhutani 2022). considering the rate of unemployment in south africa, most people who migrate from rural areas to urban environment are motivated by economic factors (baseler 2021). the kwadukuza integrated development plan (idp) (2021/22) indicates that south african social services are lagging behind in municipalities because of the population growth experienced in the past 15 years. the idp document mentions community services that have a huge backlog in terms of service provision, such as waste collection, water and sanitation and electricity provision. as per the united nations’ definition, urbanisation is the gathering of people in urban areas (un habitat 2022). although the definition does not explain where these people are coming from, this study tries to cover the context at which people are forced to migrate from rural areas to urban areas. the causes of rural–urban migration are illustrated following the theoretical framework, but in more detail the study explored the urban setting, where rural migrants find themselves in vulnerable situations. the circumstances lead to disparate ways of survival that comes with negative impact on the environment, diseases and fiscal pressure to south african municipalities (chokoe & meso 2017). for instance, residents may complain about the poor electricity supply in a particular area because of the high volume of connections in a particular electricity transformer, exceeding its capacity. in such instance, the municipality may need to upgrade the transformer, but the budget must permit this as well. rural–urban migration is influenced by several complex and divergent factors (meso et al. 2016). meso et al. (2016) point that unplanned urban growth that often results in infrastructural insufficiency such as housing, water and sanitation and other basic services are among the factors that motivate people to migrate to urban areas. as a result, services such as solid waste removal and health services become heavily compromised because of the additional number of people needing these services, and there is no additional budget (kwadukuza idp 2021/22). this strains the budget for both capital and operational purposes. bello-schunemann and aucoin (2016) add factors that other urbanisation scholars do not mention, such as conflict. factional fighting and historical rivalries in rural areas also trigger urbanisation. the authors also mention that there is dissatisfaction about public services in rural areas that results in people migrating to cities and towns. causes of rural–urban migration according to brand south africa (2014), there is still a significant outflow of people from rural to urban regions, putting more pressure on the government to solve the issue through policy initiatives. according to rees et al. (2017), rural–urban migration is not solely a south african issue, because developed countries also see large numbers of people relocating to regions regarded to be better in terms of living and working. as a result, rural–urban movement can be regarded in the perspective of international migration, in which individuals travel from underdeveloped to developed regions in quest of economic opportunity and higher living standards. higher wages melo and ames (2016) opine that rural–urban migration is mostly motivated by the availability of higher wages and working conditions in the target location, similar to international migration. africa is known for its high migration rates, which are primarily because of people seeking economic opportunities in neighbouring nations. over the years, a large number of teachers and medical professionals in south africa have preferred to work in metropolitan regions, and the government has been hesitant to address this developing problem (liang et al., 2020). employment opportunities in most situations, migration is motivated by a desire to grow and develop economically through the pursuit of new possibilities, and this is the primary motivator for people to migrate. however, these causes fluctuate from country to country and area to region. fast-growing economies and widespread industrialisation characterise such urban centres, making them popular destinations for job seekers. health and education services apart from employment and higher income opportunities, access to urban amenities can also be a key factor motivating rural–urban migration. diamond (2016) argues that because of compensatory differences that link wages to amenities and costs of living, considerations about the rural–urban migration should also focus on both the role of wages as well as accounting for the living costs and amenities. according to manirakiza (2014), rural people are mostly alienated from the conditions in which they live. another cause of rural alienation is the poor provision of basic services such as libraries, electricity, water and sanitation (meso et al. 2016). shilpi et al. (2014) confirm that local migrants attach a value to infrastructural developments and services, such as electricity accessibility and proximity to paved roads. it is important to note that urban amenities that might attract migrants may extend beyond infrastructure to also include social and educational opportunities in cities. the effects of rural–urban migration increased unemployment rates according to meso et al. (2016), south african towns and cities attract not only educated people but also uneducated people and unskilled labour looking for employment opportunities. unfortunately, city life has its own challenges, as new migrants continue to come and add up to the numbers of the unemployed (chakoe & meso 2017). this inevitably results in further urban poverty, which is aggravated by the continuing urban population growth. it is important to bear in mind that urban population growth is driven not only by rural–urban migration. there are other contributors to urban population growth such as the influx of foreigners, of people who are moving from one province to another and the high birth rate being experienced throughout south africa. the south african population recorded in 2010 was 50.72 million people, and by 2018 the population had grown to 57.7 million (statssa 2019). as a result, the unemployed labour force resort to informal economic activities to ensure its survival. overpopulation and rise in crime rates cogta (2015) contend that the informal urban economic sector absorbs a bigger proportion of the uneducated and unskilled labour force than the formal sector. chakoe and meso (2017) allude that the migration of unskilled and uneducated people to cities contributes to urban poverty, which then becomes a burden to the urban authorities. the unskilled and uneducated new migrants often do not find jobs or find jobs with low incomes (meso et al. 2016). with a low income it is difficult to rent formal urban accommodation. this then results in the mushrooming of slums on the periphery of urban areas. the crime rate and other social ills such as drug dealing are also on the rise in urban areas (ntakirutimana 2018). housing provision and traffic congestion increased rural-to-urban migration has already put a strain on housing services in cities such as ilembe municipality, and the continued influx of people will undoubtedly put cities under significant strain to meet the rise in population (wakefield 2015). as more people migrate to cities, traffic congestion will become increasingly difficult to manage. as more people own automobiles, there will be an increased likelihood of vehicle congestion. loss of skill and innovation for the rural community migration of people deprives rural areas of skilled workers who can contribute to rural development. rural areas end up losing skilled and innovative people to urban centres, which unfortunately prolongs underdevelopment and poverty in rural areas because few have the necessary skills and knowledge to contribute to development and growth (shezi 2013). the loss of skilled workers could have the negative effect of rural–urban movement on rural communities. in south africa, many people prefer working in cities because they perceive them to be superior in terms of living standards and economic prospects, hence many competent professionals leave rural areas. overburdening service delivery systems chapter 8 section 73 (c) of the municipal structures act, 32 of 2000 provides for the delivery of basic services to the community. people know that when they settle on the periphery of an urban area, the local authorities have an obligation to provide basic services such as water and sanitation, refuse removal, electricity and other basic necessities like health services. it is for this reason that service delivery protests are the order of the day. mutyenyoka, tirivangasi and mugambiwa (2017) argue that the alleviation of extreme poverty in communities in ilembe municipality has nothing to do with a small budget allocation but rather with policy making related to the deeper understanding of the extent and dynamics of poverty. guiding theoretical framework this study is based on a push–pull theory of migration developed by ernst georg ravenstein during the 19th century. the ideological basis of the theory is that migration from rural areas to urban areas is based on specific socio-economic factors that make it possible. mjimba and elum (2016) argue that this can be necessitated by search for better rewarding markets for agricultural products, or some economic push factors such as the industrial growth that creates job opportunities. however, the number of people migrating to the towns and cities because of the perceived job opportunities created by industrial growth by far exceeds the number of people who will get employed. this urban influx of people creates challenges for urban areas such as urban overcrowding and other social problems (thachil 2017). the push–pull theory of migration from rural areas to urban areas is based on the premise that all migrations can bring about both positive and negative results. pulling factors attract migrants to new locations, whereas pushing factors drive players to migrate their origins for settling elsewhere. the model shows the rural areas with surplus agricultural production, unemployment and poor social services. these are some of the few factors that make people decide to leave the rural areas and establish themselves in urban areas (mathebula 2018). the job opportunities that are available in the urban areas provided mainly by industrial growth are not sufficient to address the growing unemployment. in most cases the workforce from the rural areas finds it difficult to move to and from the cities and towns and look for cheap urban accommodation. kollamparambil (2017) posits that life in such areas is hazardous as there is a prevalence of disease, violence and congestion and a lack of basic social services such as water, electricity and drainage systems. in most cases, the slums are built near rivers and are prone to floods. this then may amount to an additional financial burden to the municipality in terms of bringing disaster relief to the displaced people. research methods and design the intention of the study was to determine the negative impact of rural–urban migration on south africa. the research followed the qualitative method of enquiry and the main methods used in data collection were semi-structured interviews. the information collected from the respondents was supplemented by information collected from the municipalities’ documents as well as photographs that were taken during data collection. the study sample constitutes of 19 participants comprising 10 participants from ntshawini informal settlement in kwadukuza municipality, one traditional leader, two ward councillors, three entrepreneurs with kwadukuza central business (cbd) and three municipal officials. the recruitment of participants for this enquiry took place using different procedures because of the availability and non-availability of modern technology (clarke & braun 2018). in recruiting the two managers, one from ilembe district municipality and kwadukuza local municipality, an email facility was used to make an appointment with the specific managers. in order to recruit the dube traditional council authority (induna) the availability had to be established with the secretary to the traditional council. the 10 households as well as 3 businesspeople in the cbd were recruited according to their availability on the day of the data collection. the selection of the municipal employees was based on the knowledge they possess and the valuable contribution they were to make in the realisation of the research objectives. to reduce the amount of text into a standard, organised and condensed summary of the main findings, the researcher transcribed all interviews, both the notes and audio tape recordings. the researcher then read the complete interview text transcription to get a broad idea of what the participants were discussing. the researchers were now able to identify various subjects that developed from the focus groups and interviews as well as the significant points and problems the participants were raising. the themes were then created by allocating codes and classifying them into categories. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research, with ethical approval obtained from the humanities and social sciences research ethics committee at the university of kwazulu-natal, with project number hssrec/00000182/ 2019. 17/08/2019. findings and discussion the study findings indicate that most people leaving rural areas are those who have less education or unskilled. however, as people migrate from the rural to urban destinations in search of employment opportunities, the reality does not always match with the expectations because the growing urban population seem to always surpass the labour required. this has resulted in reduced chances of getting employed for most unskilled people, with some of them resorting to criminal activities for survival. this position was confirmed by the following quote from some of the research participants: ‘amongst the people who migrate to kwadukuza for different reasons, there are those who are hoping to find jobs. the economy at a national level shows a declining trend, and this does not produce a conducive environment for economic growth in small municipalities like kwadukuza. at the same time, kwadukuza is the hope of many who are looking for employment, especially in ilembe district.’ (participant 3, manager, 2019) the study also found that the population increase in kwadukuza municipality and its surrounding outskirts has made it impossible for the municipality to fulfil its constitutional obligation of providing social services. according to the kwadukuza idp (2021/22), there are a lot of backlogs in fundamental social services. the surge in urban population has put the municipality under financial strain. overcrowding in kwadukuza municipality because of rural–urban migration has put significant strain on existing water and sanitation facilities as well as energy supplies. as a result, service delivery is compromised, resulting in poor waste removal, a housing backlog, a backlog in providing water and sanitation infrastructure and a backlog in updating existing infrastructure. these challenges pose major hazards to the environment and human lives because there is a disproportionate of the local municipality budget for housing projects and its implementation. hakkim (2019) says that poor sanitation leads to environmental health hazards. additionally, the rural–urban migration has detrimental effects on the environment and ecology of the migration destination. according to the data collected, the local municipality does not have enough land to cater for the influx of people. this challenge of unavailability of enough land was confirmed by one of the interviewees who had the following to say: ‘kwadukuza land is dominated by sugarcane farmers and ingonyama trust land. the municipality has limited land with which to fulfil its mandate to provide basic accommodation. ntshawini informal settlement needs land on which rdp houses can be built, and the success of the housing project depends on whether farmers and the ingonyama trust are willing to give kdm the required land. it is difficult for the small municipality like kdm to cope with the influx of people, which is increasing every year.’ (participant 9, manager, 2019) at the same time, the situation is made more complicated as informal settlements are randomly established on the little land that the municipality has. the people are building on municipal property, and kwadukuza municipality often gets involved when it is too late for the structures to be demolished. izakovicova et al. (2017) support this view by claiming that the spontaneous settlement on the urban periphery threatens ecology by modifying the use of agricultural land. the study findings further indicate that rural–urban migration is environmentally detrimental as the migrants damage certain natural forests to build their homes, as well as having severe implications for agriculture, which obviously has an influence on food security. this position can be reflected in the following quote: ‘the drainage in kwadukuza is still a challenge. the absence or poor drainage compromises the natural environment in the sense that it leads to soil erosion as a result of pluvial flooding that often happens as a result of heavy rainfall. kwadukuza experiences such flooding every summer, and tons and tons of rich top soil is lost to the sea. however, one can hardly blame the municipality because these houses are sometimes built where they are not supposed to be built.’ (participant 4, entrepreneur, 2019) accordingly, land use management should be a key component of municipal government because urbanisation may have negative environmental consequences. mngoma, pillay and reddy (2011) emphasise the necessity of preserving the environment through the legislative framework, including the creation of environmental by-laws and the implementation of such by-laws. it is critical to balance up the two components of addressing historical injustices by delivering what the populace have been denied and enforcing local environmental by-laws. another finding by this study is that residing in urban peripheral informal settlements is not mainly caused by choice but by the element of affordability. it is the cost-of-living that divides people in metropolitan regions in terms of where they live and what they consume. one of the interviewees had the following to say: ‘the affordability of services depends on how much one earns, whether employed or self-employed. the rdp houses are meant for the poor households, and the basic services speak to their financial well-being of the residents. most people living in ntshawini are using pit-latrine or long-drop toilets. sewerage rates are slightly higher, and an indigent policy needs to be in place should the time come to implement billing the poor for this service.’ (participant 7, councillor, 2019) the income levels also influence what essential services people receive and the way the same services are delivered. slum dwellers are mostly those who cannot afford official residential housing. as a result, informal accommodations are common in the periphery of cities. the services provided to informal settlements differ from those provided to residents of the cbd and suburban areas. when compared to suburban people, this exposes informal settlement residents to health risks (dustmann & gorlach 2016). residents and the environment both suffer owing to poor refuse collection. inadequate street lighting may enhance criminal activity at night. these criminal activities could be a result of unemployment, hence the prevalence of criminal activities since unemployment and poverty are inseparable, as the latter is a result of the former. furthermore, kwadukuza local municipality offers more shortand long-term career options than other municipalities under ilembe district municipality. as a result, the number of informal settlements has increased, causing service delivery backlogs to increase. according to the kdm idp (2022), 12.8% of the population of kwadukuza lives in informal settlements. this equates to 11 674 people living in precarious environments. however, oteng-ababio, owusu and asafo (2019) point out that although much is said about the negative side of rural–urban migration, the positive side of the influx of new migrants into metropolitan areas can be viewed as expanding urban boundaries. this increase in urban population drives the need to acquisition of more land for housing and industrial developments in urban areas. increased revenue collection through rates and revenue collection for services supplied by the urban authority is also one of the long-term benefits of urban extension. recommendations radical rural infrastructural development in rural areas, communication, health, education and transportation facilities all need to be modernised significantly. the government prioritises infrastructure development in metropolitan areas, but updating infrastructure in rural areas may take time and be costly because of the geographical location and dispersion of citizens. however, rural areas lack the necessary infrastructure to thrive, and the government should prioritise rural infrastructure development to combat rural–urban migration. poverty causes individuals to migrate in pursuit of economic opportunities; the government should prioritise measures that help in the eradication of poverty in its desire to improve rural areas. encourage the development of agricultural skills rural municipalities in south africa have large hectares of arable land that could be used for agricultural development, but because of a lack of skills and technical understanding, these rural communities only engage in subsistence farming rather than commercial farming. as a result, for self-development and empowerment, the government should try to invest in capacity building on rural populace. in addition, the government should increase the amount of arable land available for agricultural development. coordinate policies with traditional and local leaders policy coordination in rural areas, there is sometimes a policy misalignment between government and community leaders. there should be open and clear channels of communication to ensure that policy development and implementation take place in the context of the challenges identified by local leaders. hence, an increased communication and consultation between leaders and government is required. inclusiveness of stakeholder participation dealing with the challenges of urbanisation in kwadukuza will require all stakeholders to play an active role, especially those given a constitutional mandate to do so. ilembe district municipality should perform its task of providing water and sanitation by way of upgrading kwadukuza municipality water and sanitation infrastructure. also, ilembe district municipality should play a leading role in terms of building capacity within the four local municipalities under it. priority is to be given to facilitating the establishment of business hubs across the municipalities in its region. this will create job opportunities in the rural municipalities, minimising migration to urban centres. addressing the issue of unemployment through the creation of business hubs will alleviate poverty and decrease criminal activity in the region. conclusion the increased informal settlement population has been a result of industrialisation and fast-paced urbanisation. this rise in the number of informal settlement inhabitants is putting a significant amount of strain on the social infrastructure and municipal facilities already in place. the factors contributing to the growth of these informal settlements, inter alia, include a lack of developed land for housing, high costs of land beyond the reach of the urban poor and a significant influx of rural migrants looking for employment in cities. informal settlements lack the necessary minimum services and infrastructure because of their inherent ‘illegal’ status. as a result, basic services including electricity, roads, drainage, water supply, sanitation and market areas are either non-existent or informally arranged. most informal households fall into the lowest income category. although many of them are secondor third-generation habitants, migrants make up the majority. consequently, the informal structures are not just poorly and illegally built structures but are also home to individuals who have complicated social networks, socio-economic stratifications and isolated spatial structures. according to the research findings, rural–urban migration can be caused by a variety of variables ranging from the desire for better opportunities in life to forced departure from one’s original location as a result of climate shocks, conflicts and dissatisfaction of public services. the benefits of migration are substantial, as are the costs. the evidence examined supports the idea that migratory barriers, particularly policy-induced ones, obstruct labour market adjustment and structural transformation, possibly resulting in substantial negative economic implications in terms of growth and aggregate welfare, and are hence undesirable. the overall conclusion drawn from the findings of the study is that south african municipalities have multiple challenges stemming from the rural–urban migration. the challenges can be summarised as an inability to provide basic services efficiently or no services at all. south africa continues to see an increase in rural–urban migration because of a lack of sufficient and acceptable investments in rural development. consequently, because of the country’s economic disparities, urban areas will continue to experience an influx of people looking for work. the study recognises the need of tackling rural–urban migration because it poses a substantial danger to rural development. the lack of services gives rise to health and hygiene problems and subsequently to ecological challenges. although climatic and other shocks may force individuals to leave their homes and migrate to cities, little is known about how push and pull migration influences destination places differently. lastly, the research concludes that important government initiatives and investments in south africa are executed with little attention for migratory implications. transportation investments, limits on land sales in rural areas and workfare programmes in rural/urban areas are all examples. these policies have an impact on the benefits and costs of migration. generally, policymakers in developing nations like south africa should consider migration reactions when devising policies and investment programmes, because migration responses may mitigate the effects of these policies. researchers who are assessing such policies and programmes should follow suit. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge effort made by research participants in giving their expert opinions. also the insightful comments and advice by the reviewers and editorial team on this paper. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.b.m. conceived of the presented idea and contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. h.w. supervised, edited and funded the research, verified the analytical methods and supervised the findings of this work. n.c. contributed to the data curation, review and editing, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, n.c. upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and not an official position of the institution or funder. references amoo, e.o., wuraola, a. & adebanke, o.i., 2013, ‘internal migration of young persons and street trading activities in urban areas of nigeria’, ife psychologia: an international journal 21(2), 113–122. antal, h. & bhutani, s., 2022, ‘identifying linkages between climate change, urbanisation, and population ageing for understanding 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https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/publication/urbanization-reviews. abstract introduction background of the study research objectives literature review methods and material results discussion conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) alouis chilunjika department of public management, governance and public policy, faculty of commerce, business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa department of governance and public management, faculty of social sciences, midlands state university, gweru, zimbabwe sharon rt chilunjika department of governance and public management, faculty of social sciences, midlands state university, gweru, zimbabwe citation chilunjika, a. & chilunjika, s.r.t., 2021, ‘twinning arrangements and service delivery in zimbabwe’s local authorities: the case of bulawayo city council (zimbabwe) and ethekwini municipality (south africa)’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a37. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.37 original research twinning arrangements and service delivery in zimbabwe’s local authorities: the case of bulawayo city council (zimbabwe) and ethekwini municipality (south africa) alouis chilunjika, sharon rt chilunjika received: 22 june 2021; accepted: 13 oct. 2021; published: 30 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract the zimbabwean local government environment has been affected by chronic defects in the provision of basic public services. as such, city twinning has been adopted as one of the strategies to address the impasse in service delivery as it allows for the sharing of expertise in local governance, development, strategic international relations and the enhancement of service delivery in local authorities. using the exploratory case study research design the study explores the impact the twinning arrangement between bulawayo city council (bcc) and ethekwini municipality and how it has enhanced service delivery in bulawayo. data was gathered from written documents, observations and in-depth interviews. the study established that the bcc-ethekwini cooperation has been very fruitful and bulawayo city council has benefited immensely through the exchange of ideas and information as well as technology transfer among others from this twinning arrangement. nonetheless, it was also observed that weak legal and financial frameworks hinders the city twinning partnership from realising its full fruition. the study concluded that city twinning between bcc and ethekwini is a favourable route for creating sustainable south to south linkages that benefit developing cities. as recommendations, the article argues that there is need for clarity in defining the partnership roles and goals, community involvement as well as an enabling policy and institutional environment. keywords: twinning; service delivery; local authorities; bulawayo city council; ethekwini municipality. introduction the concept of twinning towns and municipalities can be traced back to the 1920s; and it has continued to progress from a global tool of friendship and cultural exchange to a more complex web of business relationships and networks that provide a better framework to enhance development in local governments (joenniemi & janczak 2017). originally, twinning of cities emerged as a strategy used by european countries to advance their local economies through regional collaboration. this did not only enable them to establish and uphold relationships across regional borders but also strengthened the administrative capabilities of their municipalities (matsiliza, nzewi & zwane 2018). in developing countries where municipalities have inadequate financial capacity and limited autonomy to provide quality and cost effective services to the public, city twinning can offer them a platform to improve democratisation and decentralisation of the current service delivery status as it has in developed countries (ijeoma & nzewi 2016). as noted by wood (2015), local authorities should, from time to time, explore new ideas beyond their limits to address urgent needs. therefore, this article suggests that the zimbabwean local authorities can improve service delivery and benefit immensely in the areas of city development, urban competitiveness and human resource development through twinning arrangements. the study therefore unpacks the utility and impact of twinning arrangements on service delivery between ethekwini municipality and bulawayo city council (bcc). background of the study local authorities in zimbabwe have been characterised by a continuous deterioration in the area of service delivery because of over two decades of economic turndown being experienced in the country (dube 2019). as decentralised entities, they are tasked with the provision of basic services and the maintenance of critical public infrastructure to deliver them. however, they lack the capacity to cope with the increasing demands for efficient service provision and maintain the infrastructure to deliver them. in addition, the perpetual failure by zimbabwean municipalities to obtain clean audits as reviewed by the auditor general’s reports is further evidence of the bad state these municipalities are in (chilunjika, mutema & dube 2020). this continued failure to obtain clean audits is also destroying the image and stakeholders’ perceptions towards the municipalities (dube 2019). to recover from these challenges, the government has since taken a policy position to adopt public sector reforms that are informed by the new public management (npm) approach. new public management has opened novel opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness in local authorities in zimbabwe. this approach offers numerous strategies to improve service delivery which include, city twinning, public-private partnerships (ppp), shared services, outsourcing and privatisation. these strategies enable local governments to collaborate with other local, regional and international municipalities to share experiences, expertise and information in the pursuit of efficient and quality service provision (de villiers 2005, haffek 2003). similarly, molepo (2018) noted that for the past decade, npm has been the main driver for the twinning arrangements to rescue the ailing local governments by amalgamating their reform strategies with those from developed local authorities within their regions and abroad. the government of zimbabwe has since opened its doors to numerous developed towns from all over the world as twinning partners in a bid to transform its municipalities. to date, numerous local authorities in zimbabwe are signatories to many regional and international twinning arrangements as part of their development agendas. this include harare partnering with munich in germany, cairo (egypt) and cheonan city (south korea), whilst beitbridge town partnering with musina in south africa and bulawayo town with polokwane south africa, francistown in botswana, aberdeen in scotland and ethekwini in south africa. all these twinning arrangements have been aimed at improving service provision, town governance, municipal administration, urban planning, architecture and town management. nevertheless, when adopting twinning partnerships a number of questions arise. some of the key questions are as follows: what is the rationale for twinning partnerships and what value do they bring with them? (jones & blunt 1999). a number of scholars have shared experiences and lessons to be learnt on twinning arrangements and their implications on local government operations. it should, however, be noted that there is a paucity of literature on studies focusing on city twinning in zimbabwe. for instance, a search on google scholar of articles pertaining to city twinning in zimbabwe from 2015 to 2021 returned only 31 articles. hence, this article seeks to contribute to the extensive exploration of twinning partnerships as strategies that enhance service delivery in zimbabwe’s local authorities using the case study of bulawayo and ethekwini. this article is organised as follows: the first section examines the theoretical aspects of city twinning, the second section highlights empirical findings on the improvements achieved in the area of service delivery in developing countries, and the third section discusses the bulawayo and ethekwini scenario. research objectives the study focuses on city twinning and its impact on service delivery with specific reference to bulawayo-ethekwini municipalities. the main objectives that the study seeks to achieve are the following: to review literature on the concept of city twinning. to assess the impact of city twinning partnerships on service delivery at bcc. to explore how the bulawayo-ethekwini twinning arrangement has addressed service delivery challenges of bcc. literature review unpacking the concept of city twinning numerous studies have been published on city twinning because of the potential it has in supporting the developmental incentives of municipalities around the globe. de villiers (2005) defined city twinning as the long term strategic union between various cities in which their municipalities play a key role. city twinning therefore enables local governments to exchange knowledge and innovation in the field of town and municipality management. it is important to note that twinning takes place in a complex stakeholder context; and these stakeholders include the partners, donors, employees and the citizens who are intended to benefit from improved service delivery, arts and culture exchanges and social inclusion and solidarity (apec 2008). it is crucial that the voices and interests of these stakeholders be taken into account throughout the partnership as it ensures their support towards the partnership. additionally, it must be noted that, city twinning arrangements do not occur in isolation. the political, economic and organisational contexts and policies of both the partners are important for effective twinning to take place. on the other hand, furmakiewic (2020) defined city twinning as a development initiative in which developing communities learn from the developed ones. this suggests that developing communities are dependent on the advanced economies as also exhibited through numerous north-south partnerships. however, bandauko and bobo (2018) are of a different view regarding this concept. to them city twinning is move away from the traditional donor-receipt model to a more collaborative and mutual type of collaboration where two parties bring together their resources to attain shared benefits. this is in line with the npm principles that promote efforts for partnerships and collaborations in government operations to enhance strengths and resolve weaknesses. as a result, many governments in developing countries have been moving towards collaboration and other forms of cooperation to address service delivery challenges. today the concept of city twinning is showing great potential in synchronising international, regional and local efforts towards achieving sustainable urban development in low income countries. the nature of twinning according to devilliers, coning and smit (2007), the concept of twinning is not static and has evolved notably since its origin. the authors further identified three different but interlinking and overlapping phases of twinning which are as follows: the associate phase: twinning centred on cultural and friendship exchange. the reciprocative phase: twinning centred on educational and people exchange. the commercial exchange phase: twinning centred on economic development. recent studies suggest that twinning in the 21st century is more based on the commercial exchange phase as a response towards globalisation, regionalism, and local socio-economic factors that are driven by new markets, increased competition and a novel complexity to global supply chain (molepo 2018). the same can be said for the bulawayo-ethekwini twinning arrangement which was established to foster sustainable development for bcc through technical and information exchanges. in addition, twinning centred on economic development presents a more diverse landscape for international cooperation that brings together new partners and new approaches that lead to sustainable development. furthermore, these twinning partnerships can also improve the economies of the sister cities as witnessed through infrastructure development, improved town and environmental management, and in some cases job creation. for example, the melbourne (australia) and tianjin (china) twinning partnership has enabled the two municipalities to work together in designing green energy technology so as to protect the environment, whilst at the same time creating jobs for their citizens (bandauko & bobo 2018). although it has been observed that the aspirations to establish twinning relationships are diverse at different junctures of international relations (joenniemi & janczak 2017); the underlying fact is that the parties involved are joining their resources to realise mutual benefits. the concept of twinning can also be discussed in the context of geographic orientation, for example north-north partnerships, north-south partnerships and south-south partnerships (bandauko & bobo 2018). according to stephen (2008) north-north partnerships are the most common city twinning arrangements in the world which mainly focus on promoting social and cultural ties within the european region through the exchange of people and goods of all kinds. these links are based upon sharing equal resources and on the principle of reciprocity aimed at unifying people across national boundaries to strengthen peace and build a united europe. whilst the central focus of most north-north partnerships may be socially rooted, many of these links also focus on economic development through technical cooperation activities (united towns organisation [uto] 2001). today many of these partnerships are aimed at improving town management in the areas of energy, transport, infrastructure and environment. for example, birmingham (united kingdom [uk]) has established several successful twinning partnerships with other european cities. examples of successful projects include a joint project with leipzig (germany) on canal regeneration and a joint scheme with lyon (france) on the refurbishment of public buildings. north–south partnerships are often instigated from the north and at times on the basis of previous colonial ties (uto 2001). there are many examples of north-south linkages between towns in nearly all european nations and countries from the south. these are aimed at fostering development and capacity building. in zimbabwe, the harare-munich (germany), bulawayo-aberdeen (scotland) and mutare-portland (united states of america [us]) are good examples of this. these links have for a long time been seen as a means for humanitarian aid rather than a partnership or technical collaboration. however, recent studies point out that some which started in this way have over time evolved through the realisation that such partnerships can bring two-way benefits from shared services and management (matsiliza et al. 2018). in recent years, interests have grown significantly for south-south partnerships. these twinning partnerships are between countries in the south who seek to learn from each other at a less costly rate as they will be geographically closer when compared to north-south partnerships. examples for this type of partnerships include: the musina-beitbridge partnership and the bulawayo-ethekwini twinning. they stem from the idea that southern communities share similar social, economic and political problems, and as a result can learn from solutions developed by one another (bandauko & bobo 2018). similar to north-north partnerships, these have the potential to enhance regional solidarity and development. nevertheless, the number of such twinning relationships still remain limited (sister cities international 2020; bandauko & bobo 2018). this is because twinning partnerships of this nature are mostly weakened by resource constraints (financial, human resources and infrastructure) faced by many of these southern countries (joenniemi & janczak 2017; johnson & wilson 2006; uto 2001). as a result, there are concerns around the long-term sustainability of the achievements witnessed during such twinning arrangements. whilst there is not much experience of town twinning and collaboration on south-south partnerships (molepo 2018), the study believes that these collaborations have the potential to add value to community development through regional economic development and job creation. improving local government capacity through twinning strategies institutional capacity building according to apec (2008) institutional capacity building for public institutions seeks to improve their ability to deliver services effectively and efficiently on a continuous basis. in the context of twinning, institutional building suggests copying or modelling, where the less developed municipality learns from the developed one which serves as the model (jones & blunt 1999). what is implied here is that municipalities are not self-reliant and as a result they want to learn from the best practices of other municipalities in order to improve their operations. consistent with this view are kolb et al.’s experimental learning theory and revans’ action learning theory which suggest that learning is underpinned on experience learnt from others (kolb, rubin & mcintyre 1971; revans 1980). both theories emphasise that institutional capacity building only takes place when employees in an organisation reflect on the experiences learnt from others and experiments with new ideas and behaviours exposed to them during the interaction process. for local authorities to benefit from twinning, they must identify key areas where the partnership is expected to assist in organisational development and learn from each other. these areas may include operational approaches and cultures around quality management. a study by matsiliza et al. (2018), for instance, revealed that municipalities in south africa are benefiting from their twinning partners through quality circles (qc), which is a strategy used in the private sector to inculcate a culture of quality services provision, whereby twinning partners audit each other whilst learning to improve service delivery in the process. however, some scholars are critical of the effectiveness of private sector strategies in the public organisations. this particular approach, for example, requires strong commitment and support from the management and employees to keep the circle functional which usually lacks in public managers and employees when it comes to reforms and change (matsiliza et al. 2018). additionally, adopting qc should be done with great caution as some employees will not get admitted into circles because they are aiming at transforming the personnel’s attitudes to perform. in this regard, adopting private sector strategies in the public sector requires tailored approaches considering the complexities of their application and use. however, it is beneficial to the public that municipal employees be oriented towards quality management and other private sector strategies as they lead to the provision of value for money services. service delivery and twinning arrangements local governments are agents used by the state to provide basic goods and services (health, education, daily provision of water and refuse collection) to the public to ensure a certain degree of well-being (makanyeza, kwandayi & ikobe 2013). these agents are expected to be developmental and able to deliver services that have significant impacts on the quality of the citizens’ lives. in providing these services, local governments create opportunities for citizens and local companies to make desired changes that would not have been possible without the municipality’s engagement (eigeman 2007). these desired changes are achieved through the municipality’s networks, resources, techniques and guidance. however, the municipalities in developing countries like zimbabwe have limited autonomy and less financial capacity which creates a limitation to achieve these desired changes. consequently, engaging in city twinning partnerships thus gives local authorities in developing countries the opportunity to work collaboratively with regional and international cities and to share experience and information in numerous municipal management areas, which ultimately improves service delivery (de villiers 2005). twinning arrangements and service delivery-related improvements in selected areas the main goal of twinning is to create long term relationships for mutual benefit (franco & marmelo 2014). however for struggling communities in the south, concrete improvements in the area of service provision have come about through their partnerships with the north and fellow south counterparts. there are numerous benefits of twinning which have been cited by different scholars in the area of service delivery, and these include improved health, education, sanitation and waste management services (bandauko & bobo 2018; de villers 2005; devilliers, coning & smit 2007; sibanda 2017). table 1 gives a summary of positive improvements that have been achieved in selected developing countries in the area of service delivery. table 1: examples of improvements achieved in service delivery in developing countries. closely related to service delivery is the concept of good governance. the spread of decentralisation and increased democratisation is enabling local governments in developing countries to take more responsibility for improving their performance and providing public services regardless of having limited resources (molepo 2018). this is because decentralising power to local governments stimulates them to become entrepreneurial in order to achieve local economic development. zinyama and nhema (2015) noted that by partnering with other cities and professional associations transparency, accountability and sound financial management systems are inculcated in the operations of local authorities and this has a positive impact on service delivery. methods and material the bcc and ethekwini municipality were used as a case study for the collection of primary data although much emphasis is placed on bcc and how it has been impacted upon by this twinning arrangement with ethekwini municipality. an exploratory case study research design was purposely chosen and used as it allows the exploration of a phenomenon within its original setting using multiple data sources. this enabled the issue under study to be explored through a variety of lenses thus permitting multiple facets of the phenomenon to be revealed and understood (baxter & jack 2008). the main method of data collection was written documents, observations and in-depth interviews with individuals from the bcc, the business community and bulawayo residents to get their insights on the subject of twinning and service delivery. a total of 18 participants from the bcc were purposively selected for this research based on their availability and knowledge to provide data that is detailed and relevant to the study. the participants were only chosen from bulawayo as the study sought to assess the impact of twinning partnerships on the service delivery at bcc. the researchers asked questions orally using interview guides and recorded the answers of the respondents. interviews with the community members were conducted in ndebele and shona which are the most popular languages in bulawayo and then translated into english. a search strategy was carried out for studies related to city twinning, municipal cooperation, collaborative management and service delivery using online libraries in google scholar, scopus, sciencedirect and emerald. searches were also conducted on the internet for grey literature such as published studies and theses from the fields of public finance, public management, public policy and urban studies. additionally, the authors also used unpublished documentation relating to the case study including project documents and progress reports. a total of 33 papers were reviewed, analysed and reused to produce new knowledge. qualitative document analysis was preferred for this study because of its applicability to existing studies to produce additional information (auriacombe 2017). having noted that twinning is a crucial strategy to enhance service delivery in local authorities, this study intends to give an answer to the following question: can local governments in zimbabwe successfully collaborate with other regional and international municipalities to gain knowledge and expertise with the intention to improve service delivery? the researchers also conducted direct observations in bulawayo’s residential areas, and council offices’ observable systems and activities to assess the prevailing state of service delivery, infrastructure and operational processes. as a way of ascertaining validity, the researchers exercised reflexivity all the time making sure that preceding experiences and values did not affect the reporting of findings. to enhance internal validity, the researchers also made use of the audit trail which helped in the keeping of detailed and accurate records of everything the researchers did and of the data collected. meticulous documentation of sampling format, tools development and data collection was also conducted for reliability. this is because documentation brings reliability as it ensures that if anyone wants to repeat this study they can be guided accordingly and get the same results (yin 2009 cited in chilunjika 2018). all qualitative data gathered was then analysed using textual and content analysis. results bulawayo is the second largest city in zimbabwe with a population of about 1.5 million people (sibanda 2017). at one time, bulawayo was regarded as the epicentre of industries in zimbabwe, having industries producing cars and car products, textiles, food and building materials. however, over the years the city’s economy has been crippled because of the closure of these industries and the economic instability experienced in the country over the past two decades (sibanda 2017). this has seen a major drop in service delivery and economic development in the town. in a bid to improve service delivery, urban governance, municipal management, urban planning and management the town has engaged in partnerships with six cities to date. these are with aberdeen-scotland, polokwane-south africa, katima mulilo-namibia, francistown-botswana, livingstone-zambia and durban-south africa. out of the twinning arrangements which the city of bulawayo has had, its partnership with the city of ethekwini is the one that appears to be vibrant. this is because this partnership has produced more tangible capacity gains for the city council in water and sewer management, information technology systems and improved municipality management than any other twinning partnership as will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs. challenges faced by the bulawayo city council in the provision of public services like any other municipality in zimbabwe, the bcc has been experiencing chronic deficits in the provision of basic services such as sanitation, waste management, health, and water provision (sibanda 2017). both officials from the bcc and members of the public noted that these challenges have been instigated by a combination of interwoven factors which include corruption and mismanagement, rapid population growth, inadequate financial and human resources, inadequate water bodies, political interference, lack of political will and poor participatory local governance structures. from the interviews, the general impression from the residents was that they were not receiving value for their hard earned money and have resorted to not paying their service fees and rates. as viewed by the residents, there is gross corruption during the tendering processes and mismanagement of funds are the major factors contributing to the poor service delivery in bulawayo. resident c had the following to say: ‘mina ngibona ingathi kulesitsotsi ematendeni laphana, those people who are closer to town clerk yibo abathola amatender, awanikwa ngokuthi uyakwanisa ukwenza umsebenzi wakhona, hayi!! its obvious abo town clerk badinga abantu babo vele besebesi vala ngokwenza amatender for umthetho nje otherwise…vele amatender aphiwa ngokwazana …’ (i think that there is no transparency in how tenders are awarded. those closer to the town clerk are favoured. there is no meritocracy, opening of tenders is only done as a formality, otherwise the winner would be known already). in addition, resident a noted that: ‘council staff squander our money and buy themselves the latest jeeps and fortuners when we have potholes and they cut our water. right now street lights are not functioning; crime is taking place in some high density residential areas because tower lights are off. sewage water is everywhere and every day we worry that there will be a cholera outbreak. where do they put our money?’ to the residents it is callous of the management to get the new luxurious vehicles as well as other hefty benefits, when the municipality is failing to deliver basic services to taxpayers. it was indeed observed that some top-of-the-range vehicles were parked on the parking lots of the top council officials at bcc. on top of that, public procurement as a backbone of effective service delivery should be safeguarded from corruption, unfair procurement practices and political interference as it often involves large funds of public resources (chigundu 2014). however, from the residents’ sentiments such practices remain prevalent at bcc, and there is no will on the management’s part to address them because they benefit from the system. the researchers also observed heaps of uncollected garbage in bulawayo central business district (cbd) and in many residential areas such as makokoba, magwegwe and lobengula. to make matters worse, garbage bins and public refuse collection points are left exposed to the sun and rain which results in land and air pollution. these dumping sites become breeding grounds for flies, mosquitoes and rats which pose serious health threats to the people of bulawayo. a review of the council’s documents also revealed acute shortages of refuse equipment. at the time of this study, the local authority had one operational front end loader, one dozer and two tipper trucks which had to service over 13 residential areas. with regard to sewerage systems, the town is overwhelmed with collapsed sewers because of dilapidating infrastructure, thereby limiting sewer drainage capacity. the management, however, blamed poor service provision to the economic environment in the country and legislative frameworks which govern their operations. this is in line with chilunjika et al. (2013) who stipulated that the local government minister has too much influence in the decisions made by municipalities. they further stated that before municipalities implement their budgets, they must seek the approval of their tariffs and revenue from the minister who has the veto power to reject a budget where he ‘feels’ the tariffs are beyond the affordability of the public or where he ‘feels’ the expenditure is not reasonable. in the end, local authorities are forced to undercharge services, and operate on inadequate budgets which lead to poor quality and limited expansion of services. the low influx of water service charges has also resulted in poor water provision in bulawayo and this is the reason why the residents go for longer periods without water. a bulawayo progressive residents’ association bulletin of 2009–2013 revealed that some areas such as gwabalanda, entumbane, nketa and mzilikazi could go up to 15 days per month without water. in an interview with the chairperson of the bulawayo united residents, he raised concern over the rate of water rationing and water disconnection in the city. he highlighted that by disconnecting and over rationing water, the municipality was demonstrating a lack of empathy to the plight of its residents. when asked to comment on this, an official from the town clerk’s office articulated that water rationing was inevitable because of water levels in most bulawayo dams which could not sustain the growing population. he further stated that the municipality was also struggling to secure adequate funds to operate and maintain water systems and had resorted to disconnecting water on all residents who were not paying their rates. when asked about the quality of water provided by the municipality, the residents and council officers had different views. an official from the water works department expressed that the council always strives to provide safe water to its residents. however, some residents indicated that some days the water they receive is usually muddy brown in colour and with particles. in summary, the above factors have succeeded in locking the bcc into a never-ending cycle of poor service provision. a vicious cycle characterised by non-payment of service fees and low charges, limited resources, financial indiscipline and corruption, which in turn results in the erosion of community confidence and low willingness to pay for services. the ethekwini-bulawayo twinning partnership: a brief history the twinning partnership between ethekwini and bulawayo was formed in 2002. the similarities between the two towns in terms of historical origins and culture facilitated the twinning in a quest to share ideas, innovation and experiences for economic and social gains (camagu 2017). these similarities can be understood from the close connection of the zulu and ndebele cultures and the common history that the two cities share dating back to the shaka and mzilikazi reign. activities within this twinning partnership fall into three categories and these are information exchanges, technical exchanges and collaborations on specific initiatives that is water and sanitation. as a south-south linkage, twinning between these two cities is financed on a shared basis with the towns funding trips of their own staff and accommodation for visitors (city of bulawayo 2012). since 2002, twinning programme delegations (municipal staff, business people, community members) from the two towns frequently share and exchange knowledge, ideas and local traditions under various domains which range from culture, business, town management, water management, sanitation and health. information and experiences shared under these spheres are then used to stimulate socio-economic development projects mainly in bulawayo. in 2009, under the framework of the twinning partnership, the bcc director of engineering services approached ethekwini water sanitation (ews) for technical assistance on the town’s water crisis which was characterised by a precarious drinking water system and ageing wastewater infrastructure. the ews is known for being the first to successfully introduce initiatives such as the use of grey water for urban agriculture, free basic water, urine diversion toilets, condominium sewerage, flow limiters and a customer water debt repayment policy to south africa (camagu 2017). for a municipality like bcc which lacked the needed resources, expertise and policies to fix its service delivery crisis, ethekwini technical expertise on water supply, sanitation and municipality management would prove to be indispensable to the bcc. to address these challenges, the two towns signed a memorandum of understanding which gave birth to the bulawayo water and sanitation emergency response (bowser) project in april 2010. the project design also included a number of partners such as ausaid, dabane trust (a bulawayo based ngo) and world vision who were mainly responsible for financial assistance. this project has become the main highlight of the twinning arrangement between the two towns. service delivery under the ethekwini and bulawayo partnership from 2009 to 2014 the period from 2009 to 2014 saw a significant improvement in terms of service delivery at the bcc mainly as a result of the bowser project and the technical expertise that the council received from ethekwini. activities done under the bowser project were implemented in two phases. phase one was centred on sanitation, water and critical infrastructure rehabilitation and participatory health hygiene. phase two was focused on information technologies upgrades, strengthening council institutional capacity, improving revenue collection, responsiveness to emergencies and consolidating the gains made during the implementation of phase one. notable achievements of phase one included the mapping of water and sewer networks using geographic information system (gis) to monitor them in real time. this did not only reduce water loss but also reduced the vulnerability of bulawayo residents to waterborne and water washed diseases through improved water supply and sewerage systems (bulawayo progressive residents’ association bulletin 2009–12). there was a 40% drop of diarrhoeal cases reported at bcc health centres during the bowser project period; notably this drop also included children under the age of 10 who had been hard hit during the 2008 cholera outbreak in zimbabwe (bowser progress report 2013). figure 1 shows improved water supply outcomes from the bowser project between the period october 2011 to november 2012. figure 1: improved water supply. figure 1 shows a strong upward trend in improved water supply in bulawayo soon after the commencement of the bowser project in june 2010. the trend was sustained throughout 2011 to december 2012 as the water supply systems were gradually refurbished. by november 2012 about 200 000 households had water connections installed, an indication that the project was significantly resolving the water crisis in bulawayo (bowser progress report 2013). technical expertise from ethekwini saw the development of service level standards which would guide the maintenance of water and sewer systems and these are still functional to date. additionally a team of it experts from ethekwini also visited bulawayo to offer on-the-job training on the use of gis to bulawayo water works employees. project participatory health and hygiene education (phhe) was also launched through the ethekwini-bulawayo twinning. the focal messages of the phhe project were on educating the community to act responsibly towards themselves, the community and the importance of paying their bills. training manuals and materials for posters, billboards and pamphlets were provided by ethekwini and adopted from the durban context for bulawayo. selected members of the public and council officials were trained and equipped to carry out education campaigns in schools, market places and churches. roadshows with popular artists were also conducted and bill boards were erected on main roads to ensure that there was wide coverage on health and hygiene matters. as a result of phhe, there was an increase in health and environmental awareness which saw a reduction in pollution, unhealthy practices and a steady upsurge in bill payment by the residents to fund service delivery. the key results achieved from phase one are highlighted below from the bowser progress report (2013): rehabilitated nine sewerage pumping stations. cleaned over 250 km of sewerage pipes and de-choked sand traps resulting in a decrease of sewer blockage complaints between february 2010 and july 2010 from 41 to 14. repaired over 1200 water leaks, significantly reducing water losses. phase two of the bowser project saw the introduction of an information communication technology (ict) project to enhance financial sustainability at bcc through expert knowledge from ews. the project was targeted at improving service delivery and addressing the municipality’s ineffective billing and revenue collection system. it was a development which fostered accountability, transparency and strong internal accounting systems at bcc. council financial records between 2011 and 2012 showed a positive trend of over 65% from 16% in 2009–10. the municipality is now able to reinvest part of the increased revenue into mainstream service delivery. in addition to this, the municipality adopted more transparent procurement procedures to reduce corruption and improve transparency in the procurement process. this saw the creation of a council website where the public can access information and advertisements on tenders. however, despite such efforts corruption during the procurement process remains rampant in zimbabwe’s local authorities (dube 2019). technical expertise from ethekwini also facilitated the establishment of a call centre with appropriate security, software and an accurate customer information base for bcc in 2011. the call centre was a huge commitment towards better service delivery through increased customer care, convenience, responsiveness and public sector efficiency. the then mayor of bulawayo, thaba moyo, had the following to say: ‘bulawayo is honoured to be the first municipality in zimbabwe to introduce a call centre to improve communication with its residents … this is just the beginning in our quest to increase service delivery and preserve the spirit of ubuntu in our people’. in line with the call centre as a means of improving service delivery through increased customer care, most bulawayo residents agreed that there was significant overall improvement in the council’s responsiveness to service faults which they reported. one prerequisite for quality customer care is convenience. all the residents who were interviewed highlighted that the 24 h call centre gave them convenience as they no longer had to physically visit council offices every time they have queries or to report faults. as call centres have the prospect to advance service delivery, municipalities are progressively becoming interested in using them as an e-government tool. not only can call centres provide opportunities to deliver quality services to citizens but are also vital in engaging them in policy making and implementation discussions (as-saber & hossain 2010). from the literature reviewed, citizen engagement and involvement are important factors in improved service delivery as they are the ones directly affected by the decisions made by the municipality (eigeman 2007; makanyeza et al. 2013; whitaker 1980). this is because citizens have better ideas of the kind of services they need than public officials. most importantly, citizens can be a source of ideas and inspiration for social innovations which have been found to be vital in the decision making process (whitaker 1980). nonetheless, setting up a call centre is not enough in resource constrained settings like zimbabwe. there is a need to ensure that public organisations using them have an adequate number of qualified people to operate them. the main purpose of such technologies is to increase responsiveness and efficiency. failure to attend to customers on time and with speed make them redundant in the public sector. twinning between bulawayo and ethekwini is not only limited to economic development projects but also to social issues which include culture, arts and sports. shaw (2002) stated that twinning arrangements should extend beyond economics and politics to social and recreational aspects of the society. similarly, makanyeza et al. (2013) noted that local authorities have a duty to provide social and recreational services to the public. in line with this, the national gallery in bulawayo and the durban art gallery signed a contract to promote each other’s talent in their respective towns. this partnership has also opened opportunities for young musicians and actors in bulawayo thus creating employment for the youths including charles nkomo who has showcased his art at the kwazulu-natal society of arts gallery (bulawayo council records 2010). council records at bcc also revealed attendance and participation of bulawayo youths at the 2009 one nation tournament that took place in durban. there has however no sporting event that took place after this because of economic challenges faced by the bcc. discussion development and service delivery are core responsibilities of local authorities because it is the local authority which governs most closely to the community (tamrakar 2010). however, because of numerous challenges faced by local authorities in low and middle income countries, service delivery and development remain difficult tasks to achieve. to them, city twinning has become an essential tool to improve service delivery, promote sustainable city development and good governance. the twinning arrangement between the bcc and ethekwini has produced positive results with the bowser project being the major tangible fruit of the partnership. twinning between the two municipalities is linked to technical and information exchanges which bulawayo has benefited from in terms of best practices in water supply and sewerage systems, customer care, arts and financial sustainability. as a result of such improvements, bcc received the zimbabwean best performing local authority award in 2012. as suggested earlier, south-south partnerships are aimed at facilitating southern communities to learn from each other as they are geographically closer, share similar social, economic and political problems (buursink 2001). the bowser and the call centre projects are proof that such partnerships can be a success. the ews is geographically close to bulawayo and it shares to some extent the bcc’s operating environment. in selected cases, some expertise was practically directly transferable, for instance the call centre design and the hygiene education campaign supplies. moreover, because of its geographical proximity, ews was well placed to oversee and monitor the progress of the projects thus their success. despite the notable accomplishments of the bcc and ethekwini linkage in service delivery from 2009 to 2014, the sustainability of the achievements of this partnership were however constantly threatened by the economic and legal environment in zimbabwe. this study observed that many achievements of twinning partnerships in zimbabwe are not sustainable because of lack of policy consistency, currency changes, the dearth of financial resources, and rampant corruption and investor perceptions of rife political risk. weak legal and financial frameworks thus hinder city twinning partnerships from realising their full fruition. conclusion and recommendations this article sought to highlight that local governments in resource constrained settings like zimbabwe can adopt city twinning to strengthen their operations and contribute to the ongoing debates on strategies for improving service provision in municipalities. although north-south cooperation is more ideal for fostering development, the study suggested that developing cities can benefit immensely from each other through south-south linkages as exhibited by the bcc and ethekwini twinning. however, sufficient attention should be given to ensure that such partnerships are built explicitly on defined goals, enabling policy and institutional environment, broad active community involvement, communication and binding contractual obligations. in addition, key aspects of twinning arrangements such as funding, nature of twinning and selection of operational staff are clarified and established at the beginning of the project rather than assumed as it can threaten the relationship between the two partners. acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge all the participants who provided us with the data in order for the research to be successful. competing interests the authors declare that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions both the authors contributed equally to this research, in terms of conceptualisation, methodology, data collection and data analysis, writing, review and editing. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of 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https://doi.org/10.2307/975377 wood, a., 2015, ‘the politics of policy circulation: unpacking the relationship between south african and south american cities in the adoption of bus rapid transit’, antipode 47(4), 1062–1079. yin, r., 2003, case study research: design and methods, sage, beverly hills, ca. zinyama, t. & nhema, a.g., 2015, ‘public-private partnership: critical review and lessons for zimbabwe’, public policy and administration research 5(6). 39–44. abstract introduction research approach conceptualisation of key terms citizen participatory mechanisms in local government: an overview public trust in the local government context service delivery protests in local government exploring the nexus between community participation and public trust in the context of service delivery protests conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pumlani msenge department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, alice, south africa ogochukwu nzewi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, alice, south africa citation msenge, p. & nzewi, o., 2021, ‘a proposed citizen participation–public trust model in the context of service delivery protests in south african local government’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a26. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.26 original research a proposed citizen participation–public trust model in the context of service delivery protests in south african local government pumlani msenge, ogochukwu nzewi received: 15 oct. 2020; accepted: 26 may 2021; published: 16 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract the south african local government context has been marred by persistent citizen protests that continue to jeopardise public administrators’ quest for effective service rendering. such protests have been attributed to the disregard of citizen participation in local government and unresponsive service rendering, amongst other factors. meaningful citizen participation is seen as a precondition for the establishment of trust between communities and public administrators. this article, delving into the empirical literature, presents a citizen participation and public trust model aimed at minimising service delivery protests in south africa. it argues that whilst lack of community trust has been lauded as one of the factors that have brewed citizen protests over the years, there is evidence to show that between the core values of procedural justice and public trust, citizen perception of power to influence may be vital to minimise proclivity to protest. the article finds that in addition to the interactional and informational justice components of procedural justice, meaningful citizen participation can be measured as a combination of these justice areas with mechanisms that highlight citizens’ positive perceptions of their power to influence decisions. as recommendations, the article argues that indeed lack of community involvement in municipal processes has the potential to break down trust and explode into service delivery protests. however, the article concludes that ensuring meaningful participation in local government decision-making processes, as defined in this article, is a precondition for building community trust and limiting the outbreak of service delivery protests in the local government context. keywords: community participation; public trust; service delivery protests; local government; south africa. introduction the first democratic elections in 1994 signalled the administrative transformation from a fragmented bureaucratic system to a representative one that sought to champion the priorities of the majority through participatory democracy. the main euphoria behind the attainment of independence was that the new democratic and participatory system would champion the needs and heed the clamours of previously marginalised groups by setting up democratic institutions that would benefit south african citizens equally (masango, mfene & henna 2013). in order to establish trust between the citizens and government administrators, community participation was lauded as an imperative precondition. the new constitution of 1996 stipulated the need to enforce community participation as a strategy to deal with a plethora of challenges that were facing the marginalised communities, such as unequal distribution of resources, limited access to social services such as health, lack of access to productive resources such as land and capital or credit facilities, and lack of employment opportunities (naidoo & ramphal 2018). nevertheless, extant literature reveals that post-apartheid history has been marred by local government administration challenges that have seen citizens protesting for better service delivery (nkomo 2017). the indication here is that the transformation process from a fragmented bureaucratic system of administration to a representative one has not been smooth. the growing disillusionment and community protests over service rendering in the municipal context is evidence of the euphoric despair that has been experienced over the years. persistent citizen protests represent growing evidence of a lack of trust, especially in the local government arena. according to gordon, roberts and struwig (2015), transformations in the responsibilities of local municipalities to focus on the developmental roles, such as the eradication of poverty and advancing the well-being of citizens, have not been smooth. it is imperative to note that challenges such as intergovernmental coordination, a political administrative impasse, corruption, embezzlement of funds and lack of staff capacity, amongst other factors, have had a devastating impact on the rendering of services in the context of local government (modise 2017; sekgala 2016; lemanski 2017). in this regard, the citizens have demonstrated a lack of trust and have clamoured to have their grievances addressed through violent protests. in this case, nzewi, nomarwayi and bradshaw (2019) argue that the community-based service delivery protests in the south african local government domain may be viewed as community reactions to the decision-making processes of municipal authorities rather than decision-making outcomes. the local government sphere is regarded as the coal-face of service delivery because of its closer proximity to the communities. as such, local municipalities are expected to have a larger hold on community trust than any other sphere of government. this is imbedded in statutes such as the white paper on local government (1998), which clearly stipulates that local government entities have a crucial responsibility to provide communities with a conducive socio-economic environment in order to improve their well-being. this ordinarily implies a closer bond between communities and local municipalities, where trust towards each other is central (nzewi et al. 2019). at the heart of a democratic society such as south africa, the trust of the community in its government, at the national, provincial and local levels, is imperative for national functionality. nkomo (2017) purports that protests against unresponsive delivery of services in the south african local government context have become a common phenomenon that has seen escalating confrontation between the south african police service (saps) and protesters. in such a scenario, an opportunity for constructive engagement between the local administration and the communities is lost, hence the need to establish the communication channels necessary for re-engagement. the protests have increased across south africa because of unfulfilled services that are provided by the municipality. according to the municipal iq reports (2020), the numerous organised and violent service delivery protests in the country have dramatically declined as a result of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) lockdowns across the country. nevertheless, the period prior to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic was characterised by citizen protests. this is substantiated by the fact that in 2016 alone, the country witnessed an average of 8.73 protests per month, increasing to 9.83 in 2017. this is a clear indication of the mistrust that exists, especially in local municipalities. statistics also reveal that in 2018, the average number of protests shot up to 17.75 per month, nearly doubling (nzewi et al. 2019). this pictures a tremendous rise in protests across south africa, and if they remain unchecked they might lead the economy into bad shape. it is against this backdrop that the article provides introspection into the subject of citizen participation as a potential ingredient that can be used to establish a conducive partnership between citizens and government administrators and provide amicable forms that will strengthen community trust in local government. this article seeks to contribute knowledge on citizen participation by moving beyond procedural clarifications to highlight it as a critical element to establish trust between communities and local government entities. to this end, the article is grounded in the following objectives: to establish the nexus between citizen participation and public trust in the local government context to assess the extent to which citizen participation has played a role in the establishment of public trust in south african local government and vice versa. research approach the relationship between community participation and public trust in the context of service delivery protests in the south african local government arena was evaluated using secondary data, based on desktop analysis. the availability of extensive literature and empirical research informed the choice of this method. as such, the desktop analysis was based on the use of numerous sources, including books, newspapers, journal articles and internet sources, on the outbreak of service delivery protests vis-à-vis community participation and public trust. in order interrogate stances and discourses that are used to explain the study phenomenon, the researchers found desktop analysis to be a powerful tool to achieve the objectives of the article, hence producing a new perspective about the main variables of the study. conceptualisation of key terms this article is grounded on the relationship that exists between the aspects of citizen participation and public trust. it is important to explore how these variables have been conceptualised in literature and to show the relationship that exists between them in the context of service delivery protests in south africa. citizen participation this article is grounded on the notion that community participation in the municipal processes has the potential to spur public trust. according to madzivhandila and maloka (2017), community participation is a process that is meant to provide deprived groups a ‘voice’ to influence municipal decisions. what is presented in their work reflects the need for these groups to have power and authority to have influence on municipal planning and the implementation of development initiatives that have an effect on their well-being. in a similar vein, zanna (2015) posits that the concept of participation seeks to imbed democracy and transform social cohesion between government and citizens, particularly as relates to the provision of quality and sustainable services and goods. the insinuation here is that the aspect of participation moves citizens beyond interactive processes and into the realm of decision-makers. more so, simonsen and robbins (2000) also contributed towards the framing of the concept of community participation through asserting that it is the process by which local stakeholders such as community members, government institutions, local businesses, community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations work collectively in decision-making to influence development outcomes in a municipal jurisdiction. nzewi et al. (2019:10) describe meaningful participation as ‘participation that builds trust and assures interactional and informational justice as important elements of community experiences of treatment in local government participation spaces’. in this regard, they developed a model where meaningful community involvement is articulated as participation that seeks to build and strengthen trust and guarantees interactional and informational justice as pivotal fundamentals of communities’ experience of treatment in local government ‘invited’ spaces for participation (nzewi et al. 2019). these fundamentals are seen as antecedents of meaningful citizen participation, and these may limit communities’ tendencies to engage in protests. this is shown in figure 1. figure 1: a conceptual framework for meaningful community participation. whilst nzewi et al.’s (2019) model is very important in presenting meaningful participation as a nexus between procedural justice and trust, it is silent on the aspect of communities’ power and authority to make meaningful decisions. the point of departure is municipal decisions. according to sibanda and lues (2019), public participation needs to be an open and accountable process through which communities can exchange opinions and have the power to influence agenda setting and, ultimately, decision-making. in this regard the notion presented here is that providing communities with power and authority is an element of meaningful participation that can play an essential role in limiting the outbreak of citizen protests because it establishes ownership of municipal programmes and projects. this is further elaborated below. based on the scholars’ insights on community participation, the current study draws some important indicators that appear to be relevant in local government–community participation discourse. these include: power to influence municipal decisions: providing communities the power and authority to direct resources and influence key decisions in the municipal context is at the heart of meaningful participation. meschede and mainka (2020) purport that if citizens have the possibility to co-decide on concrete plans, they have direct influence on local government decisions. this is largely grounded on the rational choice version of exchange theory, which advances the assumption that power dispersal amongst relevant stakeholders is established by the availability of resources from alternative exchange relations in networks (sibanda & lues 2019). it is imperative to note that granting communities power and authority in the municipal context has not been a smooth process for the reason that the power dynamics pose numerous challenges. massey (2005) argues that community involvement in municipal processes is a product of social relations, which are often conflicting, unequal and a product of conflicting social identities, power asymmetries and value-laden power struggles. fourie and reutener (2012) assert that formally established ‘invited’ spaces such as imbizos, public hearings, ward committees and mayoral roadshows have remained ceremonial and have not given communities power to influence decisions in the south african municipal context. in this regard, power asymmetries that have sidelined communities are seen as pervasive in the brewing conflict between communities and public administrators, leading to citizen protests (smith & de visser 2009). in this case, we argue that the aspect of providing communities with authority over municipal decisions as a core component of community participation has not grasped the attention of many scholars and needs to be emphasised. more so, we argue that the components of meaningful participation (interactional justice and informational justice) presented by nzewi et al. (2019) are essential in determining the extent to which communities are granted the power to direct resources. interactional justice: interactional justice, according to bies and moag (1986), includes elements such as honesty in the interactions between local government and communities, politeness, respect in dealing with the people and justifications for municipal decisions. in the south african local government context, the elements of interactional justice are mirrored in the batho pele principles, which include: consultation, access, information, service standards, openness and transparency, courtesy and redress and value for money (nzewi et al. 2019). there is a consensus amongst participatory democracy scholars (hemson & roberts 2008; holdt et al. 2011; reutener & fourie 2015; sibanda & lues 2019) that these principles are given little consideration in the local government domain, and this explains why citizens are always up in arms against the local government administrators. informational justice: this aspect focuses on how explanations and information are conveyed to people regarding why certain procedural decisions and outcomes were made (nzewi et al. 2019). the local strategies are complicated by language barriers, lack of capacity for communication and feedback to all community members, and communication breakdown between political and administrative leadership (paradza, mokwena & richards 2010). as such, informational justice plays a key role in bridging the gap between communities and public administrators. procedural justice: this aspect of meaningful participation is perceived to be a precondition for bridging the gap between communities and local governments (nzewi et al. 2019; sibanda & lues 2019). in simple terms, procedural justice is the perception of fairness in the procedures used in decision-making and fair treatment by authorities (murphy & tyler 2008). leventhal (1980:43) in particular highlighted the fairness of procedures, which he defined as ‘… an individual’s belief that allocative procedures which satisfy certain criteria are fair and appropriate’. furthermore, the concept is seen as advancing the aspect of fairness in the rendering of public services (shafritz & russell 2005), adding a social equity perspective in the process. sibanda and lues (2019:81) argue that procedural justice ‘is premised on distributive justice, support for outcomes, citizen trust and service satisfaction’. in this case, we argue that the concept of procedural justice is at the crux of the establishment of communities’ authority and citizen trust. public trust in the context of local government, trust is seen as an imperative social capital and essential ingredient for good governance and service delivery (macintyre et al. 2013). in terms of its conceptualisation, a number of scholars have had difficulties finding a universal definition based on the fact that the concept of trust is a multifaceted, complex and rather ambiguous concept, regarded by many as difficult to define and so to investigate. as such, public trust in government can have different meaning in different contexts. community trust is defined by macintyre et al. (2013:263) as ‘believing that a person or organisation will support words with actions’. in a similar vein, nzewi et al. (2019) assert that community trust is viewed as a local community’s belief in the power and legitimacy of local government authorities to take appropriate action to deliver on that community’s service delivery expectations as provided for in government policy and local government plans. houston and harding (2014) contend that rather than expectations, trust is based on beliefs. what is expressed in this definition is that expectations imply that we are calculating the probabilities that individuals will pursue particular courses of action. in this regard, trust in government is viewed as referring to the level of confidence citizens have in their government to ‘do the right thing’, to act appropriately and honestly on behalf of the public (houston & harding 2014). porumbescu (2015) is of the view that public trust in government is fundamental for the reason that it speaks to the quality of the relationship that exists between citizens and their government. in contrary, low levels of trust among citizens lead to long periods of social, localised, provincial or national actions of protest, violence and destabilisation that can result in destructive consequences for governments and governance in general. citizen participatory mechanisms in local government: an overview the new democratic era in south africa sought to introduce a system with a massive engrained focus on participatory democracy grounded in public participation through a myriad of mechanisms (qwabe & mdaka 2011). this is based on the fact that the constitution of 1996 stipulated the need to enforce community participation as a strategy to deal with the plethora of challenges that were facing marginalised communities, such as unequal distribution of resources, limited access to social services such as health, lack of access to productive resources such as land and capital or credit facilities, and lack of employment opportunities (naidoo & ramphal 2018). this saw the enactment of legal statutes such as the municipal structures act (117 of 1998), white paper on local government (1998) and the municipal systems act (32 of 2000), which provided for citizen participation. as such, grassroots structures were set up to achieve this objective. although community participation has been lauded as a cornerstone for local government administration, the role played by communities in influencing municipal decisions has been under strain. it is imperative to note that the aspect of participatory local government is imbedded in the integrated development planning (idp) mechanisms in the south african local government processes. this entails that it is statutorily mandated that the idp process be participatory and consultative, involving community members in development planning, budgeting and even in the rating of the performance of municipalities in the implementation of idp mechanisms (nzewi et al. 2019). nevertheless, empirical evidence and the extant literature show that the implementation processes that relate to participatory local governance are challenging and complex. it is prudent to note that the area of public engagement in local government processes has been entrenched in the idp and community-based planning (cbp) processes: citizen participation in integrated development planning processes: fourie and reutener (2012) assert that idp processes, as legislative criteria that represent the strategic growth plan of a municipality, filled the void of matching community participation and planning with a wider strategic growth context. integrated development planning is used as a tool to define and prioritise the mission and goals of a municipality over a span of 5 years through participatory processes and budget coordination (mathebula 2018). a review of the idp process remains an important prerequisite for municipal strategic planning, which is the first phase in the budget-making process. according to rambunda and masenya (2017), in south africa the level of community participation within the municipal planning environment has increased because of idp implementation. community-based planning processes: the shift towards developmental local government also emphasised decentralisation processes that were meant to give communities a voice in administrative processes that affect their day-to-day lives and well-being. reutener (2015) purports that the cbp process: [e]ntails the active participation of community members, notably those that are commonly referred to as marginalised groups, in managing their own development and that services provided by local government structures are facilitated, coordinated and promoted effectively and responsibly as part of a responsive assertiveness to the community. (p. 209) this participatory mechanism was meant to promote the active involvement of communities through a reflection of community-based plans in the idp process. according to sekgala (2016), the ward committee system is one of the structures that can advance cbp within the idp framework. reutener (2015) argues that the institutionalisation of the public-based planning system and the idp component effectively promotes community engagement, offers an organisational structure, formalises contact between the council and the community, and respects diversity. it is worth pointing out that the implementation of participatory local government has not been smooth for the reason that daunting challenges have been raised. as such the concept of community participation has faced some critics over the years. fourie and reutener (2012) argue that there are certain barriers that seem to limit the effective implementation of meaningful public participation in the local government processes. these include, amongst other factors, the non-existence of a participatory culture, political interference and a lack of capacity on the part of community representatives. the established structures and interaction facilitation mechanisms, such as the typical izimbizo (mass gatherings or meetings), ward committees and idp processes, are created spaces that are mostly symbolic and have not lived up to their expectations of bridging the gap between communities and local government entities. in line with this, bassett (2016) attests that despite the potential for citizen participation to improve democratic transparency and lead to policies supporting the interests of the disadvantaged, local governments have followed a hierarchical and plutocratic strategy that has given people minimal spaces to control municipal decisions. to buttress the view presented above, mofolo (2016) avers that elements of citizen participation such as interactional and informational justice have not fully been prioritised. there is evidence of information deficiency because of the uneven manner with which local municipalities not only implement but also publicise and disseminate information on their participatory initiatives. in line with this, paradza et al. (2010) assert that the local mechanisms for communication are affected by numerous barriers such as language, lack of capacity for communication and feedback to all community members, and communication breakdown between political and administrative leadership. in this regard, communication breakdown between local government officials and citizens is seen as one of the factors that diminish trust in local government and brew service delivery protests across the country. according to vermunt and steensma (2016), when information about service delivery outcomes is missing, vague or untimely, procedural and interactional justice perceptions will serve as proxies for assessing the fairness of outcomes. as such, the notion advanced in this article is that ignorance of such participatory mechanisms and the politics of exclusion have hampered public trust in local government institutions. public trust in the local government context in the south african context, elements of community–local government engagement such as truthfulness in the communications and interactions, respect, propriety in dealing with people and justifications for decisions are perhaps best reflected in the south african batho pele principles of access, courtesy, consultation, service standards, information, openness and transparency, and redress and value for money (nzewi at al. 2019). these principles have significance for public trust, as they heighten the expectation of participatory governance in local government service delivery. in south africa, society’s confidence in transparency, accountability and fairness has plummeted (world economic forum 2018), in large part because of disregard of the main elements of meaningful participation, such as interactional and informational justice. trust in both public institutions has eroded over time. the 2016 afrobarometer survey revealed that economic meltdown and corruption allegations linked to the nkandla case made headlines as contributory factors to a dramatic drop in public trust (mantzaris & pillay 2016). the findings of the survey revealed that community trust in the president continues to dwindle and has dropped by almost half since 2011, from 62% to 34%, its second-lowest level since the first survey in 2000 (chingwete 2016:4). this is illustrated in table 1. table 1: trust in south africa’s presidents, 2000–2015. public confidence in the presidents of south africa has plummeted since the surveys started with the afrobarometer in 2000. trust in president thabo mbeki was weak in 2000–2002, then increased in 2004–2006 to an average of 61%. motlanthe’s low level of confidence (31%) and high proportion of ‘don’t know’ (26%) responses are likely to reflect his brief period in office when the survey was conducted. the confidence rates of zuma reached up to 62% in 2011 before falling by 28% (chingwete 2016). the diminishing level of trust explains why zuma was ousted before the end of his presidential term, owing to corruption allegations. trust issues have had a domino effect on the members of parliament (mps), provincial premiers and local government councils, where citizen support has also declined dramatically, making political leaders the least-trusted public officials in the country (lekalake 2016). in the local government arena, one indicator that has been used to measure trust is the local government election results, which may explore the community’s reaction to local government decisions and outcomes that are unfavourable. in this case, the results of the 2016 local government elections perhaps provide some evidence of citizens’ trust in how the ruling party (the african national congress [anc]) managed local government (nzewi et al. 2019). table 2 shows the extent to which the support of the anc diminished between the years 2000 and 2016. table 2: party support in local government elections in key anc-dominant metros, 2000–2001. the data presented in table 2 reveals that even though the ruling party retained control of the four municipalities, there was a well-documented drastic decline in its support in the 2016 elections. the data also show that tshwane and johannesburg metros recorded a 14% drop, whilst ekhuruleni and nelson mandel bay metros recorded 13% and 11%, respectively. as compared to other countries, the picture still looks promising in south africa, but closer scrutiny reveals that trust in government officials and public institutions continues to dwindle. based on the 2016 local government election results, it can be deduced that whilst the ruling party was able to get 55.65% support, trust in local government appears to be under strain because citizens’ value expectations and rewards over time are not met (hemson 2010). on trust in local government to deliver services, the south african social attitudes survey reveals some interesting statistics (hemson 2010). citizens expressed more trust in the national government than in local government. however, citizens in remote and low-income municipalities tended to have a higher level of trust in local government (up to 67%) than those in higher-income areas, where local government seems more established (hemson 2010). the argument advanced in this article is that citizens’ reactions to unresponsive service delivery outcomes can be extreme in communities where participation is perceived to be low. it is imperative to note that the consideration of key aspects of interactional and informational justice is best reflected in the batho pele principles, which include access, courtesy, consultation, service standards, information, openness and transparency, and redress and value for money (lemanski 2017). with reference to community experiences with the application of these principles, an human sciences research council (hsrc) report from the south african social attitude survey revealed that local government officials showed very minimal application of the competencies, discretion and attitudes needed to ensure equity and fairness in service delivery as provided for in the batho pele principles (hemson & roberts 2008). more so, the poorest areas with the greatest need, such as informal settlements and rural areas, experienced the lowest level of consultation, service standards, openness and transparency, and other batho pele principles. in a study by holdt et al. (2011), factors that relate to neglect, exclusion, force and indifference by local government officials were used as community narratives for taking part in the protests. the ignorance of informational justice has also been used to explain the widening gap between communities and local government officials, as well as diminishing levels of trust. nzewi et al. (2019) assert that information constraints continue to menace local municipalities. mofolo (2016) found a lack of feedback to communities as one of the challenges within local government participatory structures. other evidence suggests that community perceptions of public participation are positively affected when officials are seen to follow up on key issues (buccus et al. 2007). thus, a notable cause of service delivery protests is poor communication between communities and municipal officials. indeed, when information about service delivery outcomes is missing, vague or untimely, procedural and interactional justice perceptions will serve as proxies for assessing the fairness of outcomes (vermunt & steensma 2016). in this regard, we argue that the elements of meaningful participation play a significant role in determining the levels of trust and the outbreak of protests. some of the factors that have exacerbated low levels of trust relate to perceptions regarding poor performance and unethical behaviour (edelman trust barometer 2013). in a similar vein, an ipsos study in 2012 revealed that 27% of study participants expressed distrust in local government, citing corruption, lack of transparency and nepotism. according to the department of government communication and information system (2016), 21% of the respondents in the ipsos study mentioned officials not fulfilling their promises as the reason for their lack of trust. the point of departure advanced in this study is that flawed community participatory mechanisms have compromised aspects of procedural justice, leading to diminishing trust in local authorities. it is important therefore to show how a lack of trust has degenerated into violent service delivery protests across the country. service delivery protests in local government over the years, the local government context has been gripped by violent service delivery protests, and this is evidence of diminishing public trust levels. service delivery protests are described as ‘action through which the residents of an area decide to voice their dissatisfaction or grievances with the manner and scale at which public services are rendered to them’ (shaidi 2013:16). although various scholars have tried to distinguish between community protests and service delivery protests, these are used interchangeably in this article. it is worth noting that the service delivery protests have been championed to raise communities’ concerns over the lack of service rendering, such as the provision of safe and clean water, sanitation facilities and electricity, amongst other services. according to powell, o’donovan and de visser (2015), some of the factors that have brewed violent protests in the local government context include poor maintenance and provision of infrastructure and housing, high service charges, patronage and corruption. a number of studies have been carried out to determine how many service delivery protests occur in south africa (table 3). table 3: protest numbers by various organisations, 2012–2017. extant literature shows that service delivery protests have been on the rise, and unresponsive service delivery has been condemned as the main factor (masiya, davids & mangayi 2019; nkomo 2017). according to municipal iq (2018), 2018 was already positioned to set a new record, with 42 protests between january and march 2018, and 101 protests measured between april and june alone. this is an average of at least one service delivery protest every 2 days. one of the factors that have been condemned for the service delivery protests brewing in the local government arena is the fact that local government represents a bureaucratic nightmare (nzewi et al. 2019). this rigid top–down approach is believed to slow down the rendering of services such as water, housing, electricity and sanitation to overcome the legacies of apartheid (hartley 2014). with the slow pace of service delivery, people will demand more services through protest actions against local authorities. in addition to unresponsive service delivery, some factors that have heightened the protests include poverty and unemployment, lack of participatory democracy and lack of access to information (sithole & mathonsi 2015). mamabolo (2015) opines that lack of employment opportunities and high poverty levels are contributory factors towards protests because most people rely on government or their local municipality for better service delivery because of lack of economic opportunities such as proper employment and food security. in this regard, the failure by municipalities to provide basic services compels these individuals to protest. mathebula (2018) shares the same sentiment that a major factor in the protests is poverty, with its accompanying socio-economic conditions and unemployment. lastly, chikulo (2016) states that there are claims that the protests against poor service delivery are strengthened by the growing inequality and poverty in south african societies. according to modise (2017), ignorance about participatory democracy has limited the interactions between communities and public officials. it is worth noting that individuals usually demonstrate their disillusionment with exclusion from decision-making processes through protests (brooks 2017). the concept of participatory democracy is a great challenge for democratic south africa because citizens have inadequate knowledge about the administrative operations of local municipalities. the service delivery protests are a clear indication that participatory democracy is a great challenge in democratic south africa, and as a result poor public participation leads to underdevelopment of local government (modise 2017). this means that interactional justice has not been fully prioritised, and this has strained the relationship between communities and local government officials; the protests are a product of this strained relationship. chigwata et al. (2017) asserts the lack of consideration of informational justice has been used to explain the occurrence of community protests in south africa. the right to access information is one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution of the republic of south africa (1996). furthermore, the batho pele principles put more emphasis on information access as a right that needs consideration in municipal governance (mathebula 2017). according to morudu (2017), service delivery protests in rural areas make clear how a lack of access to information often leads to the rapid spread of rumours of favouritism, corruption and mismanagement. despite the media and other communication tools, communication is still a pandemic issue that needs to be resolved and improved. exploring the nexus between community participation and public trust in the context of service delivery protests the relationship between the main variables of the article needs to be explored to show how elements that contribute to them interrelate. a number of researchers have found that public trust is also one of a variety of factors that can influence the effectiveness of efforts to mobilise citizens. an analysis of the trust levels in various actors may help us understand to what extent citizen mobilisation may be achieved and thus inform project strategy (oxfam 2019). however, the link between trust and citizen engagement is complex. according to muller (2013), higher community levels of trust in government institutions are associated with higher levels of citizen participation. in contrast, lower community levels of trust in government institutions have the potential to induce disillusionment and apathy, where citizens refrain from voicing their concerns towards duty bearers at all (muller 2013). according to chu and shen (2017), this kind of disengagement between government institutions can contribute towards protest behaviour by citizens. based on the exploration of the relationship amongst the study variables, the conceptual framework presented in figure 2 explores the notion that the enhancement of meaningful community participation is key for attaining fairness in local government processes, which may in turn influence the aspect of trust. conversely, disregard of the main principles of active participation may have a negative effect on procedural justice, diminishing the levels of trust in the processes. figure 2: citizen participation–public trust model. the assertion presented in this article is that communities’ power to influence municipal decisions is less emphasised in the scholarly fraternity, and it is at the crux of the establishment of public trust. we argue in this article that the levels of engagement between communities and public officials must emphasise the need to provide communities a role to play in determining where resources are to be allocated. the argument presented in this article is that the public’s perception of their power to influence the process is a precondition to meaningful citizen participation, which minimises disillusionment in local government participatory processes. once this aspect is achieved, trust between local government institutions and communities is established. marques et al. (2015) found that perceptions of public trust in government are greater in cases where people are involved in the municipal processes. granted that fewer studies exist on community participation and trust in local government, one study by kim and lee (2012) found that perceptions of effective participation enhanced satisfaction with quality of services. their study also found a positive association between government transparency and trust in government. the assertion presented in the proposed framework above is that meaningful community participation plays a significant role in enhancing public trust in government. kim (2016) asserts that once these elements are realised, trust in local government is enhanced. on one hand, a break in trust resulting from perceptions of unfair procedures can elicit strong adverse reactions. on the other hand, trust can be built by working to increase perceptions of fair outcomes and procedures (nzewi et al. 2019). in this regard, the nexus between meaningful participation and trust is essential in understanding how communities react to local government decision-making. this also suggests that understanding the dynamics of public participation must include sensitivities to informational and interactional justice in acknowledging communities’ roles, dignity, ownership and values in building trust towards favourable outcomes (nzewi at al. 2019). conclusion citizen participation is a vital approach that can be used by public sector institutions in their quest to improve public trust in local government and quell service delivery protests. evidence from practice reflects that a number of municipalities across the country have encountered service delivery protests that have degenerated into violence. even though the concept of community participation remains entrenched in a number of statutory instruments, it has not yet lived up to expectations in terms of bridging the gap between communities and public officials. less consideration of community participation elements such as interactional and informational justice has dealt a heavy blow to public trust. the article finds that meaningful citizen participation is an ingredient necessary for positive local community reactions to service delivery outcomes. conversely, a lack of community involvement in municipal processes such as planning, budgeting and the implementation of programmes and projects has the potential to break down trust and explode into service delivery protests. the article concludes that ensuring meaningful participation in local government decision-making processes is a precondition for building community trust and limiting the outbreak of service delivery protests in the local government context. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions both authors have contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research 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in ḳ. sabag & m. schmitt (eds.), handbook of social justice theory and research, pp. 219–236, springer, new york, ny. world economic forum, 2018, how to rebuild trust and integrity in south africa, business unity south africa, sandton, johannesburg. zanna, a.s., 2015, citizen participation in local governance and sustainability of programmes, global journalist inc, maiduguri. abstract introduction methodology framework to support private sector participation brazil south africa results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) thulani mandiriza school of public management and administration, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa david j. fourie school of public management and administration, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation mandiriza, t. & fourie, d.j., 2022, ‘comparative analysis of the public–private partnerships framework: case for south africa and brazil’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a93. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.93 review article comparative analysis of the public–private partnerships framework: case for south africa and brazil thulani mandiriza, david j. fourie received: 06 july 2022; accepted: 29 sept. 2022; published: 15 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article provides a comparative analysis of south africa and brazil’s municipal public–private partnerships (ppps) framework with the objective of obtaining lessons for south africa. between 1995 and 2019, brazil had 96 municipal water ppp projects in contrast to south africa, which had only six municipal water ppp projects. aim: the article through comparative analysis seeks to gain insights from the brazilian ppp framework and then to deduce some lessons for south africa. brazil was chosen because it has similar developmental characteristics to south africa. method: this article relied heavily on secondary qualitative data to analyse both south africa and brazil’s municipal ppp frameworks. results: south africa needs to frequently review its ppp regulatory environment to determine its effectiveness and fit for purpose; create a framework for fast-tracking smaller ppp projects; and put in place mandatory ex-post evaluation of ppp. conclusion: south africa’s policymakers must redesign the municipal ppp framework and approval process to be able to respond to changing environments and address the underlying reasons for the low uptake of municipal infrastructure projects. contribution: the article provides valuable lessons to policy makers especially in africa, on how to design an effective regulatory framework to facilitate the speedy adoption of municipal ppps in the water sector. keywords: south africa; brazil; municipal public–private partnerships; municipal water infrastructure projects; comparative analysis. introduction south africa experiences water scarcity and is ranked number 30 on the list of driest countries worldwide, with insufficient water to adequately meet water needs for its citizens (greencape 2017:14). the department of water and sanitation (dws) in 2018 estimated that over the subsequent 10-year period, an investment of approximately zar840 billion would be required in new water infrastructure, maintenance and upgrading of existing infrastructure at both the national and local government levels. the funding gap was estimated to be zar333 bn over the 10-year period (dws 2018:47–48). water service authorities (municipalities) face several challenges in the delivery of their mandate. some of the challenges faced by these municipalities include: (1) limited investment in infrastructure, resulting in rapidly ageing infrastructure; (2) governance failures and institutional capacity constraints; and (3) constrained municipal finances because of poor tariff-setting and billing practices (national business initiative 2019:8). at least 33% of the south african municipalities that are designated as water service authorities are regarded as dysfunctional, and more than 50% have only limited qualified technical staff to undertake the water services function effectively (dws 2018:21). the inability of the municipalities to consistently provide water to ratepayers because of infrastructure challenges, poor financial position and institutional and governance failures result in those municipalities being regarded as dysfunctional. some of the challenges cited above may be addressed by partnering with the private sector. public–private partnerships (ppps) integrate the private sector in service delivery beyond arm’s-length transactions, in which both public and private entities have mutual interest for the success of the partnership (boyer, van slyke & rogers 2016:7). the success of ppps in pioneering countries has led governments across the world, including south africa, to explore ppps as an alternative funding instrument for infrastructure projects. new public management (npm), on which ppps are anchored, predicts several benefits to the public sector from the use of ppps. some of the benefits include avoidance of upfront project costs by government, pursuit of efficiency by the private partner through innovative financing and service delivery mechanisms. public–private partnerships are envisaged to provide superior services (both in terms of quantity and quality) based on superior knowledge, financial skills, access to capital and managerial and technical efficiency associated with the private sector (opara & rouse 2019:78). the successful adoption of ppps by the private sector is dependent on the existence of an enabling environment and a well-defined ppp framework. the question that this article seeks to answer is: ‘why are countries with similar socio-economic conditions attracting different levels of private sector investment in municipal water infrastructure projects? does the municipal ppp frameworks play a role?’ to be able to answer the question above, this article uses brazil as a benchmark given its success in attracting private sector investment in the municipal water sector, which south african municipalities are struggling to achieve. methodology qualitative content analysis or documentary review is used in this article to analyse text data from various secondary sources (hsieh & shannon 2005:1278). the basis for documentary review is to inform comparative and benchmarking analysis. benchmarking is defined as a process of improvement established from learning from other organisations or environments (hong et al. 2012:444). the underlying principle of benchmarking is identifying products, services or processes with high standards and then adjusting one’s own processes to reach the observed high standards elsewhere. benchmarking is useful in identifying new ideas to improve processes and procedures or policies. the observed standards elsewhere are commonly referred to as best practice (milosevic et al. 2013:365). best-practice benchmarking is founded on two assumptions: firstly, top performers have superior practices, and secondly, the superior practices are easily distinguishable from other practices and imitated to improve one’s own results (hachez et al. 2017:11). the benchmarking concept can be used in several settings, including national policy benchmarking, such as ppp frameworks across countries. the process of undertaking policy benchmarking is common in government and acts as a tool of policymaking and policy monitoring (hachez et al. 2017:10). an example of policy benchmarking in government could be comparing how the ppp policy in one country compares to another country. there are conceptual similarities between benchmarking theory and comparative public administration (cpa) in that both seek to compare, find what works and possibly implement the better solution. jreisat (2010:612) defines cpa as ‘a method of learning and discovery that utilises comparative analysis to advance administrative knowledge’. comparative analysis may be undertaken in various aspects of public administration, such as administrative structures, administration reforms, administrative tools and strategies, public policy, public functions, organisational dynamics, management practices, national development initiatives and cultural standards, among others, with the objective of advancing public administration knowledge and service delivery. the ultimate focus for cpa is to enhance governance by learning from others and promote effectiveness in the provision of government services (khan 2016:2). according to the world bank’s private participation in infrastructure (ppi) database, between 1995 and 2019, brazil had 96 municipal water ppp projects in contrast to south africa, which had only 6 municipal water ppp projects (world bank 2020:1). framework to support private sector participation public–private partnerships flourish where there is an enabling environment or conditions conducive to attract private sector investment. biygautane, hodge and gerber (2018:332) identify the fundamental success factors guiding private sector participation in ppps, which include: good governance and rule of law – the focus is on the separation of powers between the judiciary and government (including political influence); and government, private businesses and individuals, all equal before the law. legal and regulatory institutions – the focus is on strong regulatory and accountability institutions that are independent of political influence, institutions that ensure transparency and prevent corruption in commercial deals. competition-driven market economies – the focus is on competitive business environments, a vibrant and financially capable market economy and the existence of competitive bids. professional capacity in both the private and public sectors – the focus is on establishing ppp units that facilitate partnerships, a highly capable private sector to deliver complex projects and improving the technical capacity within the public sector to prepare ppp-related documents. with the broad parameters for evaluating ppp frameworks established, the next step is to understand brazil’s ppp framework, which has yielded 96 municipal water ppp projects compared to only 6 in south africa. brazil the brazil’s federal constitution of 1988 (hereafter referred to as the 1988 constitution) created separate legislative and administrative arms to ensure accountability and foster the doctrine of separation of powers. from the administrative arm, power is shared among the federal government, states and municipal governments (sampaio & sampaio 2020:2). brazil has a cooperative government model which confers some powers to the 26 states, one federal district (brasilia), the federal government and 5570 municipalities. the federal government is responsible for policy development, issuing directives and guidelines to be followed by states and municipalities (ribeiro & fabre 2019:5; sampaio & sampaio 2020:2). local government in brazil is autonomous and has the power to enact its own laws (guided by the federal constitution). like south africa, local government in brazil also receives funds from the respective states and federal government to support service delivery initiatives and programmes (ribeiro & fabre 2019:5). evolution of public–private partnerships and the legal framework in brazil the genesis of ppps in brazil dates to the 19th century with initial projects in the railway industry. during this period, ppps were not formalised (arrobas & enei 2009:21). public–private partnerships were later formalised when brazil adopted its 1988 constitution, which led to the development of a comprehensive ppp framework composed of two main laws: the concessions law of 1995 (no. 8987/95) and the ppp law of 2004 (no. 11079/04) (eneto, cruz & sarmento 2019:557; the economist intelligence unit [eiu] 2019:29). the concessions law allows private companies to build and operate infrastructure assets which will later be owned by government after the lapsing of the contracted period. the ppp law of 2004 formally establishes ppps (barral & haas 2007:960; eiu 2019:29). public entities are required to motivate why ppp should be considered as the most viable funding option through value-for-money assessment and cost–benefit analysis (pereira 2014:35). in 2012, federal law no. 12766/12 was passed as an amendment to the ppp law of 2004, which introduced incentives to the private sector by legalising the payment of services by the public sector at the project development phase as opposed to making payments only when the project is completed (eneto et al. 2019:557). the ppp act was amended in 2014 to provide clarity to all levels of government on the allocation of up to 5% of its net fiscal revenue in ppp projects (brics south africa 2018:13). taking guidance from the principles outlined in the federal laws, the states and municipal governments may promulgate their respective ppp regulations (eneto et al. 2019:557). between 2005 and 2014, 20 state capitals passed ppp-specific legislation (radar ppp 2015:30). ppp projects by different levels of government are aligned to the constitutional powers assigned to each level of government. for instance, the federal government is responsible for ppp projects in several sectors such as energy and interstate transport sectors. equally, the various states and municipal governments are responsible for water, sanitation and localised road projects and would enter into ppps for the specific services (eiu 2019:29). brazil has restrictions on the participation of private investors from foreign countries in ppps (marques 2016:464). for the private sector to invest in water infrastructure, ppp reforms are not the only important consideration but also reforms in the water sector more generally. the reforms and institutional sector in the water sector relevant to ppps are discussed below. institutional set-up and reforms supporting water public–private partnerships in brazil prior to the 1960s, water provision in brazil was deficient and of poor quality, and each water authority had a different business and water management model. the water value chain was clearly fragmented, with no standardised norms and procedures (de oliveira 2008:1). in 1964, the military government prioritised water and sanitation and created the national housing bank (bnh), and this was followed by the establishment in 1971 of the national sanitation plan (planasa). the plan championed the formation of state water and sanitation companies (cesbs) and persuaded municipalities to enter into long-term concessions with some private companies (de oliveira 2008:1). brazil instituted further reforms in the water sector, launching new water policies and establishing new institutions at the federal, state and local government levels to improve efficiency in the sector. the 1988 constitution empowered states to manage their own water resources, and many states enacted own laws. in 1991, são paulo was among the first to enact water-related laws, followed by 11 states between 1991 and 1997. the national water law (no. 9433 of 1997) came into force in 1997, introducing the national water resources policy (nwrp) and the national water resources management system to manage and implement the new policy direction (victor, almeida & wong 2015:11). these attributes of the reform agenda positively contributed to some extent in making the water sector attractive to private sector investment. in addition to the reforms, there are several institutions that support the water sector in brazil, such as the national water agency (ana), which enforces the water policy and consolidates institutional reforms in the water sector into a single and coherent entity (victor et al. 2015:12). the brazilian government, since 2007, increased funding into the water and sanitation sector using various funds such as the infrastructure programme for growth acceleration (pac) and subsidised long-term financing by the brazilian development bank (bndes), as well as private sector participation (world bank 2017:4). the brazilian government, through law no. 13,334 of 2016, launched the investment partnerships programme (ipp), creating the ipp council and the ipp secretariat. since its launch, the quantity and quality of ppps improved both in terms of documentation and implementation (prats 2019:14). taking guidance from the federal laws, the state and municipal governments developed their own ppp regulations to promote and revive private sector investment. public–private partnerships in the water sector in brazil achieved growth when the sector developed a comprehensive ppp framework composed of two main federal laws: the concessions law and the ppp law discussed above. the reforms in the water sector such as the establishment of the national sanitation plan, which set out the investment requirements for the water sector; developing water sector policies and guidelines for tariff determination; and the creation of new institutions established at the federal, state and local government levels to improve efficiency in the water sector contributed to this growth (de oliveira, 2008:1). competition in the tender or bidding market new public management champions the promotion of competition and in the case of ppps, the avenue for creating competition is in the bidding process where private sector investors compete to provide public services. federal law no. 8.666 of 1993 prescribes general rules on procurement and administrative contracts; that is, it directs how bidding will be conducted. public entities are required to provide a motivation as to why ppp should be considered as a viable funding option; in other words, a business case for ppps is mandatory. other factors to be included in the document are value-for-money considerations, options evaluation and cost–benefit analysis (pereira 2014:35). despite the clarity provided in the procurement laws, brazil has put restrictions on the participation of private investors from foreign countries in ppps (marques 2016:464). accordingly, brazil has not fully embraced the benefits that accrue from opening tenders for ppp to foreign companies. restricting tenders to only brazilian companies limits innovation and use of alternative technology. these restrictions limit the extent of competition and may increase costs to government arising from poor competition outcomes (marques 2016:464). in summary, to drive its ppp framework, brazil put in place the following: credible governance mechanisms which provide for a clear separation of powers among key role players such as the judiciary, government and private sectors. this affirms equality before the law for all (everyone). legal and regulatory institutions which support ppps to ensure transparency and minimise corruption in commercial deals. promote competition through competitive bids to ensure the private sector participates in ppp projects. however, restrictions on foreign participation limit effective competition. professional capacity in both the private and public sectors was improved through establishing ppp units, which are decentralised to all levels of government. south africa south africa’s first democratic government in 1994 sought alternative service delivery mechanisms to address infrastructure backlogs, and one of the options considered was ppps (fourie 2008:559). the constitution, which was adopted in 1996, does not make any specific reference to ppps but alludes to general procurement guidelines, general rules and principles of fairness, equity, transparency, competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. procurement under ppps should exhibit these principles to ensure that the municipality derives value-for-money through a competitive bidding process. in 1997, south africa’s government set up a multidisciplinary team to explore whether ppps could be a viable option to address infrastructure backlogs and new infrastructure development (arimoro 2018:216). this process led to the pioneering ppp projects which occurred between 1997 and 2000 (national treasury 2019:152). in 1999, parliament enacted the public finance management act, 1999 (act 1 of 1999) (pfma), which provided impetus for ppps by detailing the procurement process to be followed. in mid-2000, the national treasury set up a ppp unit initially staffed with five experts from government, the private sector and international development agencies (arimoro 2018:216). in april 2001, the national treasury issued regulations in terms of the pfma called ‘treasury regulations for national departments, constitutional institutions and public entities’. public–private partnerships at the local government sphere were formally recognised as a procurement option by the enactment of the mfma in 2003. table 1 summarises some of the major policy and legislative developments that led to ppps. table 1: legislative developments leading to the formal public–private partnership framework in sa. south africa’s public policymakers played an active role in driving ppps from the late nineties to mid-2005. since 2006, no significant improvements to the ppp policy environment were made, despite the fact that no new municipal water ppp projects came on board since the last concession agreement in 1999 (walwyn & nkolele 2018:4). institutional set-up and reforms supporting water public–private partnerships in south africa water policy in south africa evolved over time with the objective of reversing the discriminatory practices of colonial rule. the transition from colonial regime to democracy in 1994 forced the democratic government to revisit institutional arrangements in the water sector. revision of repressive laws was a priority of the new government, and the water sector was no exception (bayliss 2016:5). postcolonial water policies were anchored on addressing water access imbalances, which tied access to water with land ownership as specified in the water act, 1956 (act 54 of 1956) (kapfudzaruwa & sowman 2009:683). institutions were set up to support the reform process, but this article will focus only on those reforms which support ppps. apart from the municipal ppp regulations, south africa does not have specific regulations governing ppps in the water sector. however, the municipal ppp regulations have ‘feasibility study toolkits’ for water and sanitation, solid waste management and commercial use of municipal property by the private sector. the water and sanitation toolkit is designed to help municipalities undertake feasibility assessment for potential partnering with non–state actors such as civil society and the private sector. there are limited reforms in the water sector that support ppps, except a few policy directives, some of which were not implemented (ntola & le roy 2019). for instance, the dws had identified the necessity to create an independent water regulator since 2012. the justification for this policy position was to ensure cost recovery price setting, provide certainty for private investors, guarantee returns for private capital and reduce political influence (ntola & le roy 2019). the dws is both a policymaker and regulator across the value chain, and this dual role creates perverse incentives and conflict of interest and is prone to political interference, since both functions are subject to the same minister. this scenario disincentivises private investment given the perceptions of heightened political interference (ntola & le roy 2019). unfortunately, the policy intent by the dws has not led to the establishment of the independent water regulator for the past decade. institutions to support public–private partnerships in south africa south africa has several institutions which support the roll-out of ppps; for instance, the national treasury’s ppp unit has specific responsibilities which include developing and promoting a framework for ppp and preparing associated guidelines (brics south africa 2018:13). the development bank of southern africa (dbsa) originates and finances infrastructure projects across sectors in south africa and recently started expanding further into the african continent (dbsa 2019:2). other institutions that support ppps in one form of the other include: the gauteng infrastructure financing agency (gifa), which provides ‘specialist financing solutions for key infrastructure projects in gauteng province’ (gifa 2019:10). infrastructure fund – the south african government provided seed money amounting to r100 bn to create a project pipeline of infrastructure projects. the seed funding will be blended with private sector funding to create a pool of financial resources to revive infrastructure projects in various sectors, including water (the presidency 2021:11). competition in the tender or bidding market procurement of goods and services in south africa’s public service is guided by the principles of fairness, equity and competition. procurement under ppps should exhibit these principles to ensure that the municipality derives value-for-money through a competitive bidding process. in addition, ppps should comply with the competition act, 1998 (act 89 of 1998) (hereafter referred to as the competition act). in summary, south africa’s ppp framework is aligned to international standards given the existence of effective governance mechanisms separating government from judiciary, institutions supporting ppps and a framework to support competition in ppp project tendering. despite this, there are lessons that south africa can learn from the brazilian experience. results lessons for south africa from brazil’s public–private partnership framework brazil’s water sector ppps witnessed some growth following the passing of the concessions law and the ppp law, which allowed states and municipal governments to promulgate their respective ppp regulations as a way of promoting private investment. significant reforms in the water sector such as the establishment of the national sanitation plan, which set out the investment requirements for the water sector; developing water sector policies and guidelines for tariff determination; and the creation of new institutions established at the federal, state and local government levels to improve efficiency in the water sector contributed to the growth of the sector and ppp adoption. in addition, the creation of new institutions played a significant role in attracting private capital in the sector. these institutions support the various activities of the ppp project life cycle. while south africa’s ppp framework is much aligned with international best practice in most respects, there are areas that need revision. some of the lessons from the brazilian experience include the following: there is a need to frequently review of the ppp regulatory environment to determine its effectiveness and fit for purpose. south africa has not undertaken any significant review since the municipal ppp regulations were put in place in 2005. given the low uptake of municipal ppps, the policymakers should undertake some reviews, understand any hinderances and make the necessary changes accordingly. this has been the case in brazil, with frequent policy directives used to address specific issues that arose during ppp implementation. creating a framework for fast-tracking smaller ppp projects provides an opportunity for the municipalities to get exposure to ppps before large-scale infrastructure is considered. south africa has uniform guidelines for all municipal ppp projects, with no distinction made between small or large projects. small projects at the municipal level should not be submitted to the government (or equivalent national entity) but considered in each state (province) or municipality. in brazil, most states have their own institutional framework for ppps, and approvals within a specified project value are approved at state level. several municipal water infrastructure projects are processed much more quickly based on the size of the project. a centralised ppp unit, like in south africa, providing transaction advisory services and approvals may not be suitable in instances where the appetite for ppp projects increases. centralised ppp units were also deemed to be incapable of promoting, policymaking and simultaneously regulating ppps. to promote ppps, a decentralised model is being utilised in brazil, and more powers are given to state-level and larger metropolitan municipalities to formulate ppp units to promote and plan for ppp projects. no mandatory ex-post evaluation of ppp projects exists in south africa. absent post-evaluation, it takes a long time for policymakers to decipher the limitations of the existing ppp framework. consequently, this slows down the possibility of further reforms in the ppp framework. conclusion south africa’s policymakers must redesign the municipal ppp framework and approval process to be able to respond to changing environments and address the underlying reasons for the low uptake of municipal infrastructure projects. in africa, south africa is among the pioneers of ppp, and accordingly, the lessons from the brazilian experience equally apply to most african countries. the lessons assist policymakers and scholars in various countries, especially in africa, on how to design an effective regulatory framework to facilitate the speedy adoption of municipal ppps in the water sector. these lessons and recommendations may have common application in other african countries, given that south africa generally is a pioneer in the policy environment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.j.f. was involved in conceptualisation, visualisation, project administration, review and editing of the manuscript and supervision. t.m. was involved in conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis, writing of the original draft and visualisation. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data utalised are openly available in the public domain. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of 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of vaccine research, manufacture and distribution’, health research policy and systems 16(30), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0303-3 world bank group, 2017, 2017 water and sewerage sector highlights, world bank, washington, dc. world bank group, 2020, world development indicators, viewed 06 july 2020, from https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators. abstract introduction problem statement research objective literature review monitoring and council oversight oversight methodology statistical techniques for data analyses correlation analysis regression analysis data analysis analysis of section b (questionnaire): structural equation modelling results exploratory factor analysis revised model recommendations budget planning revenue and expenditure management legislation and policies risk management cash flow management effective budget management limitations of the study conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) abongile g. zweni department of public administration and governance, faculty of business and management science, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa department of accounting and economics, school of economic and management sciences, sol plaatje university, kimberly, south africa bingwen yan department of industrial and systems engineering, faculty of engineering and the built environment, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa corrie uys centre for postgraduate studies, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa citation zweni, a.g., yan, b. & uys, c., 2022, ‘modelling budget management for public service in south african municipalities: a structural equation modelling approach’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a73. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.73 original research modelling budget management for public service in south african municipalities: a structural equation modelling approach abongile g. zweni, bingwen yan, corrie uys received: 23 mar. 2022; accepted: 27 may 2022; published: 16 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: for more than two decades, many municipalities have failed to render services effectively because of lack of competency and budget management skills to manage budgets. this has resulted in either over or under expenditure, which ultimately leads to poor service delivery. aim: this study aimed to develop a budget management model to improve public service in south african municipalities. setting: three municipalities in the western cape, eastern cape and free state are the areas where data were collected by researchers. methods: a quantitative research approach was employed and an online questionnaire was used for data collection from 261 participants in three municipalities. a structural equation modelling approach was used to develop the budget management model. results: the results revealed that risk management (rm), cash flow management (cfm) from employee perceptions have a positive impact on budget management; whereas cfm from general compliance with legislative consideration (lc) have a negative impact, budget planning (bp) and revenue and expenditure management (rem) have low impact on budget management for public service. conclusion: the study highlights the key factors (i.e. rm, bp, cfm, lc and rem) as a result of which managers at various levels fail to manage budgets effectively. the proposed model adds new insights to respond to budget management challenges. it is recommended that municipalities must improve their budget management skills for an effective public service. findings from this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge by proposing a budget management model for public service in south africa. keywords: budget management; budget planning; risk management; public service; local government. introduction from 1994, part of the mandate of the first democratic government was to improve the standard of living of all south africans, particularly the most disadvantaged. chapter 7, section 152 (b) of the south african 1996 constitution outlines the objectives of local government, which are to provide services to the citizens in an appropriate way, promote social and economic growth, stimulate health and ensure that communities live in a safe environment (south africa 2020). all these services are dependent on efficient and effective budgeting from local (municipal), provincial and national governments. since the early 1990s, the world bank has imposed several budget models on developing countries. however, these models are more useful in developed countries than in developing countries, where there is often a clash between the neoliberal policies that underlie them and the policies and practices in developing countries (molobela 2016:263). one of the world bank’s models is the ‘medium-term expenditure framework (mtef)’, which was implemented by developing countries, particularly in africa, in 2001 (gollwitzer 2010:5). it is this model that has been used in post-apartheid south africa with limited success. many municipalities have found it very difficult to initiate and manage their budgets, which has negatively affected service delivery. this has led to numerous service delivery protests across the country. people require access to services and one of the most important basic principles of effective service is accessibility (hasan et al. 2019:189). difficulties in budget management have led some municipalities being placed under the administration by provincial governments according to section 139 of the constitution of the republic of south africa (motubatse, ngwakwe & sebola 2017; manyaka & sebola 2015). this statute states that the provincial government should intervene when municipalities are unable to fulfil their constitutional obligations. such difficulties warrant an investigation of their causes in a particular local municipality and the development of an alternative budget management framework for this municipality and possibly for wider application. given the above-mentioned research background, the primary research question of this study is: what effective budget management approach can south african municipalities adopt to improve their service delivery? this article will discuss the literature on budget management in municipalities and the public sector in general. furthermore, the methodology that will be followed to answer the research question will also be discussed with the aim of developing a budget management model for south african municipalities. problem statement as evident in the literature reviewed, there is a serious disjuncture between the policy that the government promulgates and the implementation of effective service delivery in some municipalities in south africa (mathebula, nkuna & sebola 2016:70). the national government, through the allocation of a budget, provides opportunities and capital for municipalities to fulfil their constitutional obligation to provide services to residents of municipalities. mello (2018:2), stated that south african municipalities do not function at the required level by law and by the experiences of residents. one of the reasons is because of poor budget management in municipalities (maluleke 2020). the author indicates that poor budget management, such as poor organised financial resources, lack of a good understanding of budget management amongst public servants, lack of budget management skills, financial management knowledge and performance management, leads to ineffective financial management (maluleke 2020). these claims are also supported by mpaata et al. (2019:2) and scott et al. (2018:23). many municipalities lack well-qualified employees, particularly managers who are skilled and competent to manage budgets (makwetu 2017:2). according to schick (2007:116), one of the most significant challenges confronting local government when implementing budgeting is determining who should take responsibility when it comes to utilisation of public funds. steyn’s research (2014:67) suggested that there should be increased leadership involvement in the budgeting process to ensure that this process effectively addresses the challenges of public institutions. fongar et al. (2019) found that lack of understanding of administration and political leadership is one of the major concerns in municipal services. furthermore, municipal leaders must instil a leadership culture that ensures that budgets are managed with diligence (enwereji 2019; maluleke 2020). based on the above-mentioned discussion, many municipalities have failed to render services effectively because of lack of competency and budget management skills to manage budgets. this has resulted in either over or under expenditure, which ultimately leads to poor service delivery. to this end, the research problem statement is summarised as follows: lack of budget management skills and poor financial resources implementation result in over or under expenditure, and ultimately lead to poor service delivery in south african municipalities. thus, it is imperative to develop a budget management framework to improve municipal service delivery. research objective the research objective of this study was to develop a budget management model for south african municipalities and to test this model using data obtained from the employees of three municipalities. literature review public sector budgets the use of budgets by governments long preceded their use in private enterprise (isaac, lawal & okoli 2015:1). with one major exception, public sector or service budgets have the same characteristics as private sector budgets. in the government, the budget is not designed with a focus on profitability (raghunandan, ramgulam & raghunandan-mohammed 2012:114). olurankinse (2012:146) suggested that a budget is prospective in the sense that it refers to expected future revenue and expenditure. according to tyer, willand and mikesell in purtell and fossett (2009:96), government accounting and budgeting systems historically have been designed to maximise central control and prevent theft through the use of fund accounting, line-item budgeting and central budget agency control over allocations and transfers. freeman et al. (2011:121) observed that budgets are designed to ensure that government revenues and expenditures are properly planned, authorised, controlled, evaluated and reported to the citizenry, legislature and creditors. through its budget, government indicates how much it is willing to spend on public purposes, sets substantive policy priorities within overall spending levels, determines the amount that must be borrowed to finance approved spending and thus influences the economy (ekeocha 2012:64). schick (2007:2) argued that without reliable financial controls, the budget cannot be used for other important government functions such as managing the economy, improving administrative efficiency and formulating public objectives and priorities. budget approval in the public sector (government) occurs at three stages: ministerial approval, executive approval and legislative approval (olurankinse 2012:147). deng and peng (2011:76) postulated that the public budget, serving as a reflection of the collective public interest and as a legal constraint on government spending, can be an effective tool for promoting good governance and public interest. financial management in government generally consists of three major components, which are: budgeting, that is, the process of resource generation, allocation and management. accountability that aims at honesty and judicious use of public funds. control provides organisational structures for effective implementation (ugoh & ukpere 2009:839). given the importance of the budget in government, government officials must have timely, useful, up-to-date information on how actual operations during the year compared with the budget (freeman et al. 2011:121). existing budgeting models in the municipalities the world bank and the international monetary fund developed a framework named the medium-term expenditure framework (mtef), which is intended to facilitate several outcomes such as macroeconomic balance, improved resource allocation, budget predictability for ministries and efficient use of public funds (gollwitzer 2010; le houerou & taliercio 2002:4). the mtef system in south africa uses key sets of budget documentation to extract strategic information for decision making, to ensure commitment to decisions taken and to enable accountability (folscher & cole 2006:15). the mtef is designed to be a key tool that supports and improves budget planning in the municipality and to bring resources, key policy issues and government programmes together. according to shah (2009:238) ‘the initial experience with the mtef in south africa, started in 1994, as such, lacked political involvement and had no clear link with the budget preparation process’. taking these challenges into account, the government in 1997 merged the mtef and the budget process to improve resource allocation and expenditure management. municipal budgeting framework the framework in figure 1 outlines the accountability cycle for budgeting and reporting for municipalities and the documentation the municipality must compile concerning each of these processes. the budgeting framework is demonstrated in figure 1. figure 1: local government accountability cycle. five-year strategic plan (integrated devolpment plan) the integrated development plan (idp) is a 5-year strategic plan (document) that is compiled by the governing party of the municipality and is linked to the voting cycle. it determines the strategies, objectives and service delivery targets of the municipality (mathebula et al. 2016). accordingly, a newly elected local government and the mayor draft a 5-year strategic plan that will outline strategic policy priorities and plans for the next 5 years (national treasury 2004:n.p.). the 5-year plan will guide the new government in the budgeting process and policy prioritisation. the built environment performance plan’s (bepp) overarching goal is to ensure spatial transformation and restructuring by prioritising capital expenditure in regions that would maximise the positive impact on residents, drive private sector investment, and promote development and growth. three-year budget municipalities in south africa plan their budgets by using the mtef budgetary procedure (gollwitzer 2010). the mtef is a 3-year budget cycle, where government departments and municipalities are expected to implement the first year (year one) and leave the two outer years (pearson, pillay & chipkin 2016:16). the implementation of the first year of the mtef budget process is regulated by the municipal finance management act 56 of 2003. according to the municipal finance management act 56 of 2003, section 53: [t]he mayor in the municipality must present the annual budget for the upcoming financial year to the council not later than 2 weeks after the tabling of the national annual budget. when compiling the annual budget, the budget and treasury directorate within the municipality must distribute the prescribed schedules to all programme managers with a request to prepare the budget breakdowns in conjunction with the programme strategic plans (ndebele et al. 2017). thus, according to the mfma, the accounting officer of the municipality must each year, before the beginning of the financial year, submit a monthly breakdown of anticipated income and expenditure (cash flow) of a department to the relevant treasury (south africa 1999:50). monitoring and council oversight monthly financial reports the accounting officer of a municipality must compile cash flow statements and in-year monitoring assessment reports of actual expenditure and projected expenditure on a monthly basis. thus, these reports should be submitted to the relevant treasury and the minister or member of the executive committee (mec) responsible for the department within 15 days of the end of each month (south africa 1999:50). if there are deviations between what was projected and what was spent, the accounting officer must explain to the relevant treasury the remedial action taken to avoid any deviations from reoccurring. quarterly performance reports quarterly performance reports (qprs) are compiled and submitted to the relevant treasury. these qprs highlights the key departmental goals and objectives as indicated in the annual performance plan. the purpose of the report is to assess the performance of a department on financial or non-financial issues. progress in departmental performance against the budget and strategic plan is reported quarterly. oversight annual review process the executive authority of the national or provincial government must consider the annual report. because the budget is an estimate of future expenditure, it is necessary to continuously review and evaluate the budget against the actual expenditure to measure the extent of expenditure. if the allocation of these resources in the estimations (budget) is to be of any practical use, then there is a need to review the budget requests. the review assists in the coordination and the evaluation processes that will maximise the benefits derived from these scarce resources. in government structures, many units do budgets at lower-cost centres. at a higher level, proposals are tabled, discussed, reviewed, synchronised (coordinated) and approved to ensure that there is a link between the plans, decisions and budgeting, resulting in a master budget, which, if properly executed, should be able to satisfy everyone contributing to the budgetary process. organisations should review budgets using the most recent and relevant information at their disposal to reflect what was budgeted for, how much was budgeted for, how much was spent on the particular item or project and how much is available or left to be spent. this process is carried out to review the performance of an organisation. reviewing the budget helps an organisation to make effective decisions and set future direction. if budgets are reviewed continuously by management any underperformance can be detected timeously and the necessary actions can be taken. annual report and annual financial statements according to the municipal finance management act 56 of 2003 (south africa 1996:48), the accounting officer of the municipality prepares financial statements for each financial year following generally recognised accounting practices and standards. the act further states that those financial statements should be submitted within 2 months after the end of the financial year to the auditor general and the relevant treasury to be audited. at this stage, performance against the budget and strategic plan will be reported, which will include a performance report of the audit committee, annual financial statements and the oversight report on human resource management and service delivery. hypotheses underpinning the proposed budget model five hypotheses were advanced with respect to the proposed budget model. these are illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: a proposed hypotheses development model. effect of budget planning on budget management budgets are management planning and control systems; thus, the effectiveness of budgeting depends on how a budget is organised in the municipality (sulistiyo & pratiwi 2021). the budgeting process assists municipal managers to shift their focus away from short-term goals and day-to-day operations of the organisation and towards the long term (melnichuk 2015). one of the key goals of budgeting is to focus on planning, resource allocation and evaluation so that the achievement of organisational goals becomes the primary goal of budgeting (maher, fakhar & karimi 2018). in the light of this, the following hypothesis (h1) is advanced: h1: there is a relationship between budget planning and effective budget management. effect of revenue and expenditure management on budget management according to rakabe (2011:137), municipalities should have revenue management systems in place in order to effectively classify, collect, reconcile and record income, which is generated by the municipality from businesses and citizens for services rendered. lack of revenue management systems and procedures affects how municipalities budget for revenue and expenditure (malobela 2016:13). transgressions such as fruitless, irregular and unauthorised expenditures are the major challenge municipalities face in relation expenditure management. the second hypothesis (h2) is formulated as follows: h2: there is a relationship between revenue and expenditure management and effective budget management. effect of legislative consideration on budget management the constitution is the supreme law that requires municipalities to manage financial resources with diligence and promotes accountability in the local government sphere. there are several statutes that empower municipalities and provide a legal framework for municipalities and municipal entities. the municipal financial management act (mfma) is part of a number of parliamentary acts that focus on robust financial management and minimisation of maladministration in municipalities (imuezerua & chinomona 2015:359). the municipal finance management act gives clear direction to municipalities, municipal and municipal employees in general on how to effectively manage financial resources (reddy 2016:2). thus, we put it together forward into the hypotheses (h3) as follows: h3: there is a relationship between legislative consideration and effective budget management. effect of risk management on budget management risk is one of the challenges facing organisations and one which may negatively impact the activities and operations of an organisation in terms of achieving objectives (ridha & alnaji 2015:9). ridha and alnaji (2015:15) defined risk as ‘an unexpected and uncertain event that could happen in the future and is counterproductive to the goals of the organisation’. according to fadun (2013:225), economic volatility requires managers to focus and manage risk effectively at all levels of management. according to nel (2019:60), different variables affect risk management in the public sector, including changes in a dynamic and unpredictable environment, accurate risk intelligence and knowledge and skills. risk management is a vital activity that companies must undertake if they want to achieve their goals and business objectives (ahmeti & vladi 2017:323). thus, we formulated the following hypothesis (h4): h4: there is a relationship between risk management and effective budget management effect of cash flow management on budget management the movement of money into and out of a municipality’s bank account is called cash flow. money inflow consists of money that is received from ratepayers (property rates and tariffs), whilst cash outflows consist of money paid to staff and service providers (reutener & fourie 2015:12). when more money flows in to than out of the bank account of the municipality, the municipality should have a ‘surplus’ of funds, which should enable the municipality to carry out its activities without any obstacles. if a municipality does not generate cash (cash inflow), this might lead to bankruptcy and thus the cash inflows and cash outflows determine the solvency of the municipality (belobo & pelser 2014:227). effective cash flow management (cfm) is an important municipal function. ineffective processes and monitoring of cfm systems affect the survival of a municipality (belobo & pelser 2014:227). municipalities should have realistic strategies to manage cash flow to achieve sustainability and survival (myeni 2018:5). municipalities must prepare realistic cash flow projections prior to the beginning of each fiscal year. the achievement of these projections must be monitored on a monthly basis using monthly cash flow statements or reports. in light of the given facts, we formulated the following hypothesis (h5): h5: there is a relationship between cfm and effective budget management. methodology research design a quantitative research technique was used for the survey. quantitative research aimed at explaining and describing phenomena and correlations. statistical methods such as correlations, empirical (descriptive) were used to assist in the establishment of causal links. the quantitative dimension is focused on the fact that the research aimed to find the relationship between the independent variables (budget planning, revenue and expenditure management, risk management, cfm and legislation consideration) and the dependent variable (effective budget management). according to neuman (2011:16), the quantitative design may be descriptive or experimental in nature, where only correlations between variables are formed by a descriptive analysis and causality is established by an experiment. the research took a positivist approach, as it relied on hypothesis development and testing. hypotheses were put forward in proportional or question form about the relations between the phenomena, where the influence of independent variables on the dependent variable was investigated. this study involved the development of five hypotheses and the testing of these in relation to a municipal budgeting model and the collection and analysis of data from selected municipal employees. data collection data for this study were gathered across three south african municipalities in the provinces of western cape, eastern cape and free state. these three municipalities located in three different provinces are governed by different parties. these municipalities were purposely selected for the following reasons. municipality a from the western cape is under the administration in terms of section 139(5) of the constitution read with section 139(1) of the municipal financial management act, 56 of 2003 (mfma) due to poor financial management and maladministration (makwetu 2019). municipality b and c were selected from eastern cape and free state provinces respectively. according to parliamentary monitoring group (pmg) (2021), local government audit outcomes 2018/19 revealed that in the eastern cape, there was a widespread lack of financial controls and project monitoring. in the free state, there was a deliberate lack of accountability by political and administrative leadership (pmg 2021). however, the municipality from free state provinces received a financially qualified opinion with findings (makwetu 2019). therefore, the rationale for selecting these municipalities was to do a comparison of municipalities that performed differently in terms of the auditor general’s report on municipal performance in 2019/2020 fiscal year. furthermore, the intention was to get the views of municipal employees who are working in different work environments. this enabled the researchers to obtain more broad perspectives on how the budget is managed in various political environments. the study’s population was made up of individuals directly involved in budget management: clerks, assistant accountants, accountants and managers working for the municipalities. data were collected using a questionnaire administered online via the lime survey. the sample size for this study was 261 (table 1). in this regard, the sample of each municipality is as follows. table 1: sample allocation of each municipality. data from the lime survey, which is linked to spss analysis of moment structures (amos), were transferred and captured to spss amos. the questionnaire consisted of two sections: section a, biographical information about employees and section b, likert scale statements to be ranked by respondents. specific individuals in the study population were identified based on their participation in the budget preparation and monitoring process and were designated as the sample units that made up the sampling frame. with a total of 261 respondents, the requirement of a sample size of between 200 and 400 for structural equation modelling (sem) was satisfied (hair et al. 2017:7; siddiqui 2013:286). the reliability of the instrument was tested using exploratory factor analysis in amos version 20 using sem. in addition, cronbach’s alpha was used to test the measuring scales used in the research instrument (questionnaire) that was sent to one municipality before sending it to the other two municipalities. for alpha to be acceptable, it should be 0.70 and above. in this study, cronbach’s alpha was 0.92, which was strong and acceptable. statistical techniques for data analyses structural equation modelling structural equation modelling is a tool used for statistical analysis by social science researchers (hair et al. 2017:2). the sem is especially useful in the social sciences, where many of the main ideas are not immediately measurable. the sem examines the structure (model) and the relationships of the variables or constructs within the structure. for the purposes of this study, sem was used to consider the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable and to identify which independent variables have a significant influence on the dependent variable. the sem was also used for statistical testing. furthermore, sem can be viewed as a composite of regression, path analysis and factor analysis, with a focus on theoretical structures represented by latent factors. one of the benefits of sem is that a researcher can test the entire model in one analysis (shadfar & malekmohammadi 2013:582). for sem to be effective, a system called amos has to be used to analyse data (hair et al. 2017:2). according to kline (2011:11), sem is generally a technique used with large samples. in determining whether a model is fit for purpose, determining whether it fits the data collected is crucial (gao, shi & maydeu-olivares 2019:1). the sem is a mixture of factor analysis, modelling of paths and partial least squares (chen et al. 2014:253). according to shadfar and malekmohammadi (2013:585) for a researcher to determine whether or not it is appropriate to use sem, there are certain fit statistics that need to be tested. these sem fit statistics are summarised in table 2. table 2: structural equation modelling fit indexes. correlation analysis according to franzese and luliano (2019:706), a correlation is a statistical technique that is used to assess the strength of a relationship connecting two quantitative variables. a significant correlation indicates that two or more variables are closely connected, whereas a correlation coefficient indicates that the variables are hardly related. in other words, correlation analysis is the process of analysing the intensity of that correlation with the available statistical data. the key correlation variable is that a coefficient of −1.0 shows a strong negative relationship and a coefficient of +1.0 shows a strong positive relationship. in this study, a correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between budget planning, revenue and expenditure management, risk management, legislation consideration, cfm and effective budget management. regression analysis regression analysis links independent and dependent variables when allowing for statistical intercorrelation (mafini 2014:164). multiple regression aims to explain a variable’s dependency on one (or more) independent variable; it essentially implies that perhaps the explanatory variable(s) has a one-way causal influence on the response variable, irrespective of whether the direction of impact is direct or indirect. in this analysis, multiple regression analyses were used to determine the factors that predicted or explained the largest proportion of the overall variance in the scores of the dependent variables. data analysis biographical results the primary objective of the analysis of data from section a of the questionnaire was to determine the suitability of the candidates for the work with which they worked in dealing with the budget at their lowest cost centre and the execution of budget allocations. question 1: how old are you this year? in essence, this question was used to determine the age of the staff members involved in the budgetary process. although age may not have a great impact on the ability to budget or manage budgeting procedures, researchers have recognised a link between age and the perceived level of budget comprehension. the ages of the respondents are shown in table 3. table 3: frequency table of the age. table 3 shows that the highest percentage of participants at 28.4% (n = 74) were between the ages of 31 and 40 years. about 26.1% (n = 68) were between the ages of 41 and 50 years. approximately 16.9% (n = 44) were between the ages of 26 and 30 years, 15% (n = 40) between the ages of 51 and 60 years, 8% (n = 22) between the ages of 61 and 66 years and 5% (n = 13) between the ages of 18 and 25 years. as fewer than a quarter of those surveyed are between the ages of 18 and 30, it could be argued that a significant majority should be considered mature adults with considerable life and work experience. question 2: what is your position in the organisation? this question was advanced to the respondents to investigate their suitability in the study. of 261 participants, only 167 respondents responded to this question. table 4 shows the distribution of their positions in the municipalities. table 4: frequency table of the positions of the respondents. table 4 shows that the highest percentage by category of those who responded (23.6% [n = 62]) is that of managers. about 23.0% (n = 59) of the respondents occupied other positions such as accountants, engineers, clerks, 8.0% (n = 21) were directors, 6.9% (n = 19) were executive directors and 1.5% (n = 4), of the respondents were municipal managers. these results indicate the following: (1) that the levels of employment in municipalities relevant to budgeting were adequately represented in this survey, (2) that 60% of the sample categorised their employment as ‘other’ (n = 59) or did not answer the question (n = 97) making it difficult to know whether or not their work would include budgeting. question 3: ‘how long have you been working for the municipality?’ this question aimed to establish the likely experience in local government and perhaps in budgeting. the responses are presented in table 5. table 5: number of years respondents have worked for a municipality. as shown in table 5, the largest group of respondents (31.8% (n = 83)) have been employed by the municipality for a period of 5 years or less. about 26.8% (n = 70) respondents were employed (n = 70) for 6 to 10 years, 18.0% (n = 47) for 11 to 15 years, 11.9% (n = 31) for 16 to 20 years and 11.5% (n = 30) for 21 or more years. this distribution shows that the highest number of employees (58.6%) in the municipality have 10 years or less and thus may lack experience in conceiving or executing budgets. question 4: ‘how long have you been involved in budget management and implementation of financial management policies?’ the number of years spent engaging with budget formulation, management and financial management is likely to result in improved competence in these areas, particularly if there have also been opportunities to participate in training programmes. figure 3 illustrates the number of years that the participants have been involved in implementing budgets and financial management policies. figure 3: number of years involved in budgeting and financial management policies. figure 4 shows that the largest category of respondents, 39% (n = 101), have been dealing with budgets and financial management policies for 5 years and less, with another 30% (n = 78) of the respondents involved in budgeting and financial management policies for 6 to 10 years, 17% (n = 44) for 11 to 15 years and 7% (n = 19) for 16 to 20 years. only 7% (n = 19) of the participants have been involved in the implementation of budgeting and financial management policies for 21 years or more. it is concerning that the largest category of respondents (39%) has been involved in implementation of budgets and financial management policies for less than 5 years. this suggests that a significant percentage of municipal employees have limited experience in the implementation of budgets and financial management policies. figure 4: revised model. question 5: what is your highest qualification? this question aimed at establishing the level of education of the participants in this investigation. addressing the challenges faced by municipal employees requires them to have relevant qualifications and sufficient expertise. the responses to this question are presented in table 6. table 6: the highest qualifications of the respondents. the largest category of respondents 39.5% (n = 103) has a bachelor’s degree; 31.4% (n = 82) have a national diploma; 21.1% (n = 55) have a master’s degree and 1.1% (n = 3) have a doctorate. a total of 6.9% (n = 18) of the respondents have other credentials, such as matriculation certificate, master’s degree, or completed short courses. analysis of section b (questionnaire): structural equation modelling results before conducting the sem results and exploratory factor analysis (efa) was carried out to validate the pattern fitness of key variables. in this research, the dimensions articulating effective budget management have been defined using efa. to analyse the relationship between effective budget management and budget planning, risk management, revenue and expenditure management, cfm and legislative consideration; correlation and several linear regression analyses were used. exploratory factor analysis exploratory factor analysis is a statistical method used to explain variability in terms of a potentially smaller number of unnoticed variables amongst observed, correlated variables (chen et al. 2014:253). it is used when the researcher wants to find patterns in the data where there is little or no knowledge on how the variables are correlated (hair et al. 2017:3). based on the efa results (table 7), two key variables were determined to split into sub-variables. this includes budget planning and cfm. in terms of budget planning, the perspectives from employees and management in municipalities were split into budget planning 1 (estimated value = 0.024) and 2 (estimated value = 0.045), respectively. furthermore, in this regard, cfm was split into cfm 1 (general compliance with legislation) (estimated value = −0.128) and cfm2 (employee perceptions) (estimated value = 0.364). table 7: regression weights of the independent and dependent variables. the following section reports on the extent to which the statistics fit the proposed model using the imputed option in ibm spss amos 24. following the development of the variables using the factor analysis regression process, a sem was reconstructed with the analysis performed repeatedly until the model was relevant. as stated, in the beginning of the article, the primary research objective was to develop a framework for budget management for local municipalities in south africa. the main model was created using spss amos. the following indices were tested for the budget management model: chi-square value (cmin), p-value, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), normed fit index (nfi), non-normed fit index (nnfi), comparative fit index (cfi), incremental fit index (ifi), relative fit index (rfi), goodness-of-fit index (gfi) and chi-square fit statistics – degree of freedom (cmin/df). figure 5 illustrates the budget management model developed for south african municipalities. figure 5: results: budget management. figure 5 presents the results of the regressions (budget management model). table 7 presents the regression weights of the main model in figure 5. based on the regression weights in table 7, bpitm1 and bpitm2 have a very low impact on effective budget management at 0.02 and 0.04, respectively. however, the two constructs have a positive relationship with effective budget management. this is concerning because budget planning is important in municipalities for effective resource allocation and management (hanabe et al. 2018:168). revenue and expenditure management (rem) has some impact on effective budget management at 0.12, whilst legislative consideration (lc) has a negative impact on effective budget management at 0.02. risk management (rm) has a significant influence on effective budget management at 0.27. however, cash flow management (cfm 1) has a negative impact on effective budget management at −0.13 and cash flow management (cfm 2) has a strong and positive impact on effective budget management at 0.36 and the p < 0.001. the following indexes were used to test the budget management model: cmin, p-value, rmsea, nfi, nnfi, cfi, ifi, rfi, gfi and cmin/df. the results are interpreted in table 8. table 8: interpretation of budget management. table 8 shows that goodness-of-fit was confirmed for the budget management variable. in terms ofthe relationships of the paired independent variables in figure 4, the covariance is significant because the p < 0.05. this is confirmed in table 9. from a statistical point of view, a p-value less than 0.05 (typically ≤ 0.05) is statistically significant. it indicates strong evidence against the null hypothesis, as there is less than a 5% probability the null is correct (and the results are random). table 9: covariance for paired independent variables. a correlation coefficient greater than 0.5 is strong, whereas a correlation coefficient of less than 0.5 indicates a weak relationship. table 10 shows the correlations between the independent variables in figure 4. table 10: correlations for paired independent variables. the rm and cfm2 are strongly related; bpitm2 and cfm1 are strongly related; rem2 and rm are strongly related; bpitm1 and bpitm2 are strongly related. revised model the findings of sem revealed that some constructs that were originally conceptualised had to be split into two because of the nature of the statements that were advanced to the respondents, and this is explained in the given section (exploratory factor analysis). the variables that were split into two were budget planning and cfm. budget planning was split into budget planning 1, which dealt with the responses of employees in relation to planning in the municipalities, whilst budget planning 2 dealt with management actions in relation to planning in municipalities. in addition, cfm was divided into two components: the first dealt with compliance with policy and legislation, whilst the second dealt with employee perception of cfm. figure 4 illustrates the revised model. figure 4 encapsulates the revised study variables. thus, the following conclusions are drawn on the revised model: the role of lower level employees in relation to budget planning is critical to effective budget management. according to sulistiyo and pratiwi (2021), employees within an organisation play a critical role towards effective management of resources if they are involved in the planning process of the organisation. in addition, this would lead to a significant effect on the performance of the service delivery. the actions and role of management in relation to budget planning have an impact on how budgets are effectively managed. budgeting aids in the planning of various operations by requiring managers to review how circumstances may transform and what steps should be taken now, as well as by empowering managers to examine potential issues (grimm 2018). recommendations based on the findings of the empirical study (primary data), which are tabled in table 11. some recommendations are made with the aim of helping to improve the quality of budget management in selected municipalities and perhaps also in other south african municipalities. table 11: interpretation of regression weights. table 11 summarises the overall results of the study. thus, recommendations will be made on each independent construct in the next section. budget planning based on the results in table 12, budget planning 1 and 2 had a weak relationship with the values of 0.024 and 0.045, respectively. table 12: budget planning (hypothesis 1). in light of the results in table 12, the following recommendations are made in relation to budget planning: it is strongly recommended that employees at lowest cost centers are involved in budget planning and resource allocation in municipalities. this will enable employees who are expects fields to implements their own projects. management should formulate realistic standard operating procedures on the role of employees in the planning process within the municipality. there should be a clear distinction about who is responsible for planning and who is accountable for planning. when planning particularly from the level of managers, the objectives and goals of the municipality should be taken into consideration. revenue and expenditure management based on the results in table 13, revenue and expenditure management had a weak relationship with the values of 0.121. table 13: revenue and expenditure management (hypothesis 2). thus, based on the results in table 13 it is recommended that: municipalities first increase the revenue base and then establish income-generating initiatives. municipalities strictly follow the existing rules, regulations and procedures in order to enhance revenue collection and management. municipalities ensure that the administration of revenue is carried out in an open, accountable and equitable manner. municipalities must comply with the mfma and other treasury regulations and policies when it comes to revenue and expenditure management. all employees involved in revenue management keep records of collected and anticipated revenue up-to-date. legislation and policies according to table 14, legislative consideration had a weak relationship with the values of −0.023. table 14: legislation consideration (hypothesis 3). effective implementation of the mfma can contribute to an improvement in the general performance of a municipality and in its financial performance, in particular. however, effective implementation of the municipal finance management act depends on the willingness and ability of accounting officers and all municipal officials. as legislation is critical in managing budgets, it is recommended that: all municipal staff should be constantly educated and trained in how to analyse and apply legislation. because the national and provincial governments issue circulars and directives, municipal employees must be able to interpret and apply them. municipalities should use laws and regulations for planning and growth purposes. the legislation should be amended to allow municipalities to obtain more financial resources from the national government. risk management in table 15, the relationship between risk management and effective budget management was not significant (value 0.273) which indicates that risk management does not have a strong impact on effective budget management. table 15: risk management (hypothesis 4). based on the results of this study in table 15, the following recommendations are advanced. a municipal risk management committee should be chaired by an external person the risk management committee should have all the executive managers such as the chief financial officer, the executive of corporate services, the executive of infrastructure, the executive of local economic development and the executive of community services that will report to council. all employees must be fully aware of the risk management policy. cash flow management according to table 16, cfm 1 and cfm 2 with the values of 0.128 and 0.364, respectively, has a weak relationship with effective budget management. table 16: cash flow management (hypothesis 5). in relation to these split variables, the following recommendations are advanced: cash flow projections must be submitted to the relevant treasury at least 3 months before the beginning of the new financial year. the cash flow for both revenue and expenditure should be reviewed on a monthly basis to comply with the targeted plans. municipalities should use money for what they were budgeted for, in order to avoid deficits that might lead to the collapse of the municipalities. effective budget management south africa’s move from the apartheid system before 1994 to a democratic system after 1994 paved the way for institutional reform. whilst this move created opportunities for effective governance and robust budget and financial management, municipalities are still struggling to manage their budgets. thus, it is recommended that municipalities ensure that: the budget is fully aligned with the idp and service delivery and budget implementation plan. a funded and credible budget is maintained for each financial year. proper record keeping of council decisions for the implementation of the budget is encouraged. all employees are continuously trained and capacitated to manage and monitor budgets. as financial and budget management is technical, qualified people with the appropriate qualifications should be employed. the budget is continuously monitored and reviewed, as required by the municipal finance management act. limitations of the study the research was limited to three selected municipalities. therefore, the findings or results of this study cannot be generalised to other municipalities. in addition, the sample population was limited to employees who manage or are directly involved in the budget process. it would have been ideal to conduct the study in more municipalities. however, it was difficult to the do so because of unwillingness of municipalities to participate in the study. conclusion in south africa, sound budget management practices are important for municipal survival. for budgets to be managed effectively, municipalities have to comply with regulations and statutes and implement them as mandated by the supreme law of the republic. without proper budgeting in municipalities, service delivery is negatively affected. in essence, inadequate budget management indicates weak management of municipalities and, as a result, the institution’s priorities in terms of its overall agenda to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the public for good governance will not be achieved. in 2012, the south african national government introduced a national development plan (ndp) to outline the long-term plans for the government. all spheres of government are required to link their strategic goals to the ndp. to achieve the vision 2030 of the ndp, which is to alleviate poverty and inequality, municipalities must be staffed with competent, skilled and committed employees to deliver high-quality services to citizens, and to do so consistently. the study was initiated in response to evidence of budgetary problems in some south african municipalities, with the aim of developing a budget management framework for the municipalities surveyed in the research. the study has brought to light factors that result in managers at various levels failing to manage municipal budgets efficiently and effectively and concludes with recommendations for responding to these factors. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge and thank cape peninsula university for assisting with financial resource. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the first author was a phd candidate who was supervised by author 2 and 3. ethical considerations ethical approval was granted by the faculty’s research ethics committee (frec) on 19 november 2019. 2019fobrec731. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that 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limited accountability in water projects acknowledgements references about the author(s) beauty zindi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bisho, south africa elvin shava school of public management, governance and public policy, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation zindi, b. & shava, e., 2022, ‘covid-19 and the attainment of sustainable development goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a58. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.58 original research covid-19 and the attainment of sustainable development goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south africa beauty zindi, elvin shava received: 12 jan. 2022; accepted: 28 apr. 2022; published: 10 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: sustainable development goal (sdg) 6 demands that countries globally provide clean water and sanitation to their citizens. the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic triggered various obstacles to the attainment of this goal, especially in developing states that struggle to render clean water and sanitation to their ever-growing populations. aim: the aim of the study is to analyse the effects of covid-19 on the attainment of sdg 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south african municipalities. setting: several south african municipalities. methods: the article utilised expansive documentary sources on the sdgs, united nations and world health documents, journal articles and textbooks on water service provision in south african municipalities for analysis. qualitative thematic analysis based on documents was employed to examine the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the attainment of sdg 6 in south african municipalities. results: the study indicates that local municipalities struggled to provide clean water to informal settlements where water supply infrastructure is not even available. results also revealed that some urban municipalities in gauteng province are grappling with the provision of clean water supply to their informal settlements, which poses a risk of an outbreak of covid-19 and a delay in the attainment of sdg 6 in general. conclusion: the study concludes that the south african government needs to embrace a truly bottom-up approach as opposed to a trickle-down approach to water service provision. this is because local authorities have greater proximity and thus a better understanding of the social and economic challenges within their communities and can effectively implement strategies towards addressing these challenges of providing clean water to communities. keywords: sustainable development goal 6; covid-19 pandemic; local municipalities; african resilience; water; sanitation. introduction in 2016, the united nations adopted the sustainable development goals (sdgs), which are aimed at ending poverty, eradicating inequality and injustice and fighting climate change within agreed timeframes. the predecessors to the sdgs were the millennium development goals (mdgs), which in 1990 set 25-year global development targets for signatory states. one of the mdgs required the states to ‘halve … the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (sdg 6)’. one of the indicators used to track progress was the provision of an improved sanitation facility in households. the attainment of sdgs has been threatened by the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic globally, which has severely affected the livelihoods of people in various unprecedented ways (yanow & good 2020). a world health organization (who) report shows that most countries are at an advanced stage in introducing vaccines to curb the rapid spread of covid-19 through vaccination. vaccine boosters were later introduced to strengthen the immune system against further vulnerability to covid-19 (worldometer 2021). available evidence on 11 january 2022 shows that south africa is now at number 17 on the global list of states bearing the negative brunt of covid-19 with 3 534 131 active cases, 92 649 deaths and 3 298 672 recoveries (worldometers 2022). in line with the covid-19 containment recommendations by the who (2020), south africa adopted and has been implementing several strategies, including a national lockdown, large-scale screening and testing, contact tracing, isolation of infected and exposed individuals, provision of specialist treatment and community awareness and capacity building through mass communication systems and education programmes. amidst extensive and deleterious clinical impacts of covid-19, analysts have noted that the pandemic is also concomitant with serious social and economic challenges (zhao et al. 2020). indications are that the covid-19 containment strategies in south africa have exposed many people to lives of indigence (ozili & arun 2020). amongst some of the key impacts of the pandemic has been that the national lockdown had people cut off their income-generating activities, which exacerbated household food insecurity and general poverty (mckibbin & fernando 2020). for staunton, swanepoel and labuschagine (2020), compliance with self-quarantine and general social distancing protocols as prescribed by the who was hindered by cramped living conditions in areas such as informal settlements. since the outbreak of covid-19, many african countries have struggled to provide adequate water supply because of the increasing demand for good hygienic standards (haddout, priya, hoguane & ljubenkov, (2019). according to a study conducted by nhemachena et al. (2020) on the effects of water scarcity in africa, water scarcity is triggered by hydrological variations and rapid population growth, which all work against the attainment of sdgs. the shortage of water, as noted by haddout et al. (2019), can constrain the social and economic development of a country. owing to rapid population growth, south africa has become a water-distressed country (solomons 2013), which may deter the attainment of sdg 6, which demands clean sanitation services and access to clean water for all. the water insecurity challenges affecting south africa can affect the socio-economic growth and achievements of sdg 6, as a clean water supply is required for citizens to ensure they maintain proper sanitation and hygiene as a corrective measure to the covid-19 pandemic (odendaal 2013). given the pressure exerted on the water supply systems of many urban municipalities in south africa, citizens in many informal settlements were exposed to the risk of contracting covid-19, which, as a matter of urgency, required urgent measures to be taken (maphela & cloete 2020). maphela and cloete (2020) also submit that municipalities in south africa should increase efficiency in managing water as a scarce resource by equating its supply to the demand as the population grows. to cope with water insecurity problems amidst the covid-19 pandemic, as donnenfeld, crooke and hedde (2018) suggest, the use of technologies to realign water supply and demand whilst maintaining water security for future generations became important. this view is based on the water insecurity challenges within the western cape province, in which the supply of water could not match the demand (muller 2017). a who (2021) study shows that water scarcity triggers poor sanitation and waterborne diseases (cholera, diarrhoea, malaria), as witnessed in tanzania and the democratic republic of congo. bearing in mind the adverse effects of covid-19 on clean water supply and sanitation in south african municipalities, this article seeks to achieve the following objectives: explore the effects of covid-19 on the attainment of sdg 6 (clean water and sanitation) in south africa. establish the resilient strategies adopted by south african municipalities to provide clean water and sanitation towards achieving sdg 6 during the pandemic. the article utilised expansive documentary sources on the sdgs’ water service provision in south african municipalities. secondary data analysis largely involved the analysis of literature from the united nations and world health documents, journal articles and textbooks with recent statistics and relevant information regarding the provision of water in south african local government during the covid-19 pandemic. the identified secondary data sources were read and subjected to data coding processes involving the identification of keywords, idea patterns and codes, which were then attached to the emerging themes. after coding all the secondary data sources, the codes with similar ideas were merged through the process of data reduction. the data reduction processes led to the emergence of the major themes and subthemes which inform the writing of this paper. this article consists of eight sections; in the first introduction section, some theoretical and conceptual perspectives are addressed. the second section reviews the water and sanitation supply in sub-saharan africa and in south african municipalities during covid-19. the third section focuses on resilience in water services provision in african countries during covid-19, followed by a discussion in the fourth section on covid-19 water supply measures and the attainment of sdg 6 in south african municipalities. the fifth section discusses the attainment of sdg 6 in south african municipalities, followed by challenges associated with accessing clean water and sanitation during covid-19 in the sixth section. the seventh section discusses how challenges of clean water supply and sanitation in south african municipalities can be overcome, whilst the last section draws conclusions and offers recommendations and direction for further research. theoretical and conceptual perspectives this article is drawn from the human rights–based approach (hrba) that was developed by the united nations in 2003. the hrba is a theory that can be used in all developmental fields, meets the international human rights standards and is mainly concerned with promoting and safeguarding human rights (gargarella, pilar & theunis 2006; gauri 2011). in addition, this theory is used to examine responsibilities, inequalities and vulnerabilities and to address discriminatory practices and unequal distribution of power that inhibit and block human rights in particular (fredman 2008). under hrba, plans, policies and programmes are attached to a system of rights and they are consistent with the obligations established by international law (englund & francis 2004). the hrba entails that the government must play a critical role in distributing water and sanitation amongst the less privileged citizens. citizens have the fundamental right to have access to basic services such as water, refuse removal, health and housing facilities and education, as enshrined in the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996. the universal declaration of human rights (udhr 1948) and other international human rights instruments such as the united nations general assembly and the committee on economic, social and cultural rights emphasise and encourage developing countries to prioritise water projects to make them accessible to everyone (who 2020). access to sufficient water and decent sanitation is regarded as a basic human right which should be universally enjoyed by every citizen in south africa. section 27(1)(b) of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, guarantees everyone the right of access to sufficient water and requires the state to adopt reasonable legislative and other measures to progressively realise this right within its available resources. the constitution implicitly recognises the right to sanitation via associated rights provided for in the bill of rights, including the rights to a healthy environment, health and dignity. section 3 of the water services act 108 of 1997 interprets section 27 of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, by stipulating that everyone has the right of access to water and basic sanitation. furthermore, the south african human rights commission has undertaken extensive work in respect of the right to water and sanitation as part of its constitutional and statutory mandate. in 2014, the commission launched a report entitled the right to access sufficient water and decent sanitation in south africa based on the commission’s systematic and extensive work undertaken in fulfilment of its mandate on these rights since 2010. in 2016, the human rights council (hrc) adopted a resolution where it expressed its concern at the negative impact that a lack of access to water and sanitation and hygiene has on health and mortality. the hrc has also recognised the challenges faced by women and girls in accessing water and sanitation, particularly during their menstrual cycle, and that the deprivation of this right reinforces widespread stigma associated with menstruation. the hrba assumes that the lack of resources does not attribute to the cause of poverty, but there are also other factors to be considered such as discrimination and political power in decision-making processes (englund & francis 2004). the hrba also addresses the problems which are being faced by the underprivileged and marginalised communities and helps to achieve the goals of sdgs by 2030. the hrba seeks to bring innovative ideas and knowledge on how to modify, design, implement and evaluate programmes, especially those that are spearheaded by the municipalities (united nations 2015, 2018). the hrba encourages different stakeholders such as the nongovernmental organisations, community-based organisations and governments to work cordially to deliver services to the people. the hrba aims to ensure the upliftment of human rights whilst promoting empowerment through various developmental projects (united nations 2015) and advocate for actors to play various roles towards respecting, protecting and ensuring the rights of the underprivileged, weak and vulnerable people (smiley 2016; united nations 2018). the hrba is viewed as a tool to reach the underprivileged and most vulnerable people. it allows the views of the people (rights-holders) to be considered in such communities through active engagement and participation, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the problems at hand and their causes and consequences (gauri 2011; gauri & daniel 2008). this article adopted the hrba because it ensures that water supply projects in south african municipalities are executed bearing in mind that water is a human right as enshrined in the hrba. the hrbas sometimes entail persuading states to ratify and then live up to international and regional human rights treaty commitments, thereby enhancing a variety of accountability-oriented institutions in governments and donors (e.g. human rights commissions, ombudsmen, agencies of administrative redress) and persuading citizens to think of themselves as rights-holders through civil society-based organisations. water and sanitation supply in sub-saharan africa approximately 238 million people in sub-saharan africa are residing in informal settlements characterised by shortage of water and social amenities to be able to practise hygiene (who 2020). compliance with the covid-19 guidelines that aim to prevent the rapid spread of the virus was thus difficult. this put millions of people in danger from the rapid spreading of the virus in sub-saharan africa. for example, in malawi, the government embarked on providing water and sanitation to its people by building tanks and dams to have adequate water supplies to several communities (yanow & good 2020). the malawian government built toilets for the poor who reside in the rural areas or outskirts of the main towns (yanow & good 2020). the zimbabwean government also drilled some boreholes in highly populated suburbs of chitungwiza, dzivarasekwa, budiriro and kambuzuma to prevent the rapid spread of the virus (chigonda & chazireni 2020). ghana was also offering a free water initiative to its underprivileged citizens as a response measure to covid-19, and the world bank had funded the democratic republic of congo in its urban water supply projects that provided water through tanker trucks (world bank 2020). similarly, the addis ababa water and sewage authority in ethiopia, with support from the world bank, replaced water pipes and drilled boreholes to provide water to cities (world bank 2020). in kenya, the mombasa water company and nairobi water and sanitation company collaborated to provide tanked water to informal settlements in the quest to achieve clean sanitation in line with the sdg 6 during the pandemic (olando 2020). although the intention of the sdg 6 is to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water by 2020, several communities in most developing countries still lack access to safe drinking water (sarah et al. 2020; stiegler & bouchard 2020). melzer and rust (2020) confirm that in africa, about 40% of people are facing challenges in accessing safe drinking water. many african countries are failing to meet the improved sanitation facility target. inadequate provision of basic sanitation impedes the efforts to alleviate extreme poverty and diseases in many of africa’s underdeveloped communities, particularly in rural and informal urban settlements. access to safe water and sanitation is crucial for human health, social dignity and productive livelihoods. stiegler and bouchard (2020) posit that africa is experiencing a high child mortality rate, with more than 2000 children losing their lives from diarrhoeal diseases, which is mainly attributed to the shortage of clean water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene. evidence shows that many people lack access to handwashing facilities, which made it difficult to curtail the spread of the covid-19 pandemic. for instance, the who (2020) reports that many people are facing challenges in accessing safe and reliable water services and approximately 3 billion people worldwide are unable to access basic handwashing facilities (soap and water) in their homes. the united nations (2017) also reports that two out of five people worldwide do not have basic handwashing facilities at their homes. the lack of water in towns is increasing, and it is estimated to grow further. almost 84 million people in most of the developing world live in cities that are facing seasonal shortages, where supply is below 85 – 100 l/day at least once in a month each year. it is estimated that by 2050, these numbers will grow to 1.86 billion in africa and 3.1 billion globally (britto, krishna & kellermayer, 2019). according to xylem (2013), it is predicted that by 2050, there will be a shortage of water in most cities in africa, both for commercial use and home consumption. currently, about 400 million people in african cities do not have access to clean water (grasham et al. 2019). resilience in water services provision in african countries during covid-19 to fight the spread of the covid-19 pandemic, the who emphasised frequent handwashing with soap and water. countries were urged to ensure that their citizens had access to safe water both for drinking and washing of hands to fight against the global covid-19 pandemic. to fight the rapid spread of covid-19, governments were urged to supply all the communities with enough water to maintain hygiene. according to aboelnga et al. (2020), in sub-saharan africa, about 63% of the people living in urban areas do not have access to basic water services, and therefore they found it difficult to wash their hands. approximately about 70% – 80% of the continent’s diseases are caused by the lack of quality of water supply. in ethiopia, ghana, egypt, angola and senegal, 53.8% of people have access to safe water for drinking and 23.4% – 22.4% have access to handwashing facilities at home. this situation constrains the use of water and sanitation as a measure to contain the spread of covid-19 and other water-related infectious diseases (mizumoto & chowell 2020). in ghanaian communities in some parts of accra, there was a high spread of covid-19 infection caused by water rationing and water shortages. although the ghana water company limited advised their consumers to store more water and use it wisely, because of the high population density, water shortages were still experienced. to overcome the shortage of water in ghana, several water programmes such as water and sanitation for the poor, gsma and digital water initiatives were introduced to supplement the water supply in the country. egypt is also one of the african countries experiencing water challenges to supply its citizens. the outbreak of covid-19 has forced egypt to implement several water programmes to augment water supplies in their country. laud (2020) mentions that egypt has started a joint venture with six water and sanitation companies in the nile delta governorates of dakahlia, beheira, sharkiya, menoufia, damietta and gharbia in the implementation of the sustainable rural sanitation services programme, which has cost $550 million. in addition, the beheira water and drainage company increased its wastewater treatment plants from 9% to over 55% between 2015 and 2020 by improving maintenance management and ensuring the availability of spare parts and chemicals (abadi, cooper & teckman-fullard 2020). during the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, angola was also one of the african countries implementing water programmes to expand its water supplies. the government supplied fuel to trucks and cisterns to distribute water in some communities. angola has supplied 176 tank trucks and 218 motorised tank trucks to help the citizens to access water following who requirements (miller et al. 2020). it has also supplied fountains with free water where there are no trucks. in ethiopia, the ministry of health and the addis ababa water and sewage authority worked to ensure that all health care facilities had around-the-clock access to water. in addition, water pumps and boreholes in addis ababa were replaced and rehabilitated to provide services to those living in this dense urban area. in senegal, mizumoto and chowell (2020) point out that, ‘with a population of 15 400 000 inhabitants, access to water in the country is estimated at 98.8% and 91.8% in urban and rural areas, respectively, although sanitation services account for 67.4% and 42.3% for urban and rural areas, respectively’. furthermore, most of the senegalese population (< 80%) have on-site sanitation. these examples show the extent to which many african countries tried to become resilient in water services provision during the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic towards attaining sdg 6. covid-19 water supply measures in south africa the delivery of water and sanitation services was one of the prominent strategies that local municipalities employed in south africa in response to covid-19 (khambule 2020). as confirmed by the who (2020), the key strategies for fighting the spread of covid-19 are to maintain high standards of personal hygiene through constant washing of hands and fumigation of surfaces. the introduction of the ‘safe hands’ campaign by who increased the demand for water in the communities. as noted by staddon (2020), washing hands regularly reduces the chance of catching any viral particles, thereby reducing the transmission of infectious diseases. whilst millions of people living in developing countries lack access to safe drinking water, handwashing remains, at this stage, as one of the efficient strategies for combatting covid-19. this requirement has seen many local authorities actively improving their water delivery services to their residents (khambule 2020). according to wegerif (2020), provinces such as the northern cape and gauteng responded to the covid-19 pandemic by rolling out water programmes to sustain their communities during the outbreak of the pandemic. the northern cape province installed 837 water tanks in water-scarce communities, mainly for home consumption and promoting hygiene during the covid-19 period (wegerif 2020). furthermore, in the gauteng province, areas such as kamiesberg municipality, maquassi hills and rietfontein quarantine area had water tanks installed to ease water demand in these areas. in addition, the department of water and sanitation (dws) provided 500 water tanks, including 56 water tankers (trucks), in different municipalities of mpumalanga province (dws, 2020a; 2020b). some of the district municipalities that had received water tanks include ehlanzeni, gert sibande and nkangala. the distribution of water tanks is an effective intervention by the dws to provide a dependable supply of water to communities so that people regularly wash their hands with soap and water, which is vital for preventing the spread of covid-19 (barbier & burgess 2020). the next section breaks down the details of water supply in local municipalities in south africa. water and sanitation supply in the south african municipalities during the covid-19 pandemic the supply and distribution of water in municipalities was seen as a positive step in combating the rapid spread of the covid-19 pandemic with a focus on hotspot areas that have limited access to basic potable water supply. the national dws had been responsible for this task through a directive from the dws minister to ensure that all communities have access to water and sanitation, including high-density public areas, informal settlements and rural areas (provincial monitoring group [pmg] 2020a). rand water was appointed to coordinate all activities in respect to distribution, in conjunction with other entities across south africa. the major objective was to deliver water tanks, water tankers and standpipes (dws 2020a). the other water entities included lepelle northern water in limpopo, amatola water in eastern cape, overberg water in western cape, sedibeng water in free state and the northern cape and magalies water in northwest province. rand water was responsible for the supply of water in mpumalanga and gauteng provinces. this distribution is broken down subsequently. as table 1 shows, the eastern cape received 4537 water tanks out of the 5533 water tanks allocated to the province. of these, 2490 were installed. although 191 tankers were allocated to the province, 187 were delivered and in use as of 15 july 2020. buffalo city metropolitan municipality received 310 water tanks, nelson mandela metropolitan municipality 135, alfred nzo district municipality 595, amathole district municipality 516, chris hani district municipality 803, joe gqabi district municipality 112, or tambo district municipality 978 and sarah baartman district municipality 1078. the eastern cape government also declared the province a drought disaster area to enable it to release funds to the affected municipalities. table 1: eastern cape intervention as of 15 june 2020. in the limpopo province (table 2), 726 water tanks were allocated. by 15 june 2020, limpopo province received 440 water tanks throughout the province. vhembe district received 132 water tanks, waterberg district 122, sekhukhune district 80, capricorn district 53 and mopani district 53. to augment these water tanks, the dws also delivered 27 water tankers to remote communities through its entity lepelle northern water. the tankers were also delivered to vhembe, sekhukhune, bela-bela, polokwane, lephalale, mogalakwena, thabazimbi and mookgopong or modimolle. of the 43 tankers allocated to the limpopo province, 34 had been delivered as from 15 june 2020. table 2: limpopo intervention as of 15 june 2020 (dws 15 june). table 3 shows that 2812 water tanks were allocated to gauteng province, and of these, 1785 water tanks had been delivered and 667 installed as of 15 june 2020. although 56 tankers had been allocated, 46 were delivered and 37 were installed. by 02 june 2020, the dws had provided 2211 water tanks in densely populated areas such as the city of johannesburg, city of tshwane, ekurhuleni, sedibeng and west rand district municipalities (dws 2020a, 2020b). more water tanks were allocated to west rand (555), whilst the least were allocated to sedibeng (254). various areas in the province, including roodepoort, soweto and ennerdale in the city of johannesburg, hammanskraal in the city of tshwane and benoni in the city of ekurhuleni, benefitted from these efforts (amatola water 2020). table 3: gauteng intervention as of 15 june 2020. finally, the western cape province had been allocated 719 water tanks with 526 tanks delivered and 125 installed by 15 june 2020. around 59 tankers were delivered in the western cape, with 53 delivered and 49 tankers in use as of 15 june 2020. table 4 illustrates that water tanks and trucks were delivered to the district municipalities and metros across the province, i.e. the city of cape town with 93, overberg 50, cape winelands 75, central karoo 63, garden route 68 and west coast 33 as of 15 june 2020 (dws 2020b). table 4: western cape intervention. the attainment of sustainable development goal 6 in south african municipalities the attainment of sdgs globally has been hindered by the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, as countries grapple with controlling the spread of the virus in ways that are not consistent with the demands of sdg 6 (mckibbin & fernando 2020). covid-19 has pushed the development budgets of countries into disarray and has diverted development attention and resources from the sdgs’ dimension towards fighting the covid-19 pandemic (ozili & arun 2020). despite these challenges, sachs et al. (2019) argue that south africa is poised to salvage something out of the sdgs despite the ruinous covid-19 pandemic. this is mainly because the responses of local municipalities to the adverse effects of the pandemic are indirectly aiding the achievement of sdg 6. melzer and rust (2020) affirm that during the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic in south africa, the government responded by assigning local municipalities roles to play to support vulnerable communities that needed clean water and sanitation, which are both dictates of attaining sdg 6. these efforts by local municipalities were strategic, as they enabled the achievement of sdg 6 in south africa during the covid-19 outbreak. whilst these water supply interventions were primarily focused on containing the spread of the covid-19, they enabled the establishment of portable water supply infrastructure that will further assist local municipalities post the pandemic. challenges associated with accessing clean water and sanitation during covid-19 south african municipalities faced a multiplicity of challenges when supplying water and sanitation during the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. there were delays in the supply and distribution of tankers to various municipalities (pmg 2020b). the reason for this delay, according to the minister of tourism, south africa, was the building of platforms needed to mount the tankers (pmg 2020b). furthermore, the municipalities faced difficulties in accessing cement and bricks in mounting and fixing the tanks in position, as hardware shops were closed during the covid-19 total lockdown. all supplies from hardware stores had dried up. to address this challenge, the minister of trade and industry declared hardware shops as essential services selling essential goods (pmg 2020a). the opening of hardware stores was expected to allow the roll-out of water tanks to continue. despite the supply and distribution of water tanks and tankers in the different provinces, some challenges had been noted. for instance, according to mnisi (2020), information gleaned from the ga-kobe and ga-mphakani villages in limpopo province had revealed continuing deficits in water and sanitation provision where these water and sanitation disaster relief facilities had not yet been received. complaints about the lack of water or quality of water had been noted in these communities. these complaints included instances where water was sold by those with boreholes, limited times of access to water and residents queuing for water and shared standpipes making social distance a challenge (mnisi 2020). monyakeni (2020) indicated that in mbizana, in the eastern cape, emergency tanks were empty since they had only been filled when they were delivered. in a similar observation, it was reported that emergency tanks in ramaphosa informal settlement in motherwell, port elizabeth, periodically ran dry. in the western cape, the number of households sharing communal standpipes and toilets was reported to be a huge problem in terms of dealing with the covid-19 pandemic. the city of cape town apparently aimed to provide one water tap for every 25 families within a 200-m radius and one toilet for every 5 families, which would comply with the emergency housing programme (hara, ncube & sibanda 2020). but this had proven to be insufficient because, for example, in the marikana informal settlement in philippi township, the city of cape town had provided 50 communal standpipes for more than 60 000 residents (hara et al. 2020). in endlovini, khayelitsha, an estimated 20 000 people shared 380 communal toilets, which translate to about 53 people per toilet (hara et al. 2020), and this was far beyond the required one toilet for every five families. reports on the ‘voices of south africa’s informal settlement residents’ in major cities during the covid-19 crisis also noted severe basic service shortages concerning access to water, clean toilets and waste removal (international budget partnership 2020). the major cities included johannesburg, ekurhuleni and tshwane in gauteng province, cape town in the western cape province and buffalo city in the eastern cape province. the 30 june 2020 report on metro municipalities noted that sanitation remained a serious problem, with some residents in johannesburg and cape town reporting that they did not have access to sanitation; some complained about dirty toilets in johannesburg and cape town, and residents reported that broken and blocked toilets were not being fixed in cape town (international budget partnership 2020). the same report on local (nonmetro) municipalities noted that many residents in port st. johns, eastern cape, did not have access to municipal sanitation and had to construct pit toilets, did not have regular access to water and were not provided with soap or hand sanitizers (international budget partnership 2020). overcoming challenges of clean water supply and sanitation in south african municipalities this section presents findings drawn from the analysis of expansive literature sources relevant to sdg 6, covid-19 and clean water supply and sanitation. thematic analysis was used in line with the objectives of this article. limited community participation and its effects on clean water supply and sanitation notwithstanding that many positives can be drawn from the current covid-19 containment efforts by local governments in south africa for the achievement of sdgs, some practical challenges are threatening the achievement of these goals (mutangabende & shava 2016). amongst some of the prominent threats to the sdgs in local municipalities is the issue of diminished opportunities for the participation of communities in their development processes. notably, restrictions such as the banning of mass gatherings mean local governments cannot fully consult their residents on developmental issues. inopportunely, this is working against the visions and principles of sustainability embodied in the sdgs (mutangabende & shava 2016). to have an effective service delivery, the municipality works hand-in-glove with communities to bring development to the local communities. lues (2014:789) notes that inclusive participation of citizens in development projects that seek to improve access to water, sanitation and other entrepreneurship projects is crucial. david (2018) submits that public participation promotes adequate representation in decision-making processes that affect the lives of people. in south africa, campbell (2016:34) notes that in all three spheres of government (national, provincial and local), there is a need to involve people in decision-making processes (participation), and this enhances the legitimacy and responsiveness of institutions, especially when resources are scarce. inadequate revenue collection and clean water supplies impediments to water insecurity that are confronting south african municipalities can be a threat to the attainment of sdg 6, which demands clean water supplies to enhance the sanitation in communities. the water security woes are further compounded by poor revenue collection, which results in minimal funding for water supply projects (shava 2020). the shutdown of some social and economic operations to combat the spread of covid-19 resulted in a revenue loss for local governments (barbier & burgess 2020). the analyses of documents have shown that under normal conditions, local authorities collect revenue from a wide variety of social and economic activities. however, under conditions of a national lockdown in south africa, revenue streams of local governments shrank, resulting in an inability to sustainably finance the water development activities that enable the attainment of sdg 6. since the outbreak of covid-19, little attention was being given to sdg-specific programming (barbier & burgess 2020). owing to immense pressure to respond to covid-19, south africa, just like any other country hit by the pandemic, could not adequately monitor and evaluate processes of water projects to ascertain if current efforts were still in accord with sdg 6 (ozili & arun 2020). morris-paxton, reid and ewing (2020) lament the water provision programmes that were undertaken during the covid-19 pandemic by south african municipalities, as they could be discontinued as a result of inadequate funding. for future water-service delivery programmes in south african municipalities, collaboration with stakeholders is required as funding can be channelled towards water provision to informal settlements, especially to enhance sanitation and hygiene towards attaining sdg 6 (shava 2020). although covid-19 cases have been reduced, continuous provision of clean water to struggling communities is also imperative in the realisation of sdg 6 (djalante, shaw & dewit 2020). embezzlement of covid-19–related funds a study by staunton et al. (2020) revealed that embezzlement of covid-19–related funds had been a problem in the attainment of sdg 6 in south african municipalities. their study revealed further that local municipalities have experienced high levels of corruption by the authorities in local government. such corruption will most likely negatively affect the efforts towards reducing poverty, uplifting livelihoods and improving the health outcomes for all people in south africa, and this will discourage local municipalities from achieving sdgs. moreover, procuring goods and services in municipalities remains a challenge because of unclear roles between the administrators and the political office bearers (ambe & badenhorst-weiss 2011; christopher 2015). the political–administrative interface in municipalities is a huge problem, resulting in poor or substandard service delivery (de visser 2009:18–20; kroukamp & cloete 2018:70; onyango 2019:3–4). there is an absence of proper distinction between administrative and political functions because the political office bearers are concerning themselves more with administrative duties than with political ones (stocker & thompson-fawcett 2014:806). in their study, sibanda, zindi and maramura (2020) affirm that contestations regarding the administrative and political office bearers trigger political interference that may adversely affect service delivery in communities. in response to the covid-19 pandemic, water provision programmes were affected by political interference, as politicians hijacked the situation to brand and reposition themselves in the time of crisis. a review of mckibbin and fernando’s (2020) study shows that the embezzlement of covid-19 funds, which were fundamental to steer water development projects in south africa, is worrying. a gap that required the government to impose strict internal control measures in local municipalities evolved to ensure that water and sanitation projects were successful towards achieving sdg 6. poor water infrastructure in local municipalities the availability of portable water infrastructure in south african municipalities helps in the provision of a clean water supply to communities. although local municipalities are required to play a pivotal role in providing clean water and sanitation, evidence points to water shortages in south africa, especially in informal settlements (ngcukana 2020). the study by san lau et al. (2020) shows that water challenges affecting informal settlements adversely affect governments in their attempts to control covid-19. the lockdown imposed in south africa triggered overcrowding as people in informal settlements could not adequately obtain clean water to wash their hands in line with who guidelines for preventing covid-19. the absence of proper water infrastructure, as noted by nyashanu, simbanegavi and gibson (2020), increased vulnerability to waterborne diseases and covid-19 viral infection in the informal settlements in gauteng province. achieving sdg 6 in many informal settlements across the country demands local municipalities to devise alternative strategies for every person to have adequate access to clean water and sanitation (morris-paxton et al. 2020). revamping water infrastructure is another issue of concern, noting that local municipalities should consider ensuring that all water projects are implemented. in that sense, therefore, the dws services in south africa need to provide water tankers, boreholes and storage tanks in support of covid-19 prevention measures as well as working towards achieving sdg 6. limited accountability in water projects as indicated by literature, water is very scarce in south africa and hence water projects must be designed to meet the increasing demand because of urbanisation. therefore, accountability of municipal officials is vital for ensuring that citizens can access clean water to meet the sanitation demands amidst the covid-19 pandemic. sakamoto, begum and ahmed’s (2020) study points to a lack of accountability in water provision programmes to underprivileged communities, which they describe as detrimental to the attainment of sdg 6. christopher (2015:957) identifies the lack of transparency and accountability measures in various south african municipalities as triggering inequalities and distracting municipal efforts of providing clean water and sanitation to the communities in need. in another study, sibanda et al. (2020) lament the lack of accountability measures in municipalities that affect the effective delivery of goods and services to satisfy human needs and wants as enshrined in the hrba. the worrying trend of limited accountability in municipal development programmes acts against government efforts to curb the spread of covid-19. for instance, in south africa, sibanda (2017:314) condemns rampant corruption in the eastern cape province, which may adversely affect the provision of clean water and sanitation to communities in response to the covid-19 pandemic. the absence of strong control systems and institutional cultures for accountability triggers service delivery backlogs and deters the attainment of sdg 6 amidst the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. analysis of these arguments, therefore, shows that to attain sdg 6 amidst covid-19 in south africa, municipalities must uphold accountability and transparency, which are crucial elements in ensuring that funds meant to provide clean water projects are used for the intended purpose without any unnecessary deviations. conclusion in conclusion, the article explored the impact of covid-19 on the attainment of sdg 6 by local municipalities in south africa. using hrba, we witnessed that, despite the significant setbacks triggered by covid-19 towards achieving sdgs, several interventions by local governments in the country could potentially elevate the possibility of achieving these universal goals. however, it was also noted that some challenges are potentially set to derail the achievement of sdgs in south african municipalities. the researchers, therefore, recommend that the south african government embrace a truly bottom-up approach as opposed to trickle-down approaches. this is because local authorities have greater proximity and thus a better understanding of the social and economic challenges within their communities and can effectively implement strategies towards addressing these challenges. further empirical research into the interface of covid-19 and achievement of sdgs can be conducted to examine whether measures undertaken by countries globally have effectively helped to alleviate poverty. acknowledgements the authors respectively acknowledge the university of fort hare and the university of johannesburg in south africa for relevant affiliation support. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.z. conceptualised the study, analysed the data and wrote the original draft. e.s. wrote, reviewed and edited the manuscript. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed during this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abadi, m., cooper, h. & teckman-fullard, m., 2020, how coronavirus compares to sars, swine flu and zika, and other epidemics. business insider. viewed 02 august 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/how-the-coronavirus-compares-to-sars-swine-flu-zika-and-other-epidemics/ar/. aboelnga, h.t., elmahd a., unver, o. & thomson reuters foundation, 2020, opinion: coronavirus – wake-up call to ensure water and sanitation for all, viewed 30 july 2020, from https://news.trust.org/item/20200326104523-wfz4n. amatola water, 2020, water tanks in transit to municipalities across sa, viewed 25 august 2020, from http://www.amatolawater.co.za/news/details/water-tanks-in-transit-to-municipalities-across-sa ambe, i.m. & badenhorst-weiss, j.a., 2012, ‘supply chain management challenges in the south african public sector’, african journal of business management 6(5), 1103–1114. https://doi.org/10.4102/jtscm.v6i1.63 barbier, e.b. & burgess, j.c., 2020, ‘sustainability and development after covid-19’, world development 1(35), 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105082 britto, s.l., krishna, m. & kellermayer, r., 2019, ‘weight loss is a sufficient and economical single outcome measure of murine dextran sulfate sodium colitis’, bio advances 1(8), 493–497. https://doi.org/10.1096/fba.2019-00035 campbell, j., 2016, ‘a collaboration-based model of work motivation and role ambiguity in public organizations’, journal for public performance & management review 39(3), 655–675. chigonda, t. & chazireni, e., 2020, ‘once rural, always rural? 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implications for prevention and controls: a case study in south africa, egypt, algeria, nigeria, senegal and kenya’, science of the total environment 1(3), 1–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-020-01078-z abstract introduction problem statement defining supply chain management theoretical background and contextual setting barriers to effective supply chain management noncompliance to supply chain management policy and regulations risk management and supply chain management irregularities monitoring and evaluation of supply chain management ethics and conflict of interest improving operations of supply chain management methodology results internal audit controls in supply chain management ethics, fair dealing and accountability skills and capacity risk management strategies and systems political interference discussion, implications and recommendations limitations of the study conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) beauty zindi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bisho, south africa modeni m. sibanda department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bisho, south africa citation zindi, b. & sibanda, m.m., 2022, ‘barriers to effective supply chain management: the case of a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a54. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.54 original research barriers to effective supply chain management: the case of a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape beauty zindi, modeni m. sibanda received: 30 dec. 2021; accepted: 08 june 2022; published: 12 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: supply chain management (scm) is presented as a panacea and an invaluable tool for addressing service delivery glitches in institutions. noncompliance with scm legislation by municipalities remains high, with fruitless, irregular, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure, resulting in weak financial governance in many municipalities in south africa. aim: the aim of this study is to explore the barriers to effective scm in a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape and to identify the best practices to improve scm. methods: a qualitative research approach was used to explore the barriers to effective scm in a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape province. the sample size consists of 14 sampled participants. data were collected from in-depth interviews. thematic analysis was used in cleaning, organising and interpreting the findings. credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability measures were used to promote trustworthiness. results: this study’s findings established that there were systemic and operational challenges which stifled the smooth operation of the scm system. the scm was characterised by weak ethical systems, lack of well-experienced personnel and poor implementation and monitoring of scm systems and policies. conclusion: there is need for necessary institutional and systemic transformations and adaptations to scm practices and processes. this calls for leadership commitment, coupled with concerted efforts to transform and overhaul lethargic institutional systems and practices, so as to decisively stamp out scm unethical conduct by public officials and address public financial management hurdles, as well as the root causes of poor audit outcomes. contribution: this article contributes to a better understanding of new public management and principal–agent public sector accountability. accountability, with its close affinities to risk compensation theory, resource dependence theory, trust and dimensional publicness theory, is anchored on a results-oriented government culture emphasising better performance, better accountability and better transparency. keywords: supply chain management; municipal finance; procurement; metropolitan municipality; eastern cape province. introduction supply chain management (scm) is an integral part of financial management that seeks to introduce internationally accepted best practices (thomas 2018:93). the delivery of good quality, accessible and efficient social and economic services forms the bedrock of good governance in south africa (geldenhuys 2021). supply chain management involves various activities such as procurement, logistics, production and distribution of products to clients in any organisation (dvorsky et al. 2021). supply chain management is premised on important pillars of procurement: value for money, open and effective competition, ethics and fair dealing, accountability and prudent financial reporting and equity (fan & stevenson 2018:19). supply chain management is thus a powerful system that aids and remedies irregularities in the public sector (nkwanyana & agbenyegah 2020:1). the scm should follow good governance principles such as fairness, competitiveness, equitable administration, transparency and cost-effectiveness (beske & seuring 2014:35). this makes it an invaluable adjunct to effective provision of goods and services in the public sector. however, the public sector often witnesses service delivery protests because of poor service delivery and mismanagement of public funds (gianakis & mccue 2012:112). south africa’s public sector has undergone transformation through the introduction of scm in the management of finance in procuring goods and services (ellram & murfield 2019). the municipal finance management act (mfma) was meant to improve financial management in local government. it affords accounting officers certain discretionary powers to ensure that the intention of the act is achieved. sections 63, 77 and 78 of the mfma allocate joint responsibility to public officials to manage finances effectively and efficiently. the mfma provides for a policy framework (national treasury 2005) for procurement and provisioning of goods and services. supply chain management treasury regulations contain wide-ranging guidelines, demanding compliance when tendering for goods and services (bizana, naude & ambe 2015:668; van der waldt 2016:301). problem statement notwithstanding the theoretical clarity associated with the notion of scm in south africa, there continues to be abounding evidence of operational inefficiency, poor service delivery and noncompliance with policies and legislations in the public sector, particularly in local governments. however, despite concerted efforts towards such reforms, the south african public sector still experiences high levels of noncompliance with scm procurement laws and regulations (myeza, nkhi & maroun 2021:3). in a 2019–2020 report, the auditor-general of south africa found no evidence that municipalities had followed a fair, transparent and competitive process for awarding some identified municipal contracts. awards were made without the necessary declarations of interest (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:38). uncompetitive and unfair procurement processes and inadequate contract management were also a very common occurrence. poor record management of municipalities exacerbated municipal financial performance constraints by generating a situation in which it was a common to practise inappropriate or illegal conduct (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:36). it is of concern that there was high material noncompliance with scm precincts by municipalities in the 2019–2020 audit report (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:38). for instance, in the 2019–2020 financial year, the auditor-general reported findings (of which 70% was material) on uncompetitive and unfair procurement processes at 84% of municipalities and contract management findings (of which 35% was material) at 44% of municipalities (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:39). unethical conduct in scm leads to a loss of public trust and confidence in the management of public affairs. the problem is, however, that despite the existence of control and oversight structures and processes for monitoring compliance with ethical standards, norms and regulations in scm, procurement and contract management processes, the metropolitan still fell short of complying with some scm regulations. this noncompliance violates precincts of the scm policy regulations, the mfma, as well as the municipal systems act. lack of adequate and effective control and oversight measures further exacerbates the problem, leading to poor management of procurement systems, as well as inconsistencies in the disposal and delivery of services. the result is that this has serious negative implications for public accountability and sound municipal financial management. supply chain management lies at the heart of public sector financial management, given that it ensures that the public obtains goods and services effectively and efficiently. this is supported in a study conducted by geldenhuys (2021:45) in ethekwini municipality, which showed a great improvement in the procurement of goods and services because of the implementation of scm principles. the study therefore had significance to the domain of public administration as it sought to enhance probity and prudent use of municipal finances, thus promoting public accountability, which is one of the overarching constitutional principles and values in south african public administration. this inevitably promotes social equity, public well-being and public satisfaction. a study by mahlala and netswera (2020:12) indicated that there was an improvement in the management of finances and accountability in the public sector because of the adoption of scm good governance principles. the purpose of this article is to explore barriers to effective scm in a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape province and to ascertain related best practices. defining supply chain management from a generic viewpoint, lemay et al. (2017:10) posited that scm is the flow of goods and services from the source to the end-user. ellram and murfield (2019:40) added that scm encompasses some in-between processes that facilitate the movement of goods and services, such as transportation and storage of both the raw materials and end products. proponents of scm underscore that for effective, timely and cost-efficient supply of goods and services, there is need for collaboration between and amongst actors within a supply chain from primary producers to final consumers (dvorsky et al. 2021:19; ellram & murfield 2019:41). ellram and murfield (2019:41) further described scm as a system that enables and facilitates optimum production through integrating the goals and efforts of stakeholders towards ensuring seamless and cost-efficient flow of goods and services. in terms of scm, organisations need not to compete as autonomous entities but rather as supply chains in order for them to enjoy economies of scale. the south african framework for the scm system constitutes demand management, acquisition management, logistics management, disposal management and risk and performance management (national treasury 2005:49). theoretical background and contextual setting public procurement is a strategic lever of the supply chain to achieve broader government policy objectives. a network-centric public service delivery allows the public sector to respond to ‘customer’ needs through service capabilities. the service provider and customer are performanceand relationship-interdependent (bastl, johnson & finne 2019:21). relationships are controlled by governance systems such as contracts and performance measures. they can be managed through coordination, information sharing, decision making and feedback mechanisms (gulati, wohlgezogen & zhelyazkov 2012:543). a supply chain is coordinated when all decisions are aligned to accomplish strategic planning and service delivery objectives, outputs and outcomes. external factors within the public sector political environment influencing scm structure include laws, public policies and regulations. however, supply chain risk management (scrm) decreases vulnerabilities. elements of reactive scrm strategies include risk detection, risk assessment and risk mitigation (grover & dresner 2022:50–52). however, despite policies, legislation, regulation and government-driven initiatives, local government is often challenged to leverage supplier resources for the public good. risk management is a critical concern to scm (duhadway, carnovale & kannan 2018:3). supply chain risk is defined as ‘the likelihood of an adverse and unexpected event that can occur and either directly or indirectly result in a supply chain disruption’ (garvey, carnovale & yeniyurt 2015:619). peltman’s (1975) risk compensation theory is a prominent theory used to explore the impact of risk perceptions on individual behaviour, resulting from exogenous factors. the theory assumes that change in behaviour is a response to some changes in perceived risk. thus, the perception of risk influences the supply chain disruption risk decision-making process (zwikael & sadeh 2007:66). pfeffer and salancik’s (1978) resource dependence theory is premised on the assumption that the public sector acquires and maintains resources, creating dependences and thereby safeguarding themselves from the scm environment. within this theorisation, social capital is a key construct. social capital embodies the ‘assets and resources made available through relationships within the social structure of the collective that can be utilised by the collective’ (payne et al. 2011:497). nahapiet and ghoshal (1998) proposed three dimensions of social capital: structural, relational and cognitive, representing the attributes of relationships that create value in scm. trust is a core element of successful scm relationships and reduces the risk of opportunism (moshtari & vanpoucke 2021:108). trust has close affinities to dimensional publicness theory. based on the work of bozeman (1987, 2013), the theory suggests that organisations have characteristics of both private and public organisations. under new public management (npm), the public sector shifts its focus of accountability from outputs to results (robinson 2015:10–12). a results-oriented government culture emphasises ‘better performance, better accountability and better transparency’ (ouda 2015:50). thus, npm theory refocuses the public sector on management accountability, also known as financial accountability. financial accountability requires public sector organisations to use public finances economically, efficiently and effectively, with no waste, no money leakage or corruption (tran, nguyen & nguyen 2022:259). the interpretation of accountability is based on principal–agent theory, ‘the idea that “agents” carry out activities on behalf of “principals” and the latter then hold the former “to account” for their actions’ (eckersley & ferry 2020:75). barriers to effective supply chain management there are various barriers to effective scm in south african municipalities that hinder efficient and effective procurment of goods and services. the scm review (2015:14) indicated that organisational structures and systems within which scm takes place are in too many cases not ideal, with attendant inexperienced or underskilled leadership, high staff turnover and lack of motivation. noncompliance to supply chain management policy and regulations the scm policy requires each government entity to develop and implement a customised scm policy. the issue of compliance is a major barrier in the implementation of scm, as it affects other activities. sibanda (2017:315) reiterated that issues regarding noncompliance with scm policy and regulations were attributed to lack of requisite scm skills and competencies, as well as the absence of a stricter regulatory culture. a study conducted by sharma (2018:7) showed that more than 59% of the workers undervalued the moral implications of their actions at work, and 88% of some workers knew what was right but still did what was wrong. the study further revealed that about 80% of the municipal workers in zimbabwe accepted rewards for favours, thus often violating the code of conduct for councillors and municipal officials. rahayu,yudi and rahayu (2020:14) explained that noncompliance involves the tendency not to utilise a competitive process for both quotations and bids, incorrect utilisation of the preference points system, lack of appropriate bid committees and utilisation of the incorrect procurement process in respect of the thresholds. risk management and supply chain management irregularities irregularities in scm have been attributed to weak internal control environments and risk mitigation procedures (uddin & akhter 2019:69). for rahayu et al. (2020:8), a lack of understanding regarding the concept of scm and its inextricable link to long-term quality service delivery, human capital development and associated socio-economic growth may be the root cause of problems hounding scm implementation in the public sector. uncertainty exists in a system with a sensible extent of complexity, and it can be reduced or amplified. risk initiates from uncertainty; it can be identified, analysed, controlled and regulated, but nonetheless it can cause a disturbance (taufik 2019:2169). disturbances are a result of risks and can be purposeful (noncompliance, conflict of interest, fraud) or nonpurposeful (demand fluctuation, covid-19). disturbances may cause deviations in the supply chain. deviations affect operations, processes, plans, goals or programme strategies in municipalities and can be eliminated by means of adaption (ivanov, tsipoulanidis & schönberger 2019). nevertheless, a slow response by municipal leadership to strengthen internal controls, vacancies and instability, a culture of lack of consequences and operating without fully integrated information technology systems aggravates the current state of municipal financial performance (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:51–58). monitoring and evaluation of supply chain management monitoring is essentially an ongoing process to confirm whether scm practices are still following the proper processes and offer recommendations to improve its operations when procuring goods and services. weak monitoring and evaluation are interconnected with the absence or poor presence of a control environment. dysfunctional monitoring and evaluation systems place public sector entities in precarious risk management situations and make it difficult for public sector entities to give effect to or implement scm as required by the policy (tönnissen & teuteberg 2020:111). for instance, in this study, the metropolitan municipality at times fell short of complying with scm norms and standards and regulations, thus contributing to recurring unclean audit findings. in the case of the metropolitan municipality under study, one major root cause was that documents could not be found or retrieved in time for the audit process. the auditor-general (2020:45) pointed out weak controls and lack of monitoring and support of scm in the municipality, which led to opportunistic behaviour as mismanagement of funds was not being detected early enough to avoid financial and scm malpractices. ethics and conflict of interest ethics and conflict of interest greatly affect scm implementation. sibanda et al. (2020:34) established that there was enormous power wielded by some chief financial officers (cfos), as well as lack of proper consultation with other senior officials. in odeku’s (2018:50) study, 25% of the sampled businesspeople in gauteng province (in terms of contractors who had been awarded tenders) believed that the process was rife with nepotism, bribery and corruption. this finding is an affront to the national treasury guide to accounting officers (2007), which prescribes a standard approach towards scm procedure. if left unchecked, conflict of interest compromises the integrity of public sector organisations. employees often disguise conflict of interest in ways which may be sophisticated and difficult to detect; nonetheless, preventive approaches must be adopted. public officials should declare conflicts of interest when they join the public sector and annually thereafter, as required by the code of ethics. improving operations of supply chain management it is of critical importance that scm professionals fully comprehend legal prescripts that guide and govern their functional activities as agents of their employers in the entities in which they operate. these include laws, regulations and trade agreements at the international, national, state, provincial and local levels. it is important that in addition to the regulatory framework, scm units have to develop and implement standard operating procedures which supply chain managers and units must comply with. kuupiel et al. (2019:8) suggested that laws and regulations that scm professionals should be aware of include legal instruments, laws, contract and commercial laws, sector-specific laws and public sector procurement regulations and instructions. supply chain management professionals must not use their positions to induce another person to provide inappropriate benefits to themselves or others. they have to guard against potential conflicts arising from (amongst others) family, business, personal or financial relationships. even though a conflict may not technically exist, scm professionals must avoid the appearance of such a conflict. as a general guide, dvorsky et al. (2021:1693) identified guidelines that can be followed to manage and avoid conflict of interest. they advise that potential conflict(s) of interest must be discussed with public officials, and scm responsibilities can then be reassigned as warranted or necessary. more importantly, municipalities must develop and constantly review conflict of interest statements that encourage employees to disclose any potential conflict of interest upon initial employment and annually thereafter. furthermore, dvorsky et al. (2021:1693) emphasised that officials elected and appointed by the municipality should not engage in inappropriate personal business with the municipality, the municipality’s competitors or suppliers. it would, for example, be unethical for municipal officials to lend money to or borrow money from any customer or supplier. to promote public financial prudence, minimise financial risk and curb unethical financial malfeasance, external auditors perform an audit on the financial statements of entities, government, individuals and any organ or legal entity. auditors audit procurement processes, and in south africa, the standing committee on public accounts and the auditor-general are mandated to ensure that there are no irregularities in the way public funds are managed. as convention, the supreme audit institution is protected from political interference by law, and appointments in chapter 9 institutions (rsa 1996) must uphold and respect the agency´s independence (uddin & akhter 2019:70). the constitution establishes the auditor-general as the external auditor of all national and provincial state departments and municipalities and any other institutions or accounting entities required by national or provincial legislation to be audited by the auditor-general. the auditor-general is thus mandated to audit and report on the accounts, financial statements and financial mismanagements and management of national and provincial state departments, municipalities and other institutions. methodology an interpretive philosophical research approach was used to explore barriers to effective scm in a metropolitan municipality and to identify best practices in scm. the interpretivist worldview is premised on the assumption that reality is socially constructed and that reality is subjective in nature. interpretivism assumes that participants in a study constitute meaning-making agents whose attitudes, perceptions and experiences form the basis of reality (van thiel 2022:34). aligning with the interpretivist paradigm, a qualitative research strategy and case study research design were adopted. denzin and lincoln (2017:23) are of the view that a case study design is a popular research strategy used to generate an in-depth, multifaceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context. the qualitative research strategy was thus naturalistic, and it sought to solicit an in-depth understanding of barriers to scm in the metropolitan municipality. both the adopted research strategy and design were deployed to gain an in-depth understanding of barriers to scm in the metropolitan municipality (denzin & lincoln 2017:23). the study sample consisted of 14 purposively selected key informants, consisting of three management officials, three municipal public accounts committee (mpac) members, three senior officials from the scm demand section, three participants from the internal control unit and two from the ordering section. sample size was determined by the saturation point. the data saturation technique involved recruiting participants for interviewing up to a point when addition of new participants’ data ceased to bring in any new insights. with purposive sampling, participants did not have an equal chance of being sampled (gross 2018:39). participants were selected for an explicit purpose; they were selected based on the seniority of their positions in the scm directorate of the metropolitan municipality and the researchers’ subjective judgements of the sampled participants being information-rich in scm, making them trustworthy key informants for purposes of this study. the interviews took an average of 18 min. the interviews were recorded using a tape recorder and were later transcribed. interview data were analysed using a thematic analysis process, which involved transcribing the data sets from audio clips generated during interviews into microsoft office word format. the transcribed data were them subjected to rigorous processes of data coding, reduction and establishment of themes and subthemes (akşan & baki 2017). the participants signed informed consent forms before engaging in interview sessions. in addition, ethical clearance (reference number sib081szin01) was obtained from the university research committee. furthermore, the researchers put in place measures to safeguard the findings, and the researchers used well-established qualitative research methods that can be easily replicated by other researchers to ensure confirmability. to promote dependability, the researchers kept all the transcripted data, recordings, field notes and all documents that they had used in the study. member checking was used to promote the research’s credibility by selecting a few participants who took part in in-depth interviews to evaluate the findings and conclusions to determine whether their views, perceptions, options and responses were presented in the study. lastly, transferability was promoted through suggested recommendations that can be adopted by other public sector organisations to improve scm operations and processes. table 1 provides a summary of the study sample. table 1: summary of the study sample. ethical considerations this study was approved by the university of fort hare’s research ethics committee (urec) (ref. no. sib081szin01). results the subsequent thematic sections show the results of this research study. the study sought to explore barriers to effective scm in the metropolitan municipality and to identify the related best practices. table 2 provides a schematic representation of the themes and subthemes which emerged from data analysis. table 2: schematic representation of themes and subthemes. internal audit controls in supply chain management the study’s findings suggest that one of the barriers negatively impacting effective scm in the metropolitan municipality was weak internal audit control mechanisms. findings established that the metropolitan municipality had not reviewed its scm policy since 2013, in breach of its institutional mandate which requires annual reviews of the policy (bcmm 2019). interviewed participants attributed this administrative incongruity to corrupt individuals within the municipality who would stand to lose and be exposed in the event that the municipality regularly updated its scm policy. notably, more than half of the interviewed mpac members concurred that lack of internal audit control systems was a major hurdle in the municipality’s scm system. similar sentiments were also shared by participants in the scm section, who indicated that because of lack of properly updated scm, it was difficult for them to investigate cases of fraud, fruitless expenditure, corruption and irregular expenditure. supply chain management section participants reiterated that in the absence of properly constituted and strong internal audit control measures, it was not only difficult to detect unethical practices but also difficult to sanction such practices. participant a mentioned that: ‘we cannot talk of a scm system without internal audit control mechanisms, which can provide intrinsic checks and balances for objective assessments. … our work as administrators of the scm system is seriously undermined by lack of updated instruments; we know the gaps, but as long as those gaps are not sealed off through policy amendment and updating, fruitless expenditure can continue to happen and nothing would happen as recourse.’ (male, in management) participant b reiterated that: ‘officials know gaps in scm policies, and without regular updating as required by the law, they manipulate such gaps for their personal gain.’ (male, in management) participant c explained that: ‘instruments are deliberately left un-updated in breach of the law to enable individuals to exploit the institution for personal gain.’ (male, in management) these verbatim excerpts expressly demonstrate that the scm system was negatively impacted by an environment of weak internal audit control mechanisms. internal controls are indispensable for early identification and curbing of irregular, fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure, as well as material irregularities. weak institutional control systems potentially generate rent-seeking behaviour amongst municipal officials. the auditor-general consolidated a general report on local government audit outcomes – the mfma 2019–2020 emphasised the need for ‘strong control environments’ with practical, ‘automated and routinely executed internal controls’. internal controls aid the accomplishment of municipal objectives by mitigating risks of human error, incorrect decisions, fraud, abuse and loss. in addition, controls prevent financial malfeasance, reduce financial losses, wastage and transgressions and, importantly, help in strengthening financial performance management and reporting (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:51). ethics, fair dealing and accountability municipal leadership get involved in unethical practices by disregarding good governance, statutory compliance and financial controls. this happens when there is little or no commitment to transparency and accountability, and the downside is that such cultures filter through to the lower municipal levels. unsurprisingly, a culture of poor discipline, impunity and nondelivery will continue to exist. the study’s findings suggest that the metropolitan municipality became embroiled in instances of corrupt and fraudulent activities which largely undermined efficient service delivery. results indicate that officials in the municipality at times failed to submit timely, adequate and appropriate evidence of irregular expenditure, fraud and corruption. findings further established that there were reports of awarding of tenders to family and friends of municipal officials, in contravention of the code of conduct for councillors and municipal staff members. furthermore, results point to instances of some municipal officials conducting business transactions with the municipality, without disclosure of conflict of interest. evidence from literature indicate instances of fraud and corruption within the procurement processes, with indications that some municipal officials undermined the integrity of the municipality by procuring low-quality goods and services with impunity (bcmm oversight report 2017–2018:9). it is of concern that despite such transgressions, cases were seldom probed. the municipality’s consolidated audit report (2017–2018:46) likewise observed that noncompliance with scm prescripts resulted in corrupt activities, with the metropolitan municipality declaring some irregular expenditure as irretrievable without proper investigations, as required by section 32(2)(a)(ii) of the mfma (republic of south africa 2003). the following extracts from interview transcripts indicate respondents’ concerns regarding the scm system, operations and practices of the metropolitan municipality: ‘smooth and effective flow of scm is incumbent on early and appropriate reporting of irregular expenditure to ensure timely interventions, but personnel can collude with [one] another to delay reporting or submit inadequate evidence upon which decisions cannot be made, and this allows malpractices to continue unabated.’ (participant d, male, mpac) emphasising the need for ethics and fair dealing in scm, participant e bemoaned that: ‘personal gain run supreme … high-ranking officials award tenders to their nondeserving and ill-capacitated family members and friends, in clear breach of the code of conduct … we can effectively say there is [no] regard for laid-down policies and procedures, including the basic code of conduct.’ when asked how well senior management worked with the internal audit unit and the audit committee in strengthening controls and improving oversight, participant e dejectedly pointed out that: ‘it’s pointless to have policies and procedures that are on paper but are not enforceable. reports of improper conduct are often made, but they are seldom investigated because of internal power dynamics.’ (male, in mpac) nepotism, favouritism and fraud were observed to be key impediments to effective scm in the metropolitan municipality. it would seem that these negative social and professional attributes actively diminish compliance with and enforcement of scm policies and procedures, leaving the municipality battling with a dysfunctional internal control environment. provincial treasuries and provincial departments of cooperative governance and traditional affairs will thus need to provide support to municipalities with unclean and regressive audit outcomes by supervising their activities and offering technical assistance. correspondingly, municipal accounting officers and senior municipal management ‘should implement proactive approaches to identify risks and ensure that risks are mitigated by implementing preventative controls’. audit action plans must be developed, as per the recommendations of the auditor-general (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:118). skills and capacity inadequate record-keeping of financial and performance information leads to poor municipal audit outcomes. the potential for credible in-year reporting, which aids municipalities in monitoring performance and making well-informed decisions, is weakened. resultantly, deficient internal control systems lead to adverse and disclaimed audit opinions. likewise, senior management vacancy rates, particularly at municipal manager and cfo levels, compromise the internal control environment. as highlighted by the auditor-general (2021:60), vacancies and instability in key positions significantly contribute to municipalities achieving poor audit outcomes. findings from this study similarly showed that the lack of requisite competencies was a confounding factor which derailed the municipality’s scm system, undercutting the quality of services rendered to residents. participants in the study similarly indicated a lack of critical skills and capacity necessary for implementing municipal policy programmes and for effective delivery of services. participants were further of the view that the skills and experience dearth was driven by, inter alia, corruption, nepotism and favouritism during recruitment processes. the following verbatim sentiments exemplify participants’ experiences: ‘the task of ensuring effective and smooth flow of a huge public entity like this require the best talent. unfortunately, that seems to lack here. personnel in some key positions lack experience and others don’t even have the requisite qualifications. … novices are taking up key positions, and they fail to deliver.’ (participant f, male in mpac) another respondent opined that: ‘there is often unsustainably quick staff turnover; the municipality is losing talented and passionate human resources because of many factors.’ (participant g, male in mpac) participant d was of the view that: ‘there is need for internal training of staff to ensure that everyone is able to effectively deliver on their mandate.’ (male in mpac) committed leadership steer municipalities to optimal performance, functionality and success. municipal managers are appointed in terms of section 55(1)(a-q)(2)(a-c), and managers directly accountable to municipal managers are appointed in terms of sections 56(a)(b) and 57(1–7) of the municipal systems act 32 of 2000. such senior management are mainly concerned with the ‘administration and service delivery of the municipality’. the political leadership oversees the functioning of the municipality and takes key decisions, and the provincial leadership and heads of provincial departments are expected to support local government’. senior managers have to continuously improve processes and controls and ensure that municipal performance plans, target objectives, outputs and outcomes are achieved. on the contrary, findings suggest that lack of requisite competencies, experience and skills was an albatross militating against effective scm in the metropolitan municipality. risk management strategies and systems results indicate that another setback to the efficiency of scm in the metropolitan municipality was the issue of poor risk management strategies and systems. a significant number of interviewed municipal officials reiterated that the municipality was being impacted by lack of knowledge and experience on scm risk management. amongst critical issues raised by the participants were issues regarding lack of strategies for ensuring security of supplies and quality control. there was consensus amongst study participants for the need for internal training on scrm. such training would ensure and guarantee security of supply chains, which in turn would enable the municipality to effectively deliver its services. also topical amongst participants was the issue of creating synergies between policy compliance and procurement of good quality products to guarantee effective and sustainable service delivery. indications were that without proper training, experience and knowledge on scm risk management, officials would always be hesitant and fearful to implement decisions. the following expressions give credence to the theme of weak risk management strategies and systems: ‘most people here have not been properly trained on effective and proper risk management requisite for effective public service management, and this affects the smooth flow of operations and service delivery.’ (participant f, male, in mpac) participant g had this to say: ‘it’s difficult sometimes as officials to make prompt and binding decisions on procurement and asset disposal. i think it’s not enough to have a scm policy without subsequent and in-depth training of officials on such policy.’ (female in the internal control) participant c pointed out that: ‘as a public administrator, [i think] the municipality needs a well-diversified network of service providers and suppliers to ensure that if one fails to deliver, then another immediately covers the gap. this will ensure continuous flow and security of service delivery, but very few people have the knowledge and experience to develop and effectively manage such a system here.’ (male, in management) participant i indicated that: ‘in some instances, low quality goods and services are procured on the basis of the pricetag without consideration of sustainability and durability issues. there is need for proper training of personnel in investment assessment.’ (female, internal control unit) evidently, participants consistently pointed to gaps in human resource training, qualification and experience in handling issues of scm risks. this shows that participants were disposed to the conviction that there was a disjuncture between availability of scm risk management policies and actual competencies by personnel to implement such policies in their decision making, which warranted mitigation through robust training. however, a slow response by municipal leadership to strengthen internal controls, vacancies and instability, a culture of lack of consequences and operating without fully integrated information technology systems aggravates the current state of municipal financial performance (auditor-general [south africa] 2021:51–58). this calls for municipalities to adhere to and abide by the standards prescribed by the mfma municipal regulations on minimum competency levels (rsa, government gazette 29967, 2007 as amended 2018). political interference findings of this study revealed that the scm system was hurt by instances of political interference. interviewees expressly indicated that the tender system in the municipality was affected by political interference. interviewees reiterated that there were often contestations between municipal administrators and political leaders, in direct contravention of the municipal systems act (act 32 of 2000), which emphatically forbids political players from interfering with administrative processes and functions of municipalities. results showed that political bickering caused needless delays in the implementation of council resolutions, much to the detriment of service delivery and optimum municipal functionality. results further point to an uneasy administration–politics interface, often exploited in some instances to benefit individual interests and to advance rent-seeking behaviour. indications were that some officials used political camouflage to block certain requisite functions of the municipality, such as regular updating of scm policies and enforcing policy compliance. interviewees were of the view that: ‘it’s difficult to separate the operations of the municipality from politics. some of the key officials are political appointees, and they have more allegiance to partisan politics, without much regard for their contractual mandates.’ (female, scm-demand section) participant k pointed out with exasperation that: ‘contracts and tenders are often subject to political connections and that really affect service delivery … service providers and suppliers who receive tenders as a result of their political connections are often noncompliant with the foundational agreements in their contracts.’ (female, scm-demand section) similarly, participant n pointed out that: ‘you will notice that in contravention of the municipal systems act, councillors and other political outfits unduly influence procurement and general discharge of municipal mandates, much to the detriment of service delivery.’ (female, ordering section) these sentiments point to the fact that political interference negatively affects scm systems in the metropolitan municipality. political interference delays decision making and causes unprocedural awarding of tenders and contracts to ill-capacitated individuals, who fail to deliver as per expectations of the contracts. demir and nyhan (2008:82) explained that in the dichotomy model, politics and administration serve distinct purposes. politics ends with laws and policies through legislation and provides political guidance to public administration. public administration translates value choices into concrete results. the administrative sphere applies specialised knowledge and skills, referred to as expertise, and provides neutral competence to the policy process. whilst political guidance consists of two constructs (policy leadership and legislative oversight) neutral competence consists of three constructs: expertise, neutrality and hierarchy (demir & nyhan 2008:82). elected officials (political sphere) are responsible for determining the vision and mission of a municipality, defining the scope of services, determining the revenue-generating strategies, passing budgets, allocating revenue, directing policies and guiding intermunicipal relations (audette-chapdelaine 2016:457). this expressly requires skills and competencies in strategic management, long-term control of overall performance, a central ethical logic, allocation of financial resources and oversight (bartoli et al. 2011:637). municipal administration occupies the administrative sphere, and expertise largely explains their influence on public policy, as well as the elected officials’ reliance on them for decision making (audette-chapdelaine 2016:457). the political–administrative interface is often a normative debate between dichotomy or complementarity (demir 2009). svara (1999a, 1999b, 2001, 2006) explicitly identified the limits of the dichotomous view and recommended a complementarity model, premised on reciprocal influence and mutual support between politics and administration. discussion, implications and recommendations results of this study suggest that effective scm was being hindered by lack of adequate and well-synchronised internal audit control systems and mechanisms. without a well-established audit control system, the scm system of the investigated metropolitan municipality was unable to timeously detect wasteful expenditure and fraud and had no remedy for these. this finding confirms establishments by abdolmohammadi et al. (2017:49), whose study found that lack of internal audit control mechanisms weakens an organisation’s ability to effectively, timeously and sustainably respond to erratic and irregular scm decisions. previous studies have largely underscored the importance of internal audit control as a requisite financial reporting mechanism. this study has demonstrated that scm (internal audit control) acts as a critical decision-making tool and an invaluable early warning sign for irregular expenditure. in principle, this study has positioned internal audit control as the gatekeeper in all scm issues, and it provides an early warning system in all instances of deviation from established organisational goals, objectives, policies, legislations and standards (vijayakumar & nagaraja 2012:19). taufik (2019:32) and raiborn et al. (2017:67) pertinently wrote that an internal control system enables early detection of financial and operational misconduct and drives an organisation towards good governance and accountability. the study’s findings also established that the metropolitan municipality’s scm system was being negatively impacted by a sequence of nepotism, fraud and corruption by officials. this finding aligns with previous studies by odeku (2018:21) and geldenhuys (2021:45), which established that corruption amongst municipal officials had led to procurement of substandard equipment that failed to warrant sustainable service delivery. similarly, geldenhuys (2021:46) established that corruption, nepotism and fraud negatively impacted scm. as a result of corruption, nepotism and fraud, municipalities have become havens of unfair or irregular practices, including irregular awarding of tenders to companies or entities whose directors are in the employment of the municipalities or to incompetent service providers who lack the skills and capacity to deliver (mahlala & netswera 2020:17). perhaps there is need for metropolitan municipalities to design and implement anti-corruption mechanisms as a strategy of protecting and improving service delivery. findings showed that the operations of scm in the metropolitan municipality were being affected by the lack of experienced and well-skilled human resources. amongst other factors, competency deficiencies in local governments neither undercut the municipality’s ability to plan and implement work plans effectively nor identify strategies for solutions to foresee risks, and this often results in poor service delivery. the problem of lack of well-trained and experienced human resources to run metropolitan municipality services is often attributed to brain drain, lack of internal human resource development programmes and poor employee retention programmes. this in turn is often ascribed to attrition of highly qualified and experienced personnel to greener pastures (bag et al. 2020:44). external factors influencing scm structure are laws, public policies and regulations, which constitute public sector organisations’ political environment (grover & dresner 2022:50). elements of reactive scrm strategies include risk detection, risk assessment and risk mitigation (grover & dresner 2022:52). it is thus prudent that to mitigate the weak and poor scrm, the metropolitan municipality in this case study needs to reactively develop and implement strong scrm strategies. without well-developed and robust scrm strategies, an organisation cannot identify and mitigate disruptions and volatilities in end-to-end supply chains (fan & stevenson 2018:124). of critical implication in the process of scrm is the need to ensure appropriate and progressive analysis, planning and management of activities, including sourcing, procurement and logistics, so as to guarantee the continuity of supplies and minimise disruption to municipal operations (rostamzadeh et al. 2018:5). as recommended by thornhill (2008:506–509), scm systems must shun political interference. ivanov (2018:13) aptly wrote that in many developing countries, politics tend to straddle the administrative space of municipal authorities. sibanda et al. (2020) established that political and administrative wrangling often paralysed service delivery, resulting in rollover of development budgets because of needless squabbling. for olatoye et al. (2019:43), political interference could result in the awarding of contracts and tenders to ill-capacitated contractors who fail to deliver and who often sign off unfinished jobs or supply substandard goods and services. supply chain management occupies an invaluable space in ensuring effective and sustainable service delivery of goods and services. however, the efficiency of the scm system in the metropolitan municipality was extensively compromised by a multiplicity of operational, policy, political and human resource hurdles. it is recommended that authorities ought to restructure systems to eliminate duplicity and improve scm policies and practices in ways that lead to accountable decision-making in the procurement and disposal of goods and services of public interest. accountability is an integral key principle of public administration and sound public financial management and governance. agency theory considers the principal–agent correlation as a relationship of accountability. accountability denotes liability, and those who are responsible are thus accountable. public servants are accountable for public finance management, including regularity, effective control systems and value for money. public sector accountability therefore entails transparency, justice, democracy, efficiency and integrity. as such, ‘administrative liability’ connotes fiscal regularity, process efficiency accountability and programme effectiveness accountability. limitations of the study the qualitative research approach used in this study means that the findings and attendant inferences associated with these are based on the subjective views of study’s participants. as such, findings of this article may not be applicable outside of the specific context of the inquiry or generalised to the whole population. the study sample of 14 participants also stands out as a major impediment to the applicability of the findings outside the scope of the beliefs, experiences, attitudes and perceptions of these specific individuals. it is recommended that future researchers investigate the efficacy of local government strategies for mitigating weak and poor scrm, in local government and recommend reactive and strong scrm strategies. conclusion unequivocally, well-synchronised scm lies at the heart of effective service delivery in municipalities. in its generic form, scm is a process(es) that integrates activities and considerations, designed to ensure seamless flow of goods and services from the point of sourcing, procurement, processing and logistics to delivery of services and goods to intended end-users. the key function of scm managers is maintaining and monitoring healthy supply chain relationships with organisational suppliers and contractors, developing evidence-informed and incisive analysis of supply, demand and production fluctuations, in pursuit of efficient, effective, economical service and value for money (uddin & akhter 2019:68). if the case study metropolitan municipality is to optimally perform their constitutional mandates and create public value, there is need for necessary institutional and systemic transformations and adaptations to scm practices and processes. this calls for leadership commitment, coupled with concerted efforts to transform and overhaul lethargic institutional systems and practices, so as to decisively stamp out scm unethical conduct by public officials and address public financial management hurdles, as well as the root causes of poor audit outcomes. at a systemic level, municipal managers and senior management must proactively implement approaches to scm which identify risks and must by all means ameliorate those risks, amongst other measures, by applying preventative controls and showing zero tolerance to scm transgressions. given that scrm decreases vulnerabilities and mitigates barriers to effective scm, public sector organisations must subsume elements of reactive scrm strategies to include risk detection, risk assessment and risk mitigation in their financial control systems. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.z. conceptualised the study and the methodology, conducted the investigation, analysed the data and wrote the original draft. m.m.s. wrote the manuscript, reviewed and edited the manuscript and supervised b.z. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and publication of this article. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed during this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdolmohammadi, m.j., desimone, s.m, hsieh, t.s. & 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recommendations acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) kutu s. ramolobe department of public management and leadership, faculty of humanities, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation ramolobe, k.s., 2023, ‘the dynamics of traditional leaders’ relationship with municipal councillors and service delivery’, journal of local government research and innovation 4(0), a95. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v4i0.95 review article the dynamics of traditional leaders’ relationship with municipal councillors and service delivery kutu s. ramolobe received: 20 july 2022; accepted: 03 nov. 2022; published: 07 feb. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the power disparity between traditional leaders and councillors is a source of concern for the local government’s developmental focus, as the municipality and traditional leaders do not always agree, even though the service delivery is sorely needed by the people they serve. although many scholars have written about the roles of traditional leaders and municipal councillors, the critical question that remains unanswered is how their relationship works in terms of service delivery. aim: this article theoretically investigates the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors and its adverse impacts on rural development. setting: south african municipalities. methods: the methodology for this article is a literature review guided by a hermeneutic framework. this article adopted a hermeneutic framework to integrate the analysis and interpretation of information collected from the literature. results: the power dynamic between traditional leaders and elected councillors has surfaced as a source of concern, as it has the potential to delay and block development. conclusion: the article concludes that all local government stakeholders must work to strengthen the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors. contribution: this article has the potential to add to theory, policy and practice in terms of strategies to address the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors in local government. keywords: traditional leaders; municipal councillors; hermeneutic framework; rural development; service delivery. introduction the advent of democracy in south africa in 1994 posed numerous challenges for the post-apartheid government, fuelling conflict between traditional leaders and democratic government structures (mawere et al. 2022; sithole & mbele 2008). in some areas, power was and still is contested between local councils and traditional leaders (mashau, mutshaeni & kone 2014). the power disparity between traditional leaders and councillors is a concern for the local government’s developmental focus; even though service delivery is urgently needed by the people they serve, the municipality and traditional authorities are occasionally unable to agree. additionally, since the country’s independence in 1994, there has been a heated debate about whether indigenous authority in south africa is still important and relevant (koenane 2017). traditional leaders, according to those opposed to it, are remnants of the previous government system (colonial and apartheid systems) as well as a tool for indirect authority. as a result, they are clearly inconsistent with a contemporary democratic society (baldwin 2016). scholars such as mawere et al. (2022), van der waldt et al. (2007) and koenane (2017), however, believe that traditional leaders should be recognised as a special interest group that must be included in democratic governance. mawere et al. (2022) assert that traditional leadership was democratic in its own right, based on what we now call consensus. furthermore, van der waldt et al. (2007) agree that traditional leaders ought to be acknowledged as a special interest group that deserves to be consulted and actively involved in local administration rather than as ordinary citizens with a uniform democratic system. the passage of legislation establishing a reformed local government system and the demarcation of municipalities in the 2000 municipal elections have all fuelled controversy concerning traditional leaders’ role in governance (rugege 2003). during the first decade of democracy, traditional leaders expressed concerns about the recognition of their powers and authority in the interim constitution of the republic of south africa act 1993 (george 2010). in response, the south african government recognised the importance of traditional leaders by including provisions in the new south african constitution of 1996 (hereafter referred to as the constitution) to emphasise the significance of the institution of traditional leaders (khan & lootvoet 2001). however, neither the constitution nor other policy documents make clear what function traditional leaders should fulfil in local and provincial government institutions (koenane 2017). the lack of any policy documents – including the south african constitution – that discuss the function of traditional leadership in contemporary, democratic south africa is problematic. chapter 12 of the south african constitution provides evidence of this, downgrading the institution of traditional leadership to a minor position in the post-apartheid government (koenane 2017). the purpose of this article is to analyse the influence of traditional leadership’ relationships with municipal councillors on service delivery. according to bekke, toonen and perry (1996), cited in baloyi (2016:32), ‘poor relationships between traditional leaders and municipal councils are due to the degree of representation, with respect to societal opinions and the degree of interest representation’. mashau et al. (2014), on the other hand, posit that the authority and responsibilities of municipalities in rural regions often overlap with those of traditional authorities. therefore, traditional leaders are concerned that, because local governments are merely operational entities, they will lose influence, implying the end of traditional authorities (rugege 2003). furthermore, some local council leaders believe they are more influential than traditional leaders, whereas traditional leaders consider themselves to be born royalty, superior to local council leaders, and as such, born leaders (mashau et al. 2014). in addition, traditional institutions are not responsible for strategic community development mandates, which are placed in the hands of the three spheres of government. as a result, traditional leaders find themselves in a less important position than their counterparts in the development regime. according to rugege (2003), traditional leaders are unhappy with the increased authority municipal councils currently hold over them. municipal governments, unlike traditional governments, have financial resources and the ability to implement service delivery. ultimately, the power of the purse determines strategic community direction (kanyane 2017). this literature review article aims to analyse the influence of traditional leadership’s relationships with municipal councillors on service delivery by analysing previously published research on traditional leaders’ relationships with municipal councillors and the implications for service delivery. finally, the article will contribute to theory, policy and practice in terms of strategies to address the place, functions and relationships between traditional leaders and municipal councillors. the following section of this article discusses the theoretical framework, methodology, systematic review of related literature and data discussion. this article concludes with the study’s main conclusion, recommendations and advice to future researchers. theoretical framework the cooperation theory served as the basis for the article’s analysis of the interaction between municipal councillors and traditional leaders and how that relationship influences the provision of services. this claim is supported by the fact that both municipal councillors and traditional leaders are legally permitted to represent the same rural populations, emphasising the necessity of their co-existence as well as the requirement that they act honourably and respect one another’s standing (mawere et al. 2022). the cooperation theory tackles the conflict that frequently exists between what is best for each individual actor in the near term and what is best for the group in the long term (axelrod 2000). cooperation theory ‘applies in symmetric structures where actors occupy mutually dependent positions that are matched by reciprocity expectations among peers’ (catturani & sacchetti 2017, cited in mawere et al. 2022:264). traditional leaders and municipalities (local government) must work together to achieve cooperative governance in this context. according to knoetze (2014:173), ‘their relationship must be guided by the cooperative guidance principles outlined in the constitution and the white paper on local government’. the cooperation between traditional leaders and municipality needs to be founded on the values of respect for one another and acknowledgment of their status, as well as on the ideas of cooperative governance. additionally, inkosi1 luthuli had the wisdom to stress the necessity of proper cooperation between traditional leaders and elected public representatives, with the former never losing sight of their subjects’ interests (zuma 2010, cited in tshitangoni & francis 2018:72). traditional leaders and municipal council members would collaborate in the following areas: the involvement of traditional leaders in the national assembly or in the process of provincial legislature through the national or provincial house of traditional leaders (mashau et al. 2014). ward councillors and traditional leaders must collaborate at the municipal level, particularly through participation in structures such as school governing bodies, integrated development plan (idp) forums, ward committees, and other local participatory structures that will allow them to have an impact on decisions (mashau et al. 2014). municipalities (local government) and the institution of traditional leadership both have unique but connected and interdependent roles that ought to be led by norms for cooperative governance to prevent conflicts and rivalry. to avoid unnecessarily inciting tension and conflict between traditional leaders and governmental structures, it is necessary to grant traditional leaders the proper authority, role and function within their area, while local government functions are handled by democratically elected individuals (mawere et al. 2022). sharma (2005) states that local government service management must include administrative staff serving traditional leadership councils. according to sharma (2005), integration is essential because it would ensure consistency in the provision of services. methods the key themes were identified through a review of the literature. there is a substantial body of literature on the topic of traditional leadership and municipal councillors. the hermeneutic framework was used to integrate the analysis and interpretation of the literature as well as the collection, planning, implementation and systematic recording of the data for the study. as a theory of interpretation that addresses issues of textual meaning, the hermeneutics philosophy (gadamer 1976; ricoeur 1981) offers a rich theoretical foundation for comprehending and outlining the literature review process. furthermore, hermeneutics provides a methodology for conducting literature reviews by providing principles for developing understanding of texts (boell & cecez-kecmanovic 2014). an initial search was conducted using electronic bibliographic databases and databases from various disciplines and websites such as google scholar, journal storage (jstor), africa online journals and applied social sciences index and abstracts (assia). using the terms ‘traditional leadership’, ‘service delivery’, ‘local government’ and ‘municipal councillors’, a search was conducted. these terms were chosen to represent the geographical area (municipality), the influential factors (service delivery) and the population (traditional leaders and municipal councillors). variations of the words were used to gain access to all relevant literature. the inclusion criteria were reports on the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors on service delivery. papers that did not have a primary focus on traditional leadership were excluded. several of the references used in the initial texts were also evaluated for their relevance to this topic in order to expand the relevant literature for review. systematic review of related literature this section examines the literature on the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors gathered from various disciplines and websites such as google scholar, jstor, africa online journals, and assia. the nature of the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors although many scholars have written about the roles of traditional leaders and elected municipal councillors (dlungwana 2004; george 2010; nekhavhambe 2014; selepe 2009), the critical question that remains unanswered is how traditional leaders’ relationships with municipal councillors work in terms of delivery of the services. this article contends that in order to comprehend the relationship between traditional leaders and councillors, one must first understand how they function. traditional leaders and municipal councillors are both the people’s representatives, particularly in terms of their developmental needs. traditional leaders make decisions on behalf of the people they represent, and they also ensure that the interests of the people are equitably represented (enwereji & uwizeyimana 2020). consequently, according to history, traditional leadership was the earliest form of government in communal regions before the colonial invasion (zamisa & mutereko 2019). in the republic of south africa, the institution of traditional leadership served as an administrative and political hub for rural communities (madumo 2015). traditional leaders play an important role in rural development. it is also worth noting that traditional leaders are an integral part of rural communities and have a much better understanding of the people at the grassroots level (tshitangoni & francis 2018). following the implementation of the new constitutional order in 1994, the south african government underwent fundamental changes. in accordance with the new constitutional mandate, all spheres of government were transformed (maloba 2015). on the potential for a cooperative relationship between local government and traditional leadership, the white paper on local government of 1998 (rsa 1998b) made recommendations. traditional leaders were able to take part in council discussions about matters pertaining to their communities’ needs and interests. the white paper on local government highlights some of the development roles that fall under the purview of traditional leaders, including offering advice on land distribution and conflict settlement, promoting regional development before the government and other organisations, supporting community involvement in regional development and offering advice on business ventures. the following sections of the article discuss the nature of traditional leaders’ relationships with municipal councillors in terms of social, political and legislative relations. legislative relations dlungwana (2004), george (2010), khunou (2011), zingisa (2013) and mashau et al. (2014) point out that there are several legislative guidelines that recognise traditional leaders and municipal councillors. among others, the regulatory framework, which underpins the traditional leaders and the municipal councillors, includes the constitution of south africa, 1996 (rsa 1996), the local government: municipal structures act no. 117 of 1998 (rsa 1998a), the white paper on local government of 1998 (rsa 1998b), the white paper on traditional leadership and governance of 2003 (rsa 2003a) and the traditional leadership and governance framework act 41 of 2003 (rsa 2003b). section 5 of the municipal system act, 2000 states that a good relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors is determined by mutual respect and the recognition of the respected parties’ roles and functions. to add to that, section 81(3) of the municipal structures act, 1998a mandates that municipal councillors consult traditional leaders before making any decisions that may have an impact on the community. this gives the traditional leader the opportunity to express their viewpoint on a given issue. traditional authorities ‘retain a constitutional right to be consulted on all issues that have bearing on land under their control’ (pycroft 2002:121). through the councillors, the municipality should consult the traditional leaders regarding all implemented development programmes. additionally, the south african constitution 1996, the national house of traditional leaders act (no. 10 of 1997), the white paper on traditional leadership and governance of 2003 and the municipal systems act (no. 32 of 2000) outline traditional leaders’ responsibilities but do not define their boundaries or how they should work with democratically elected political officeholders (cele 2013). according to enwereji and uwizeyimana (2020), this has caused confusion and/or difficulties as the abovementioned acts were propagated throughout the country, including rural areas led by traditional authorities. municipalities in south africa were categorised and the number was reduced as a result of the municipal demarcation act no. 27 of 1998 (rsa 1998c) and the municipal demarcation board’s decisions. as a result, local governments became stronger and had greater administrative control over their regions. the authority of the traditional leaders was undoubtedly impacted by the decline in the number of municipalities. nevertheless, sutcliffe (2001) noted in the municipal demarcation board’s annual report of that year that more than 100 consultations with traditional leaders – individually or collectively – were held. the president asked that the board disregard the alignments of the traditional areas, which prompted additional meetings with traditional leaders across the nation (sinthumule 2021). it was claimed that the new municipal boundaries occasionally crossed the traditional tribal land and that the municipality was duty-bound to consult the traditional authorities on matters affecting their areas of jurisdiction because the demarcation of land affected the land owned by the traditional authorities (behr, haer & kromrey 2018; hull et al. 2016). cele (2011:13) provides evidence in support of the aforementioned claim, demonstrating how planning should be seen as a crucial element that must guide the equal commitment of traditional leaders and council members to deliver services, prioritise growth and, in the case of land, administer. furthermore, a potential cooperative relationship between the local government and the traditional leadership was also suggested in the white paper on local government (rsa 1998b). this enables the traditional leaders to take part in council discussions about issues pertaining to their communities’ needs and interests. social relations section 5(1) of the traditional leadership and government framework act (rsa 2003b) requires both the national and provincial governments to encourage collaboration between municipalities and traditional councils. as a result, traditional leaders are encouraged to participate in municipal council and other governmental structures. traditional leaders, on the other hand, will be bound by the councillors’ code of conduct if they participate in the municipal council (sefala 2007). the white paper on local government of 1998 established a municipal government system where traditional leaders should play a role in service delivery to communities (mathonsi & sithole 2017). however, the elected municipal councillors will have an advantage over the traditional leaders in matters affecting the rural local communities over which the traditional leaders have authority, because the councillors, in most cases, exclude the traditional leaders from matters affecting their communities (de kadt & larreguy 2018; nicholson 2006). in this regard, traditional leaders have expressed concern about their relationship with municipal councillors. they believe that municipal councillors are undermining their authority by implementing development plans in local rural communities that fall under the traditional leader’s jurisdiction without consulting them (kanyane 2007; myeni 2005; pycroft 2002). according to mafunisa (2019): [t]he rivalry between these two institutions stems from their competition for recognition of which institution performs the best, rather than sharing responsibilities and assisting each other in reaching the same aim of serving and developing the lives of the people. traditional leaders are particularly concerned about the approach to community development that involves invading traditional issues by ignoring them and pursuing development programs in their area without proper consultation. (p. 7) political relations during the apartheid and colonial political regimes, traditional leaders had many advantages. according to fox and wissink (1994:117), traditional leaders performed many duties under south africa’s previous political system, including serving the interests of their subjects and keeping themselves up to date on tribal affairs, and traditional leaders were expected to consider the grievances and problems of their people personally. today, the relationship between politicians and traditional leaders is influenced by the organisation or political party to which the traditional leader belongs (de kadt & larreguy 2018). according to myeni (2005), traditional leaders who are aligned with the ruling parties within their jurisdictional areas have good relationships with them, but only under certain conditions. traditional leaders are not always aligned with the politics of the ruling parties, whoever they may be. in this sense, traditional leaders are apolitical. one of the major conditions is that the political parties are not allowed to have meetings at the traditional authority offices. this suggests that the traditional leaders wield substantial power in their jurisdictions, particularly in the rural areas; hence, there are conditions set in their relationship with the political parties. this argument aligns with chakaipa’s (2010) assumption that traditional leaders have significant influence in rural areas, which is frequently recognised by politicians of all persuasions. the second condition put forth by the traditional leaders was that political leaders would not be permitted to invite people to the party meetings using traditional structure representatives (myeni 2005). it has been debated whether or not traditional leaders should get involved in politics because the institution of traditional leadership has lost credibility as a result of some traditional leaders’ involvement in politics. the local government: municipal structures act 117 of 1998 permits traditional leaders, who should not make up more than 20% of the municipal council members and who are identified by the member of the executive council (mec) for local government (hereafter the mec), to attend and participate in a municipal council’s meetings. since they are not full municipal council members, these individuals may participate during discussions but cannot vote. according to mathenjwa and makama (2017): [t]raditional leaders’ influence over council decisions may be reduced if they are allowed to participate in meetings but without voting privileges. furthermore, the authority granted to the mec to determine which traditional leaders are eligible to serve on a municipal council may clash with the status provided to the institution of traditional leaders by the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996. (p. 201) discussion as previously stated, the south african constitution recognises municipal councillors as well as the institution, status and function of traditional leadership. this article analyses the influence of traditional leadership’ relationships with municipal councillors on service delivery. the issue of the dysfunctional relationship between councillors and traditional leaders is now one that affects the entire continent rather than just south africa (mathenjwa & makama 2017). according to chigwata (2016), the persistence of traditional leadership alongside democratically elected rural governments in zimbabwe has led to competing claims of legitimacy, mistrust and an unfavourable relationship between traditional leaders and councillors (chigwata 2016). the power dynamic between traditional leaders and elected councillors could be a source of worry since it can impede and block development when traditional leaders and councillors do not agree on their roles and responsibilities. conflicts and disagreements obstruct rural service delivery and development (kanyane 2007). despite the current state of the relationship between councillors and traditional leaders, the current position of traditional leaders in municipal councils may harm rather than improve the relationship because traditional leaders are required by law to serve in local government (mathenjwa & makama 2017). traditional leaders are not represented in the municipality’s important committees or in the whole council. as a result, they cannot help with service delivery issues (reddy & shembe 2016). this lack of representation for traditional leaders is a sign that elected officials and traditional leadership have not been merged in a smooth manner (reddy & shembe 2016). additionally, despite the fact that traditional leadership is acknowledged by south african law, modernity and an increase in rural–urban mobility have gradually reduced traditional authority’ relevance and sovereignty (kanyane 2017). as a result, traditional leaders in south africa feel that their authority has been weakened. furthermore, the country’s democratic transition and the creation of local councils and governments have added to their sense of vulnerability. every square inch of land in south africa, with the exception of national parks, lies within the boundaries of local councils, which are not always defined along the traditional leaders’ jurisdiction of power (mashau et al. 2014). cele (2013) claimed that in addressing the areas of contention, traditional leaders and municipal councillors need to collaborate on planning in order to achieve cooperation. traditional leaders and council members should share an equal commitment to delivering services and prioritising development, and planning should no longer be seen as an activity separate from them (mashau et al. 2014). moreover, political will could make the traditional leadership institutions operate and make a significant contribution to the creation and execution of policies in this nation. the institution of the traditional leadership ought to be allowed to lead in cultural and customary practices, and government structures must support it. political leaders’ attitudes should change, which would result in clearer policies promoting rather than marginalising traditional leaders (koenane 2017). lastly, according to sections 5(1), (2)(a)–(b) and (3) of the traditional leadership and governance framework amendment (rsa 2003b), by means of legislation or other actions, a collaboration between municipalities and traditional councils must be promoted. additionally, the white paper on local government (1998:15) gave recommendations on how local government and traditional leadership may work together. it allowed traditional leaders to participate in council sessions on issues concerning the needs and interests of their communities. the white paper on local government highlighted some of traditional leaders’ development roles, which include making recommendations on land allocations and resolving disputes; lobbying governments and other agencies for development in their areas; facilitating community involvement in development; and making recommendations on commercial activities. therefore, any cooperation between a municipality and a traditional authority must be built on the values of cooperative government, as well as respect for one another and understanding of the status. conclusion and recommendations the article validates the importance of traditional leaders’ relationships with municipal councillors in local government. the significance of this article is that it proved that there is an underlying problem regarding how traditional leaders’ relationships with municipal councillors work in terms of service delivery. traditional leaders and the municipal councillors both have roles and powers to exercise in their jurisdictions. however, this power relation of the traditional leaders and the municipal councillors is a potential cause for concern. at some point, the municipality and the traditional leaders will not agree, while the community desperately expects service delivery. furthermore, the article has identified some of the most significant challenges and barriers that traditional leaders and municipal councillors face in their relationship. one of the challenges is the failure of the pieces of legislation and policies in describing the roles of the traditional leaders. for instance, chapter 12 of the constitution of south africa, 1996, states that the institution, statuses and roles of the traditional leaders, according to the customary law, are recognised, subject to the constitution. however, the constitution of 1996 is not clear on the roles and the responsibilities of the traditional leaders, while the roles and responsibilities of the municipal councillors are clearly defined by the supreme law of south africa. furthermore, the article recommends that, in order to improve the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors, legislative frameworks and policies must address the roles and functions of traditional leaders in local government. municipalities must implement section 5(1) of the traditional leadership and governance framework act of 2003, which states that ‘the national government and all provincial governments must promote collaboration between municipalities and traditional councils through legislative or other means’. it is therefore incumbent upon all stakeholders at the local sphere of government to make efforts to promote the relationship between traditional leaders and municipal councillors. the article has identified some important future research directions. these would include conducting an empirical study to investigate the impact of traditional leaders’ and elected municipal councillors’ communication channels in rural governance. another important avenue would be the inclusion of traditional leaders in 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may 2022, from http://vital.seals.ac.za:8080/vital/access/services/download/vital:8262/sourcepdf. footnote 1. isizulu for ‘chief’. abstract introduction research questions background to local government leadership and service delivery in local government level leadership challenges at the local government level leadership characteristics theoretical frameworks research methodology sample or target population measuring instrument data analysis data presentation, analysis and interpretation of results ward councillors community members’ data analysis recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) zamokuhle mbandlwa department of economics, durban university of technology, durban, south africa syden mishi department of public management, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa citation mbandlwa, z. & mishi, s., 2020, ‘ward councillors’ leadership characteristics and their impact on service delivery: case of ethekwini metropolitan municipality, south africa, in 2018’, journal of local government research and innovation 1(0), a5. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.5 original research ward councillors’ leadership characteristics and their impact on service delivery: case of ethekwini metropolitan municipality, south africa, in 2018 zamokuhle mbandlwa, syden mishi received: 09 july 2019; accepted: 06 dec. 2019; published: 03 feb. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: a municipality is considered as the first level of government that is closer to the people and is expected to deliver to the needs of the people. political leadership is provided by elected ward councillors with the responsibility of delivering the public services at the local government level and also entrusted with control of the resources of local government. aim: the aim of this article was to evaluate the leadership characteristics of ward councillors and determine how such characteristics influence public service delivery in the ethekwini municipality. setting: the individual leadership characteristics of ward councillors contribute to how decisions are made at the local government level and ethekwini metropolitan municipality as the third largest metropolitan municipality in the country is viewed as a strategic municipality. methods: this article adopted the form of a descriptive case study which employed a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. the study found that the leadership rating score, education and experience are key factors in good leadership (experienced less or no service delivery protest). a regression variable plot was used to analyse community members’ responses on rating each ward councillor. results: the results show that lower levels of leadership characteristics are marred by numerous service delivery protests, and leadership characteristics increase chances of getting service delivery response albeit taking a u-shape. conclusion: it is recommended that ward councillors undergo a background check and enrol for leadership training programmes immediately when they are elected as ward councillors. keywords: leadership; characteristics; politics; challenges; principles; governance. introduction leadership shapes institutions and, as a result, the development of societies. understanding challenges bedevilling societies and finding solutions to the challenges require an understanding of the characteristics of those in leadership. assessing leadership characteristics is crucial in any society or institutional set-up because leaders are strongly affected by their character. ward councillors are supposed to be the exemplary individuals in a society, and it is important to have councillors who have necessary leadership characteristics. sharma and rai (2003:393) argued that past research has shown that leadership characteristics have a direct influence on individual performance in leadership. today’s society is marred by social ills of corruption, nepotism, theft, bribery, murder and lack of adequate service delivery commensurate with the societal needs of employment, poverty eradication and inequality reduction, amongst others. the phenomenon is across the globe, with the source of such pointing towards the character of those in leadership (gupta & van wart 2015: 5). south africa is not an exception to this and has had a significant share of the problems which result in service delivery protests (drennan, mcconnell & stark 2014:8) as well as politically motivated killings (du toit & manganyi 2016:34). it is at this backdrop that this article investigates the leadership characteristics of ward councillors in one of the eight metropolitans in south africa (i.e. ethekwini municipality, the third largest municipality after the city of cape town) (statsa 2011). this metropolitan municipality is home to the majority of politically motivated killings in the recent past (de haas 2016: 43). this study hypothesises that with councillors having the right leadership characteristics in general and considered so in the eyes of the community, strong inter-relationships will be built and utilised for the development of the society. however, it has been observed that councillors sometimes fail to protect community members who are not interested in embarking on a protest, and ward councillors fail to play their inter-relationship-building role between the municipality and the community (thornhill & dlamini 2012:38). a study conducted by the institute of security studies (iss 2014:15) showed that the public protests in many communities across south africa are related to the leadership (or lack of it) of ward councillors, especially concerning their leadership characteristics and their role in service delivery. the iss recorded that two-thirds of protests have been violent and mainly in the metropolitan areas. public protests have the potential of turning into a revolution as this problem is linked with the frustrations of empty promises of service delivery or the failure of ward councillors to provide an effective leadership role (hough 2008:08). councillors have the authority over community government programmes and are in a position to gather information around the aspirations of society and community to the government for programmes and policy development. their efficacy as leaders is therefore of paramount importance. afegbua and adejuwon (2012:141) suggested that most african countries are suffering from politico-economic crises, and the problems are caused by the political, social and economic instability in our societies. this seems to have resulted in leaders perceiving that being in leadership assists them to improve their lives economically. low levels of accountability of african leaders in many african countries have resulted in political instability and violence. it is imperative to note that a leader’s popularity rests on how the society he or she is leading perceives him or her: this is so because people under the leadership choose reaction (protest or support) depending on how they perceive their leaders as making effort towards helping the society to develop. the aim of this study was to assess ward councillors’ leadership characteristics and their impact on service delivery use – a case of ethekwini municipality, kwazulu-natal province, south africa. ethekwini is the third largest metropolitan municipality, in terms of population size based on census data, after the city of johannesburg in gauteng with 4 434 827 people and the city of cape town in western cape province with 3 740 026 people. our study area, ethekwini, kwazulu-natal, has a population of 3 442 361 people. the specific objectives of the study are as the following: to examine the leadership characteristics of ward councillors in ethekwini municipality to identify the factors that hinder ward councillors’ leadership performance on their duties in ethekwini municipality to determine the impact of ward councillors’ leadership skills on service delivery to suggest steps that can be followed to improve the leadership of ward councillors in ethekwini municipality. research questions the primary research question for this study is as follows: what is the ward councillor’s leadership style and what is its effect on service delivery? the sub-questions are as follows: what are the common leadership characteristics amongst ward councillors in ethekwini municipality? what factors affect ward councillors to successfully do their jobs and provide effective leadership? what impact do the leadership characteristics of ward councillors have on the process of service delivery? what steps can be followed to improve the leadership skills of ward councillors? background to local government leadership and service delivery in local government level south africa has a history of colonialism, with a segregatory system of apartheid. the systems that have been used in local government level have changed over recent years in an effort to undo the past injustices. on the contrary, culture, power and gender politics has been affecting the local leadership and the service delivery in almost all the local governments or municipalities. culture, gender and power battle affects service delivery because in some cases programme officers or partners in local government are concerned that promotion of gender equality would interfere with local culture and therefore feel that gender equality should not be promoted for ethical reasons. in other cases, the cultural values of a particular area are described as a major constraint on efforts for gender equality, and therefore, action is considered to be difficult for practical reasons (gender development 2017:03). morell, jewkes and lindegger (2012:17) state that the apartheid era has created a certain perception about who must be in leadership of government and the attributes required from leaders. apartheid government did not create equal opportunities for men and women, and government positions were categorised according to the gender of individuals. local government leaders were the eyes of the people in the local government in terms of ensuring that all public funds are used effectively; however, services were not delivered equally to the societies because of race segregation. in correcting such past injustices requires leadership that is upright and possesses good characteristics. there has been criticism regarding the cadre deployment focus at the expense of communities that are to be led. in that regard, attributes of good leaders may be ignored at the expense of service delivery. the framework of the local government level requires special skills and expertise because the local government is the legally established institution entrusted with the responsibility to deliver services to the people. institutions take the form of the elected council representing the municipality, and each ward is represented by a ward councillor (bratton 2012:517). institutions are strong and effective in relation to strength and effectiveness of those elected into leadership positions. afegbua and adejuwon (2012:141) suggested that most african countries are suffering from politico-economic crises, and the problems are caused by the political, social and economic instability in our societies. this seems to have resulted in leaders perceiving that being in leadership position assists them to improve their lives economically. low levels of accountability of african leaders in many african countries have resulted in political instability and violence. in south africa, local government (which is also known as the council) is responsible for handling community needs, such as waste collection, public recreation facilities, and town planning and infrastructure development. a related structure is that of australia, with their policy (australian gazette 2015:144) stating that the government of australia has categorised the local government levels into cities, shires, towns or municipalities; however, the role and the manner in which leadership is elected are the same, and this type of government level requires a high level of discipline. generally, local governments are mandated to solve the problems of the local community, but it has been discovered that there is a lack of good leadership characteristics amongst the local leadership, which creates a gap in service delivery (public service commission 2014:02). leadership characteristics are essential for the leaders as they must have the ability to make change happen. these are defined as the qualities that are essential to ensure that leaders achieve a fine balance between traits, abilities, behaviours, sources of power and aspects of the situation. these characteristics become the determining factor of the ability of leaders to influence followers and accomplish group objectives. leadership characteristics assist leaders to begin with the end in mind and to formulate an idea and then work through that idea to commit every thought, feeling and emotion (marilyn 2010:01). hambleton (2016:10), a political analyst, argued that although power has been given to local government leadership, the indication of a lack of good leadership characteristics creates the possibility of moving power away from local communities. the most lacking characteristic in local leadership is becoming a convenor and a place shaper for local services. the lack of effective communication between the councils and their citizens in england is a problem similar to what south african local government councils are facing currently. james and cox (2007:10) who stated that community members have to be more actively engaged by their leaders and that leadership must have certain skills to empower their respective communities defined the expected leadership characteristics of ward councillors in england. on the other hand, james and cox (2007:11) added that leadership should not promise too much because they end up ‘burning out’ after failing to deliver. the role of councillors in community development is widely recognised by james and cox (2007:11), who stipulated that ward councillors must share their values with the community and that they should be skilled advocates for the community. councillors should also be able to speak freely about issues affecting their communities and be able to make informed decisions. in the case of uganda, asimo (2016:02) highlighted that local council leaders (councillors) are a link between the grassroots and national leadership levels. asimo (2016:02) further acknowledged that their duties, as stipulated in the 1997 local government act (as amended) of uganda, include to legislate, consult with citizens on their development needs and possible solutions, and monitor government-funded development programmes. this is based on the understanding that a councillor is elected to serve the constituency, and the councillor therefore relates better to the needs of the society because they are better positioned to make decisions on behalf of the people. this is the main ideology behind a decentralisation policy. nkwana (2012:155) argued that the local government is the most important government level amongst the three government levels, namely, the national, provincial and local government. all citizens in all countries rely on getting services at the local government level because it is the government closest to the people and is regarded as the face of service delivery. as reported by the south african local government association (2016:12), municipal councillors have to provide an effective leadership role for the municipality in order to strengthen service delivery and to economically guide the municipality in day-to-day activities. the legislative framework contains the leadership developments of ward councillors in the municipality. it is more important to make or suggest relevant recommendations to assist ward councillors to work more effectively towards achieving community objectives. local leadership is also important because the development of communities in a local government rely mostly on the ward councillors (paradza, mokwena & richards 2010:06). therefore, it is imperative for ward councillors to have good leadership skills and possess the required leadership characteristics. overall, all countries need good leadership characteristics for the effective well-being of the local citizens through sustainable local economic development. after all, the handbook for municipal councillors indicates the broad mandate of local government officials as the one promoting developmental local government and facilitating socio-economic development at the local municipal level (paradza et al. 2010:08). in south africa, party politics has played a significant role in how councillors are being elected to represent their communities, irrespective of the democratic processes the community prefers. the political and electoral systems in south africa are democratic systems, but community members do not have an influence on who the political party decides to deploy to power because citizens vote for the party and not for the individuals. the south african electoral system of voting for a party and not directly voting for an individual favours the political party’s leadership because the political party leadership can decide to deploy, recall and redeploy at any time without the approval of voters. the community members, the voters, feel betrayed by the system because they have no control over the behaviour of the people they have voted for. in the south african electoral system, half of the councillors in the municipality are elected through a proportional representation ballot, and the other half of the councillors are elected as ward councillors by residents in each ward (helen suzman foundation 2014:15). this particular electoral system deprives community members of electing their own preferred candidates to represent them because the political parties use a different system of electing people, one that will represent the interests of the political party and the community votes for the candidate that has been endorsed by the party. the community does not have a chance to ascertain the leadership ability of the deployed person which creates a communication gap (education and training unit 2011:09). service delivery remains one of the most important aspects that affect many communities in the country. the services provided to communities do not meet the prescribed requirements of the municipal documents, including the white paper on transformation of service delivery (thornhill & dlamini 2012:41). the first port of call is the leadership characteristics of local leaders like councillors, who are there to ensure that their communities are well serviced and that the desires and aspirations of the populace are attended to. it is acknowledged that councillors are not directly involved in service delivery. however, they play a critical role as the interface between residents and the municipal administration. research has shown that in local areas where councillors effectively and openly oversee municipal progress and constantly update their subjects, residents appear to be more satisfied with service delivery or have an understanding of the challenges the municipality is facing (paradza et al. 2010:03). this has an overall effect of low protests and a very active citizenry engagement. effective communication skill is a key characteristic that all councillors should possess. furthermore, if councillors are active and effective, municipal administration realises that they can be held to account and thus improve their services to the residents. public service delivery protests in south africa have been associated with a lack of adequate skills and competencies from the authorities to take firm decisions (de wet 2017:04). public protests have been prolonged and have escalated into a situation that cannot be controlled and which becomes more violent because of limited leadership skills of ward councillors to handle the situation. burger (2009:155) argued that the primary reason for public protests is dissatisfaction with the service delivery of basic municipal services, such as running water, electricity and toilets (especially in the informal settlements); poor infrastructure; and a lack of houses. the sociopolitical instability has played a significant role in the contradictions between councillors and the municipality. the politicians, who will be appointed after the elections, including the ward councillors, need to take the responsibility for the promises they make and the expectations they create. the problem of fulfilling promises could arise because of lack of experience, low literacy levels of ward councillors and their unwillingness to work for the communities that elected them. a study conducted by the iss (iss 2014:15) showed that the public protests in many communities across south africa are related to the leadership of ward councillors, especially concerning their leadership characteristics and their role in service delivery. the iss recorded that two-thirds of protests have been violent and mainly in the metropolitan areas. public protests have the potential of turning into a revolution as this problem is linked with the frustrations of empty promises of service delivery or the failure of ward councillors to provide an effective leadership role (hough 2008:08).an understanding of how to utilise the available resources at their disposal also plays a major role in service delivery. ethekwini municipality has been a victim of serious public protests in the past whereby community members even decided to close big national roads in the ethekwini municipality, such as the n2. the residents blockaded the n2 highway by burning tyres while demonstrating over a number of housing issues (mthethwa 2015:01). leadership challenges at the local government level the collins english dictionary (2013:19) clearly defines leadership as an activity that is applied by an individual who is categorised as the leader. a leader is regarded as the person who has the authority to make decisions on behalf of other people and show the direction that has to be followed. on the contrary, reh (2016:05) argues that leadership is the timeless practice in such a way that a leader becomes a leader even if the person is no longer given a leadership responsibility within a group or party. leaders are different from the general people because of the situations and conditions that require someone to take the leadership responsibility. leaders have a vision to advance the interests of other people and have plans in place to address challenges. jooste (2016:25) discovered that leadership is a complex phenomenon that cannot be compared with any activities. further arguments on leadership are directed towards political leaders who have a certain responsibility to guide and protect the interests of the society as a whole regardless of the preferred political parties by the community. the ethekwini metropolitan municipality is not an exception to what is expected from the political leaders, especially ward councillors, as the first level of the government which is closer to the people or community. leadership skills and leadership qualities are very important for the local leaders to avoid conflict within the community itself and the conflict between the ward councillor and the community. the key concepts provide reviews conducted on various theories and empirical literature related to public management, leadership and leadership characteristics. the theoretical study and empirical studies are used to provide more clarity and discuss the leadership characteristics and challenges facing local government leadership. the reviewed literature summarises the overall challenges that the country has with regard to leadership characteristics and includes the situation in other countries. leaders think differently, not like the general population, and find solutions to problems before any damage. leaders have to address certain questions, such as ‘what is leadership?’, ‘why is it considered a difficult task?’, ‘how does an individual become a successful leader?’ and ‘what are the characteristics that build a successful leader?’. leadership challenges have not been a south african problem only. this is a problem that many countries in the world are facing. however, africa has been a historical victim of lacking good leadership characteristics from its leaders. poncian and mgaya (2015:111) argued that many leaders in african countries, and particularly at local government levels, acted based on public opinions rather than on planned programmes to improve the living conditions of society. african leaders in democratic governments are trying to emulate western governance models instead of learning from what african leaders in the pre-colonial period did. the rise in the population rate in africa has been viewed as one of the reasons that african leaders fail to provide clear leadership direction to advance the interests of the people. lagging political and institutional reforms have been characterised by political fragmentation, recurring conflicts and authoritarian rule that have affected the development of democratic institutions and economic reform. everyone in society belongs to the local government level and a rise in the population becomes a direct burden for the ward councillors because people expect the supply of service delivery from ward councillors (abed & davoodi 2003:08). local government leaders have also failed to reduce the rate of domestic violence in many communities. furthermore, and because of these problems, a large percentage of people decided to migrate from their original homes and move to urban areas and live in the slums, with some living on the streets (statistics south africa 2011:12). leadership characteristics spears (2010:26–29) stated that the leadership role should be given to people who are servant leaders and that it begins with a natural feeling of passion to serve people. spears (2010:27) further emphasised some of the relevant and important leadership characteristics, which include listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building the community. these leadership characteristics must embrace and complement each other in order to bring about effective service delivery. there are a number of leadership characteristics needed by councillors to fulfil the mandate given to them by communities. however, the following characteristics are perceived as key characteristics: listening to and involving the local communities – councillors need to be in touch with all parts of their community. building vision and direction – effective community leadership involves securing the commitment of partners to deliver a shared vision for their area and also to shape it in the right direction. working effectively in partnerships. making things happen – community leadership involves more than having a sense of direction. standing up for communities – local people want to know that the people they elected are standing up for them. empowering local communities – councillors must create an environment in which other leadership roles can develop and foster the development of active human beings and local communities. accountability to communities – the local leadership always has to be accountable to the local citizens for any action taken or not taken. using community resources effectively – communities, councils and partners have a wide range of resources. it is therefore expected that all public resources are used effectively at all times, without any favour or any delays. paradza et al. (2010:12) outlined the clear role of ward councillors in the community and specified that ward councillors are the link between the community and the municipality and that their task is to ensure that the community participates in council programmes. they also facilitate community participation in municipal policy-making. participation in policy-making depends on the experience and personal attributes of ward councillors to mobilise community members to participate. the public protests regarding service delivery in south africa have been a problem for many years. many previous researchers, such as mileham (2009:66), did not focus on the potential and capabilities of ward councillors, and instead mainly focussed on the processes and training of councillors after they have been elected. theoretical frameworks the theoretical underpinnings of this study have been derived from different leadership theories articulated by various researchers and authors, such as trait leadership theory, situational leadership theory, servant leadership theory and action-centred leadership theory. trait leadership is described by bolden e al. (2003:26) as a way of identifying the key characteristics of successful leaders, which is the focus of this study, and thus this theory has been considered significant for this article. on the other hand, situational leadership theory is articulated by mccleskey (2014:118) who argued that the theory requires a rational understanding of the situation and a suitable or appropriate response rather than a charismatic leader with a large group of dedicated and loyal followers who hardly ask questions about the leadership. this theory applies well to the south african context where residents get into the streets to demonstrate for poor service delivery or anything they are not happy about regarding the leadership. this is a way of holding leadership to account. hodgetts (1993:278) posited that many researchers have tried to pinpoint the key factors that contribute to effective leadership and they concluded with the idea that if leaders possess superior qualities that differentiate them from followers, discovering these qualities would be easy. research methodology lichbach (1998:403) defined the world as a planet that has factual and counter-factual constraints and constructs. it is therefore important that the methodological issues are taken into serious consideration because inappropriate or irrelevant methodological choices will lead to wrong conclusions, and incorrect recommendations will also be made (geddes 2003:18). on the other hand, holden and lynch (2004:02) viewed research methodology as a system that is a consequence of the methodological choice that has been made to collect the information during the study. o’leary (2004:85) argued that the research methodology should serve as the framework that guides the set of paradigmatic assumptions. the information collected can be viewed as facts and it can also be tested. this study has adopted a case study and mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative data; collected from two sources, ward councillors and community members, analysed accordingly qualitatively and quantitatively) approach because the case study which is defined as a method of enquiry is primarily designed to bring out the information from the viewpoint or understanding of the participants. multiple sources were used for this study, such as real-life events, observation of the behaviour of ward councillors in ethekwini metropolitan municipality programmes and the behaviour of ward councillors towards the community members. for robustness triangulation of data sources, ward councillors and community members were used to generate primary data; on the other hand, secondary data in the form of statistics report in the literature regarding variables such as the number of service delivery protests were used. the mentioned sources were used to ensure that reliability is increased (tellis 1997:44). sample or target population the population of this study comprised 110 ward councillors in the ethekwini municipality (statistics south africa 2018) and all households in those wards. the study focussed on only one municipality as a case study, with a total of 110 wards; then a sample as outlined below was drawn from this population. the focus of the study was to survey the ward councillors to profile their demographics and leadership characteristics, as well as their views on service delivery. on the other hand, the study surveyed the community and solicited their views and rating of performance of ward councillors (based on service delivery) and their overall leadership characteristics. a sampling size table developed by krejcie and morgan (2011:607–610) was used to determine that 86 participants would be an appropriate sample size for this study, using the following formula: n = x * n * p * (1−p) / me2 * (n−1) + (x2 * p * (1−p). where n is the sample size; x2 is the square for the specified confidence, population proportional; and me is the desired margin error. conducting a study of all 110 ward councillors in ethekwini metropolitan municipality was not feasible for this study because of the limited time frame and resources of the researcher. all wards in ethekwini municipality were chronologically listed in microsoft excel, using ward numbers. excel’s random selection functions were used to randomly select the 86 wards that were visited. for community members, a convenience sampling technique was used, targeting at least three community members per ward in 10 randomly selected wards from the 86 wards. a stratified sampling approach was used to survey community members, with at least three community members selected per ward. this gave a total of 30 respondents to whom the questionnaire was administered in 10 randomly selected wards. a total of 86 questionnaires were successfully completed by ward councillors and 30 by community members. a 100% response rate was achieved for the study, for instruments to both councillors and community members. this response rate is excellent and has the potential to provide effective results. fincham (2008:01) suggested that the response rate in a survey should be at least 60% and above. the response rate of this study exceeded this recommendation. measuring instrument quantitative data collection techniques rely on instruments with predetermined response categories. the results produced are easily summarised, compared and generalised. quantitative research is mainly concerned with testing the hypotheses derived from the theory. a variety of measuring instruments can be used in research, namely, questionnaires, interviews and observation (north dakota compass 2015:04). in this study, closed-ended questionnaires were used, with one designed specifically for each group of respondents, that is, councillors and community members. the questionnaires were basically the same, only different in terms of how the items (questions) were framed. an example is that the questionnaire for ward councillors would include items on their leadership experience, while the one for community asks their length of stay in the particular ward. as the questions needed to be framed specifically for a particular group, separate questionnaires were opted for. data analysis data collected were cleaned, sorted, captured in spss and coded in preparation for analysis. the spss statistical package was used to analyse the data as it handles cross-sectional data and categorical variables effectively. the analysis involved descriptive statistics in the form of frequency tables and charts, as well as inferential statistics in the form of chi-squared tests, t-tests, analysis of variance (anova) and regression analysis, depending on the research questions being asked and the variables relevant to that question. the leadership characteristic scale was used to calculate the total score, with high scores signifying a better leader. the average of councillor self-rating and that of the community members was used to reduce recall bias (northouse 2013:2778). open-ended questions provided qualitative data that were analysed through themes, that is, thematic analysis. the results from qualitative data addresses the how and why questions not adequately covered by quantitative results. data presentation, analysis and interpretation of results the results are based on the quantitative data gathered through the questionnaires. the presentation of the results is in two broad sections: one capturing the views of community members and the other capturing the views of local leaders themselves as per the surveys employed. ward councillors gender the majority of the ward councillors (70.9%) were male councillors, while female councillors constituted 29.1%, which indicates that the gender balance in terms of the national government’s equity is not properly implemented in the ethekwini metropolitan municipality. age the majority of ward councillors (64%) in ethekwini metropolitan municipality were above the age of 41 and not more than 59 years of age, which indicates that the youth in terms of creating continuity in the municipality is not properly considered. highest level of education completing the secondary level of education is considered as necessary in order to be able to read and write. ward councillors also deal with many documents, and matriculation education is necessary for them to be able to read and write. only 47.7% of ward councillors had completed their matriculation and did not have access to tertiary education, while 22.1% of ward councillors managed to complete their national diplomas in different fields; 11.6% stated that they have bachelor degrees, and 4.7% had completed postgraduate qualifications. only 7% of ward councillors in ethekwini metropolitan municipality did not complete their secondary education and did not study any other short courses to equip themselves. this negatively affects understanding the policies of government and also fully participating in the drafting of municipal by-laws. marital status family structure is very important because it contributes to how leaders are respected by their communities. more than half (53.5%) of the ward councillors who were part of the study were married. this is a symbol of being responsible in many communities’ views, while 32.6% were not married. numbers of dependents ward councillors are not only leaders of the community but also leaders of their families. the majority of ward councillors stated that they have many family members dependent on them. most of the ward councillors (37.2%) had more than five dependants. only 8.1% had only one dependant, which is the lowest percentage in terms of the dependants’ level of the study. breadwinner status the majority of ward councillors stated that they are breadwinners in their families and thus have a responsibility to support their families. a significant 68.6% were sole breadwinners, while 31.4% were not breadwinners. this means that many families depend on the ward councillors. family members in leadership many ward councillors who participated in the study were the first people to be in leadership positions in their families. however, there were ward councillors with family members who have been in leadership positions before. ward councillors who shared leadership responsibilities with some family members comprised 17.4%, while those who did not have family members in leadership positions comprised 80.2%. leadership positions of ward councillors’ family members some ward councillors (10.5%) stated they have family members who are also ward councillors in different wards. previous employment status working experience contributes much in one’s personal life because through this a person gets exposed to how to communicate with other people. the majority (84.9%) of ward councillors stated that they have been employed previously, while 11.6% said they have never been employed before. working experience is necessary because it improves the communication levels of leaders. type of employment many ward councillors (31.4%) were employed permanently in different sectors, including government institutions; 11.6% of ward councillors were casual workers who do not have job security. being a ward councillor was the best option for them in terms of salary and job security. however, those who were permanent had left employment which had good job security for the purposes of leading the community. reasons for terminating employment a majority (51.2%) of ward councillors had resigned from their employment with the purposes of ensuring that they work full-time as ward councillors. only 1.2% had retired. however, if an individual has retired from a full-time job because of age, it becomes complicated for that particular individual to work full-time as a ward councillor and perform all activities or duties extremely well. table 1 shows the frequencies for each of the leadership characteristics items in the questionnaire, displaying the count and percentages per row for each category of the responses. it can be seen that all items, except perceptive and empathic, have majority of responses rating ‘strongly agree’. this implies that the ward councillors believe they possess these qualities they are strongly agreeing to. in addition, the association between each item and the number of service delivery protests witnessed has been investigated using pearson’s chi-squared test to ascertain whether the relationship exists, and somers’ d statistic to determine the strength and direction of the relationship. relationships that are statistically significant are denoted by *. the results show that being articulate, self-confident, persistent, outgoing, trustworthy and conscientious reduces service delivery protest (i.e. it improves service delivery in general). on the other hand, perception is associated with poor service delivery. table 1: distribution of leadership characteristics responses and association with service delivery. the article further classified the leadership characteristics components using the multiple discriminant strategy, and the results are presented in figure 1. the results show that there are two main dimensions: one that is internal and one that is focussed on others. from the data in table 1 and figure 1, it can be concluded that it is not one set of characteristics that get the job done well – rather, it is a combination of different leadership qualities. figure 1: classification of leadership characteristics. to determine the effects of leadership characteristics on service delivery, we specified and estimated the likelihood of a reported protest being for service delivery instead of any other kind of protest. each ward has witnessed a protest; however, some had experienced service delivery protests, and others had experienced protests of other reasons. variables controlled in the model include total leadership rating, gender, highest level of qualification, employment experience, leadership experience, ward councillor experience and leadership training, which all summarise leadership characteristics. the omnibus test also confirms the goodness of fit of the model specified, as the chi-squared test is statistically significant (p = 0.000 < 0.10). as in linear regression, binary logistics have pseudo-rs that display how much variation in the dependent variable is explained by the controlled explanatory variables. in this case, the pseudo-r2 range is between 0.40 and 0.56, which is a relatively high explanatory power in a cross-sectional set-up (survey data generally have a low variability factor) (pallant 2014). table 2 presents the co-efficient of the model. the two important columns are the p-values (sig. [significance]) and the exp(b), which provide information on statistical significance and odds-likelihood ratios, respectively. table 2: variables in the regression equation. the results show that total leadership rating score (higher values showing positive or good leadership) reduces the occurrence of service delivery protest within communities. this implies that good leaders are able to communicate effectively with communities to the extent that even if service is delayed, the community will patiently wait for the service to be provided. communication helps manage expectations of the communities and make them understand the challenges that the government will be facing. on the other hand, regarding education, higher education of levels of ward councillor increases the chances of service delivery protests. especially those with grade 12 and those with diploma as highest qualification statistically significantly increase the likelihood of service delivery protest. this is supported by bennis, sample and asghar (2015:34) who argued that not every great person is a leader and not every leader is a great person. they also emphasised that talent, skills or merit, intelligence, popularity and luck are not enough either. furthermore, the combination of all these characteristics is also not enough. what is more important is to add the capacity to overcome failure. the ability to overcome or to process failure makes great leaders. the results show that (at p < 0.10), grade 12 level of education increases the odds of poor service delivery by 67.212 times compared to someone with no formal education (category 1). furthermore, a diploma increases the odds of the protests in the ward being for service delivery by 204.872 times. in summary, high levels of education are associated with high probability of service delivery problems. it follows therefore that some ward councillors with no formal education are ‘down-to-earth’ (humble) and offer their services fully without regarding themselves highly. the results further show that experience is indeed the best teacher. the more experienced a ward councillor is, as measured by the number of years in such a position, the less likely the ward is facing service delivery-related problems (leadership years p = 0.044). the statistically significant categories are the highest ones, namely, 5–6 years and more than 6 years. leadership rating, gender, attendance of leadership training, ever been a councillor before and conducting community survey do not statistically explain service delivery problems within ethekwini municipality. the next section presents results of the community survey conducted. community members’ data analysis this section presents the analysis for the rating on service delivery and leadership characteristics by community members. to be able to carry on with the inferential analysis, total scores for service delivery rating items and the leadership characteristics scale were computed. there were six questions on rating service delivery components, with a rating scale ranging from 1 to 5 (maximum). this implies that the minimum possible score is 6, and the maximum possible score is 30. the higher the score, the better the service delivery rating is by community members in that particular community. given the nature of the score, a median will be more informative. a median of at least 18 would imply a good service delivery throughout. for leadership characteristics, there were 14 items on the same rating scale as service delivery, meaning the minimum expected score is 14 and the maximum is 70. a median of at least 42 reflects good leaders who can bring development to the community as they engage with communities with understanding, and they have the requisite skills. the results in table 3 show a median of 16, which is below the expected median of 18, therefore indicating poor service delivery throughout. the expected minimum score for the service delivery is 6 and the maximum score is 30. the results show a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 26 in service delivery. this implies that service delivery is within the range of 18 for service delivery and does not indicate bad or good service delivery, but an average service delivery. with regard to leadership, the results show a median of 52, which implies that there are effective leaders who can ensure development in ethekwini metropolitan municipality and who have exceeded the minimum median level of 42. the expected minimum score for leadership characteristics is 14 and the expected maximum score is 70. the results show that the minimum leadership characteristic is 17 and the maximum leadership characteristic is 70, providing a range of 53, which indicates that the leadership characteristics in ethekwini municipality are good. however, there are challenges and general problems within the municipality leadership. table 3: rating of service delivery and leadership characteristics. descriptive statistics for community members’ rating of service delivery and leadership characteristics the two computed variables were brought together using a regression variable plot (see figure 2). the quadrants can be seen as classifying the wards in terms of service delivery and leadership characteristics of the councillors. the quadrant of interest is quadrant 1 (north-east), which represents high service delivery and high leadership characteristics. wards c, i and j have community members agreeing on the ranking of service delivery and leadership characteristics of their councillors. the lines creating quadrants represent the mean of each variable. figure 2: service delivery versus leadership characteristics. service delivery versus leadership characteristics it may be observed that ward a members have scored below the service delivery average, and two below the leadership characteristic average score. nkwana (2012:159) stated that leadership development programmes cannot be developed and consequently evaluated in isolation. the legislative frameworks and policies that are relevant to human resource development in local government have to be reflected upon. the impact of the political and administrative interface on leadership development of councillors in municipalities should be taken into account in order to contextualise effective leadership development of councillors in municipalities. another example is wards g and h, where the three community members agreed that service delivery is below average although leadership characteristics are very good. leadership theories have identified techniques for determining the right leadership styles and characteristics and further identified that leadership characteristics and styles are influenced by the type of work that needs to be done, situational variables, the type of followers and the type of community that a councillor leads (oracle white paper 2012:07). as shown in figure 2, each letter represents a ward; therefore, if there are three letters in the quadrant box, this means that all three community members agreed with regard to rating on the variables – as is the case with wards g and h. it should be noted that concentration is towards high leadership scores and is general around average service delivery. shezi (2013:22) argued that service delivery to the community becomes easier and effective if political leadership has a good relationship with public officials who are working for state organs. political leadership therefore finds it easier to play a leadership role and liaise with the community and the public officials in terms of the community developments and challenges, as well as to be able to address challenges during the implementation of public services. zvavahera (2013:02) stated that leadership is very important in all types or forms of organisations because without proper and effective leadership, the organisation stands a higher chance of failing or being effective. ethekwini municipality is facing many challenges, including the relationship between ward councillors and community members. the study results indicate that the higher scores on leadership are equal to the higher score on the service delivery in a sense that leaders who possess good quality skills stand better chances of effectively delivering services to the community. the breakdown of the relationship between community members and ward councillors has negatively affected service delivery in many municipalities, including ethekwini metropolitan municipality. the results concur with spear’s (2010: 26) theory of leadership, which identifies leadership characteristics as the natural feeling from the individual which has commitment to the growth of the people. leadership characteristics have a direct influence on service delivery, and effective leadership skills increase the chances of good service delivery in the community. according to hays, deville and mulhall (2000:376), it is very important to analyse the relationship amongst structural characteristics and measures of coalition and the effectiveness of the service delivery. of interest to observe here is that the relationship between service delivery and leadership characteristics is ‘u’-shaped. at lower levels of leadership characteristics, the service delivery is high. this may be because of the ward councillors understanding their limitations and working hard to ensure that there is service delivery. however, as the leadership characteristics increase, there seems to be reluctance in pushing for service delivery. this is the point where a leader starts to take the community for granted, until again it reaches a point where the leader is mature enough to appreciate that leadership is being of service to the community. then, the relationship becomes positive. efforts to train and equip leaders with critical skills should target those with leadership scores that are around the mean point a:b, that is, the average leader. this is a point where the skills are good enough to lead but not enough to appreciate the service role bestowed upon one. in such instances if such leaders are identifiable, they can be trained to understand and appreciate their role, then become good leaders championing development. recommendations based on the findings of the empirical study in the previous section, the study findings show the importance of education level that is expected from ward councillors. ward councillors need a tertiary education qualification in order to be fully literate and to understand municipal policies because they are entrusted with the making of local government policies. education is a similar need because some people find that learning just opens more doors of an insatiable appetite to know and those who find pleasure in new ideas just keep discovering new ideas and that changes the character of the individual. table 3 provides community responses whereby community members rated the leadership characteristics of ward councillors, which suggests that the ward councillors have a big challenge of possessing relevant leadership characteristics, which in turn affects service delivery. the ward councillors need to be trained not only in leadership but also in training that is based on character building and public participation skills programmes that will assist them to communicate effectively with community members. anger management programmes are necessary for ward councillors because the study revealed that some ward councillors had anger issues with community members, which affected service delivery. in addition, a municipality integrity committee is necessary to cross-check the characteristics and the background of the candidates who are vying for leadership position. conclusion the aim of this study was to evaluate the leadership characteristics of ward councillors and to determine how such characteristics influence public service delivery in ethekwini municipality. the aim of the study was carried out by examining the leadership characteristics of ward councillors in the ethekwini municipality, identifying the factors that hinder ward councillors’ leadership performance on their duties in the ethekwini municipality, determining the impact of ward councillors’ leadership skills on service delivery; and to suggest steps that can be followed to improve the leadership of ward councillors in the ethekwini municipality. community members cannot easily embark on a public protest against a ward councillor that is transparent to the community because if there is a lack of service delivery or poor service delivery, the community members will know the actual challenges and the reasons for the lack of service delivery. ward councillors of ethekwini metropolitan municipality lack a proper understanding of government policies and by-laws, which makes it difficult to make decisions that will improve service delivery. almost 19% of ward councillors of ethekwini metropolitan municipality find it difficult to understand the policies of government. the high rate of service delivery protests in ethekwini metropolitan municipality is an indication that leaders are not providing effective leadership in terms of providing service delivery that is essential for the people and that ensures that people understand the shortfalls and challenges of the municipality. approximately 54.4% of public service delivery protests have been experienced in the ethekwini metropolitan municipality. leadership characteristics have a direct relationship with service delivery, which clearly indicates that if leaders do not possess good and correct leadership characteristics, they cannot provide effective service delivery. ethekwini metropolitan municipality is the largest municipality in kwazulu-natal province and comprises 110 wards, and financial resources have been one of the most key delimitations on the study; however, another limitation was the availability of ward councillors and their understating of the research. explanation was however provided extensively by the researcher before administering the instrument. ward councillors of ethekwini metropolitan municipality have been characterised by the community members as people who listen to the community members only before the elections. immediately after the elections, the elected leaders become unavailable to community members. ward councillors have a tendency of treating themselves as employees of the municipality who are only interested in receiving the remuneration for their work done instead of providing leadership without being motivated by the salary but being motivated by bringing a significant change to the lives of the people of ethekwini. the study recommends constant training of ward councillors on how to assess community needs and communicate to government, as well as how to communicate to people the plans by government. integrated development plan requires constant check of service delivery progress to ascertain areas that need attention and therefore allocate resources. acknowledgements the author (z.m.) would like to thank the durban university of technology for providing him an opportunity to do his master’s degree in public administration. he would also like to thank the national research foundation, national skills fund and beite levensteen for their financial assistance towards the study. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions z.m. was the lead author who conceptualised the research problem and did the write-up. s.m. performed the data analysis. this article is an extract from the master’s dissertation of z.m. at durban university of technology (dut) supervised by s.m. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from dut (ethical clearance number219/16frec). funding information this study was funded by the national research foundation, national skills fund and beirtie levensteen. data availability 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http://hsf.org.za/resource-centre/hsf-briefs/the-south-african-electoral-system. tellis, w., 1997, ‘application of a case study methodology’, the qualitative report 3(3), 1–19. thornhill, c. & dlamini, k., 2012, ‘councillor’s role in service delivery: the case of ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality’, african journal of public affairs 5(3), 36–53. zvavahera, p., 2014, an evaluation of the effectiveness of performance management systems on service delivery in the zimbabwean civil service, viewed 20 july 2017, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6636/a75e2ac83bba548a40d250fff9ef86b87833.pdf. abstract introduction methodology findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) sandiso ngcobo department of communication, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa bongekile y.c. mvuyana department of public administration and accounting, faculty of management sciences, mangosuthu university of technology, durban, south africa citation ngcobo, s. & mvuyana, b.y.c., 2022, ‘communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a83. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.83 original research communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in south africa sandiso ngcobo, bongekile y.c. mvuyana received: 27 may 2022; accepted: 22 sept. 2022; published: 30 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: integrated human settlement initiatives are aimed at altering the apartheid housing patterns of the old south africa that kept people of different races and languages apart. aim: this article investigated how community leaders and municipal officials interact with their integrated constituencies to determine if the language(s) of communication used are unifying and are conducive for public participation in decision-making. setting: the study was conducted at the ethekwini region in kwazulu-natal (kzn) in south africa where isizulu, an african language, is dominant in terms of the number of speakers, but english has prestige as a lingua franca. method: the study was qualitative in that 15 participants were interviewed on their experiences, observations and perceptions of languages of communication usage in their integrated human settlement. the settlement was used as a case study and the participants were purposefully selected. results: the findings indicated that isizulu dominates as the preferred language of communication at meetings and in written documents where it is often presented alongside english. there were speakers of other languages that were not happy with the dominance of isizulu. conclusion: the dominant use of isizulu bodes well for the promotion of african languages as they have in the past not been given the official status they deserve. however, its dominance in a multilingual environment it has the potential to make other community members feel linguistically discriminated against. contribution: the study undertakes an interdisciplinary approach to provide a deeper understanding on the role of language in the governance of multilingual societies. it raises an awareness on the importance of finding a balance between using the dominant community language and recognising other languages to ensure full participation of all immaterial of diverse linguistic backgrounds. keywords: communication; integrated human settlement; multilingualism; linguistically diverse community; service delivery. introduction south african communities come from a long and tragic history of political injustice driven by the apartheid government. this past period witnessed the separation of societies across racial and linguistic lines through draconian legislations (henrico & fick 2019). instrumental to the apartheid political agenda were mainly the land act (1936), the natives resettlement act (1954) and the group areas act (1950) through which black, indian and mixed-race people that coexisted peacefully were forcibly removed from prime areas. prime areas were then reallocated to white people while the other races were crammed in segregated townships located on the urban periphery. these acts destroyed the cosmopolitanism and multilingualism that existed in these spaces (hart 1990, in davids 2018). mojapelo (2008) reported about a cosmopolitan place that was called lady selborne in which sesotho as the language spoken by most black people in the area became the dominant language fluently used by indian people, chinese people and mixed-race people. similarly, there were some black people who could communicate with chinese and indian people in their languages. other destroyed multicultural and multilingual cosmopolitan spaces of note at the time were district six and sophia town which were located near the workplaces of the city for many community members (davids 2018). as part of the mission to destroy multilingualism that especially promoted indigenous languages, the colonial and apartheid governments introduced policies that only recognised afrikaans and english for use at political, economic and educational levels by all. in the process, ethnic divisions among citizens were developed and the indigenous languages and multilingualism were denigrated to the margins (cakata & segalo 2017). the disenfranchised communities further found themselves without basic services such as transport, proper housing, water and electricity in the new areas. post 1994 democracy, it became essential for integrated human settlements to be introduced as a tool of redressing the past and bringing about significant social transformation (mvuyana 2019). the integrated human settlement initiatives are in accordance with the breaking new ground (bng) principles of the department of housing which aims to alter the apartheid housing patterns of the old south africa that kept people of different races apart and away from cities (department of human settlements 2004). such projects are in line with the local government municipal structures act 117 of 1998 (republic of south africa [rsa] 1998) in which chapter 5’s (functions and powers of municipalities) sub-section (3) states that a district municipality must seek to achieve integrated, sustainable and equitable social and economic development of its areas. among many things, equity could be achieved through communication which recognises the multilingual nature of south african society. in the local sphere of government, the department of provincial and local government (dplg) (2008) provided draft guidelines for implementing multilingualism in local government which indicates the importance of meeting the linguistic needs of citizens who are not proficient in english, or who are illiterate or disabled (cohen 2008). multilingualism at this sphere of government is designed as a measure to promote effective participation of all stakeholders and ‘improving communication within local government, and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity through the greater use of african languages’ (cohen 2008). the language of communication chosen by political leaders at municipal level is important to investigate against the background where service delivery boycotts are common in the democratic south africa (zwane & matsiliza 2022). research in this area is informed by msenge and nzewi (2021) who argued that service delivery protests can be apportioned to poor communication channels between the local administration and communities. toendepi (2021) explained the importance of communication in the context of community as something that should be driven by leaders through enabling individuals to express themselves and receive information in languages they are comfortable in. communication is deemed healthy if it does not exclude any of the stakeholders in the provision of effective public services (ngilambi & mccubbin 2017). toendepi (2021) averred that when leaders adopt an effective communication approach, this would make them to be trusted and gain approval from their constituencies. this would also ensure that the decisions they make involve full stakeholder participation who would be able to freely communicate their needs and demands which should in turn make the leaders to be accountable for their actions (rulashe & ijeoma 2022; zwane & matsiliza 2022). it is against this backdrop, that this article examines the experiences, observations and perceptions of citizens about the use of language by their political leaders to provide access to resources in a newly integrated human settlement. the unique contribution of the article is that it is interdisciplinary as it investigates the issue of languages of communication as a socio-linguistic issue and governance in a public administration context to understand the issue of access to information by poor communities. the question the article seeks to answer is as follows: what is the relationship between the languages of communication and governance in an integrated human settlement? problem statement poor communication between local government officials and the communities they serve has been identified as problematic because it is not adequately utilised as a tool to avert service delivery protests (msenge & nzewi 2021; zwane & matsiliza 2022). the language of communication in an integrated community context becomes an issue if it excludes certain stakeholders from participating fully in decisionmaking and receiving information they clearly understand. there is, therefore, the need to investigate the issue of language(s) used by officials when interacting with linguistically diverse communities (ldcs) in integrated settlements to ascertain if it supports the implementation of existing multilingual policies at local, regional, and national levels. literature review literature review is divided into two sections. the first section explores the two central concepts of the article which are governance and communication. the second part of literature focusses on relevant policy frameworks. conceptual framework the conceptual framework of this article is interdisciplinary in that it integrates linguistic and governance issues. the approach is informed by the national development plan 2030 (rsa 2012a) as it emphasises that participatory governance should be at the centre of post-apartheid legislation towards local government. municipalities are encouraged to establish mechanisms which enable mayors, municipal management, municipal councils, ward committees, and local communities to participate in decision-making (rsa 2012a). language is an important aspect of communication and participation. hence, the two interrelated concepts in this article are governance from public administration and language of communication from linguistics. mothapo and kanyane (2015:729) explained that governance is a form of government that operates through formal structures composed of elected members from various societal groupings with a view to achieving a common goal. similarly, the municipal structures in the form of councillors and committees in community settlements are a form of governance that is tasked with delivering services for the local communities. furthermore, governance refers to the measurement of governments’ institutions capacity to allocate quality goods and services while enforcing sound policies that demonstrate respect for citizens as critical stakeholders (kaufmann 2021; kaufmann, kraay & zoido 2000). the measurement research approach that is recommended by kaufmann et al. (2000) is qualitative. similarly, the article seeks to qualitatively measure the extent to which leaders at local sphere of government promote access to information through their use of languages of communication that enables equal participation in decision making. more so, governance represents what levi-faur (2012:7) called ‘newness’ to signify ‘change’ or ‘shift’ in society that can take different forms that scholars may consider. similarly, the current article views governance as a useful concept of examining change or rather transformation in south africa since the dawn of democracy post 1994. the recognition of communities and their languages as equal is the newness that should be celebrated and protected in the integrated society. levi-faur (2012) also described governance as referring to a shift in power from the top to the bottom whereby the daily needs of communities are addressed by their local structures in the form of municipalities and ward councillors. hence, the article examines how these local leaders exercise their power with respect to the use of local languages as tools of communication. according to avineri et al. (2019), the communication process should employ languages that help to bring about justice by providing access to services and enabling participation in civic and community practices. this approach assists in ensuring that all language groups, regardless of whether they are in the minority or majority have their languages utilised in ways that show them respect and value (avineri et al. 2019). zwane and matsiliza (2022) emphasised that municipal officials and local leaders have the responsibility to redress the imbalances of the past by providing basic human needs and services to the previously marginalised, while being cognisant that they do not trample the human rights of other citizens. key to the definitions of governance and language of communication are equal access to resources and respect for citizens by their leaders. hence, the article qualitatively measures the relationship between service delivery and the choice and use of language(s) in a manner that recognises and respects linguistic diversity. steyn (2016:19) recommended improved ‘public consultation and communication processes’ as a way of addressing community protests by local government. in this regard, rulashe and ijeoma (2022:5) noted that indeed the government has created several platforms for public involvement and communication, such as imbizo, public meetings, ward councillors and ward committees, and community liaison officials and media. the authors further stated that these platforms also serve to boost service delivery quality. this suggests that if communication channels are open, clear and satisfactory there would be no need for communities to resort into public demonstrations and destruction of property. communities would rather consult the officials using the available platforms and request them to address their concerns in a civilised manner. similarly, when officials encounter problems, they would come back and explain the challenges encountered to the communities (booysen 2007). this kind of an ideal situation would be in line with a proper and modern understanding of governance. singh (2014) postulated that the modern meaning of governance is: [t]he creation of an enabling environment for citizens, management of economic stability within communities, provision of required resources and infrastructure, protection of the vulnerable in society, and delivery of essential services. (p. 58) this suggests that communication channels in the form of chosen languages should be enabling to the vulnerable, especially the poor who rely on government for support such as in the form of housing and its related services. one such group that requires attention from the government and from researchers is ldcs that are found in integrated human settlements. however, rulashe and ijeoma (2022) cautioned that public participation and communication are quite complex processes that require a high level of coordination, consideration and tolerance from all stakeholders if they are to achieve the objectives that would benefit all. this would require the consideration and tolerance of differences that are likely to exist in any given community but would be more complex if the community is in an integrated human settlement as it might be a linguistic challenge to cater for all. it would be in circumstances like these that leaders would be tested on their ability to exercise equal consideration for all their constituencies. there has been scarcity of local government research that examines the language of communication as a governance factor among integrated communities. policy framework on multilingualism the constitution’s (rsa 1996) section 3(a) and 3(b) require the provisional governments and municipalities to use any of the official languages by considering ‘the language needs, usage and preferences of the population’. the bill of rights in the constitution (rsa 1996), however, cautions that in the process of considering preferences an effort should be made to ensure that no persons belonging to a linguistic community is denied their right to use their language. this caution is further articulated in the subsequent national policy framework (2003:6) which while emphasising ‘the utilisation of the indigenous languages as official languages’ also indicates that ‘the broad acceptance of linguistic diversity, social justice, the principle of equal access to public services and programmes, and respect for language rights’ should be maintained (national policy framework 2003:section 1.1.7). consequently, the kwazulu-natal (kzn) provincial language policy (2009), which applies to municipal councils and government bodies, identifies official languages of the kzn province as isizulu, english, isixhosa and afrikaans (kzn provincial language policy 2009:section 2.1.1) while maintaining that all other languages, including south african sign language, must be used and promoted (kzn provincial language policy 2009:section 2.1.5) where necessary. it is, however, stated that isizulu and english are to be the main languages of publication (kzn provincial language policy 2009: section 2.4.5.3). worth noting is the fact that there is also the provincial language service which is tasked with the promotion and monitoring of multilingualism, good language management, and respect for language rights (kzn provincial language policy 2009:section 10.1). similarly, ethekwini metropolitan municipality took a decision of adopting english and isizulu as business languages while acknowledging that the preferences of residents and diversity should be taken into consideration when communicating (ethekwini municipality language policy 2009). one of the ways of improving communication is using languages that enable access to information for all. in the same vein, section 6(4) of the constitution (rsa 1996) calls upon the government to regulate and monitor the use of official languages as noted in the use of official languages act (rsa 2012b). these guidelines are provided because of the understanding that information is the most important tool; therefore, if well communicated it enables citizens to equally exercise their rights to goods and services provided to them by the government. in the process, this could serve to limit service delivery protests that are now common in south africa. even though these policies were mainly enacted with the intention to protect the previously marginalised african languages, this protection would also apply to speakers of minority languages. statistics south africa (2019) data indicates that isizulu is the most common language in the country and particularly in the province of kzn. isizulu dominance and its commonality with other nguni languages, such as isixhosa and isiswati contributes to it being widely used in the public sphere. the fourth biggest language that enjoys the high socio-economic status of being the widely used common language across the country and many parts of the world is english. it is because of this recognition that english is considered as a bridging language for people of diverse mother tongue backgrounds (kamwendo 2014:383). in addition, english tends to be used by many south africans in contemporary societies as a language that they would alternate with their african languages in speech and written forms (makaleka 2016; ngcobo 2014). it is these notions about the dominance of isizulu and english that sometimes lead to them being assumed to be known by everyone, particularly in kzn. such an assumption could, however, prove to alienate people who are not familiar with these languages by denying them access to critical information. kamwendo (2014:378) cautioned that the language factor is one of the blockages to access to information that is packaged in a language that one does not fully understand because of the fact that it is not a home language. childs (2016) described such an experience as very dehumanising especially when it occurs among many black citizens in their own democratic country. this is not to suggest that the minorities deserve to be linguistically discriminated. it is perhaps in this context that kamwendo (2014) applauded the public use of isizulu with simultaneous interpretation into english and sign language being provided. this is indeed not a common sight in the country especially in the public sphere that it would warrant recognition. ngcobo et al. (2016:12) described a situation in which more than one language is used as a gesture that contributes to equity and justice in society. of concern to this article is to ascertain if consideration for others on linguistic basis is evident or not among government officials and political leaders in their dealings with integrated communities in municipalities. municipalities as government structures are an area of interest because of their closeness to communities and implementation of multilingual policies. this explains why at municipality level, the dplg (now department of cooperative government and traditional affairs [cogta]), initiated a project called multilingualism in local government (2008). according to webb (2009:77, citing keating 2007), this project was in response to concerns with unsatisfactory service delivery (for example regarding housing) and the non-participation of citizens in policy decisions and implementation. webb (2009:78–79) applauded this project as ‘clearly people-directed’ against the background in which the south african government ‘has made considerable progress in supporting its commitment to multilingualism’ even though this has not ‘been meaningfully promoted’ or implemented at national, provincial and municipal levels. makamani (2017:333) argued that failure to support and implement policy is unacceptable in a multilingual society where communication practices need to ‘be geared towards accommodating the diverse linguistic repertoires’. an environment in which different communities have been integrated and their languages are dominant in one way or the other makes a curious case for an investigation on practices and preferences, as such studies have been conducted in educational settings. methodology the article adopts an interpretivism or constructivism paradigm because of its potential to enable the participants to interpret their social reality. this paradigm is associated with qualitative methods of data collection which can be provided by either individuals or groups that have been exposed to a particular social experience and their interactions with other members of their community (olsen & pilson 2022). the systematic and scientific process followed in conducting research involved the use of focus group interviews (kumar 2019). in this process, the participants’ responses were audio recorded about their experiences, observations and perceptions on languages of communication in their area. this research technique generated rich, detailed qualitative data which were aimed at providing the participants’ perspective on the phenomenon under investigation. eight semi-structured interview questions divided into two sections were utilised. the first section was on the biographical information and language usage of the participants. section b was on the use of language(s) by municipal officials and community leaders to ascertain if there was any correlation between some of the information gathered in section a, and what the policies that inform this article articulate. the population that formed the totality of persons from which participants were selected were residents of an integrated human settlement found in ethekwini metropolitan municipality in kzn. from this population of residents of an integrated community, a purposive sample of 15 randomly selected members were interviewed. semi-structured interviews were used because they allow participants greater freedom and flexibility to express their opinions and share experiences on a given situation (cohen, manion & morrison 2013). prior to conducting interviews, permission was sought from the local leaders and the participants themselves. names of participants were neither sought nor used in analysing and reporting the results. data analysis was conducted manually because of the limited number of participants and their responses, which were easy to manage without the use of any research software, such as nvivo. this was whereby the transcribed interview responses were grouped in accordance to the specific questions they meant to address. the main subject of each question formed the theme under which the transcribed data were listed verbatim. however, the names of interviewees were not utilised as they were referred to as participants to ensure anonymity. the results of the analysis are described and discussed in the next section. ethical considerations university of kwazulu-natal approved the study protocol when author two was registered for her doctoral degree. hss/0161/0160. 14 march 2016. findings and discussion language profile to gain a better understanding of the views expressed by the participants, it was important to align it with their background language information. the study was able to recruit 15 participants of whom eight were men and seven were women. most participants were black people with a total of 11, and the remaining four were asian people. the community appeared racially integrated even though black people were in the majority. the high number of black people was indeed expected in a country where black people are in the majority. the only other races found in this integrated community settlement were asian people because the settlement is located close to areas that were previously reserved for asians. it was not surprising to find among the participants that seven black people were isizulu-speaking, two were isixhosa speaking, two sesotho speakers, and four asians who identified themselves as english speakers. however, non-isizulu speakers indicated that they were familiar with isizulu at different levels of proficiency, such as being able to speak and/or hear but not read and write. this is in line with statistics south africa (2019) census data which identifies isizulu as the most common language in many parts of the country while mainly dominant in the province of kzn. the language distribution in this finding is in accordance with what the province considers as its official languages, other than the absence of afrikaans and the availability of sesotho (ethekwini municipality language policy 2009). the community is therefore linguistically diverse which gives the community leaders and the municipality officials the challenge of coordinating their communication activities in this complex context (rulashe & ijeoma 2022). language proficiency a related follow-up question inquired on language proficiency levels of the participants when it came to writing, speaking and reading of isizulu and english. the focus on these two languages was influenced by the fact that they have been identified in the kzn provincial language policy (2009) that the ethekwini metropolitan municipality draws from for administrative purposes. the question on fluency emanated from the dplg (2008) guidelines for implementing multilingualism in local government which indicate the importance of meeting the linguistic needs of citizens who are not proficient in english, or who are illiterate or disabled (cohen 2008). isizulu was indicated as the dominant language of proficiency when it came to speaking and reading. not surprisingly, the asian participants were not very proficient in both aspects even though two of the participants said they were average speakers of isizulu. the ability of asians to speak isizulu is in line with what mojapelo (2008) reported about a cosmopolitan place that was called lady selborne in which sesotho as the language spoken by most black people in the area became the dominant language fluently used by other races. english proficiency among the whole group of participants was claimed to be generally good to survive in the workplace where employers would be less familiar with african languages. reading received less ratings as most of the participants identified themselves as poor readers. none of the approached participants indicated any disability such as the one that would require the use of sign language. yet, in the south african context and elsewhere non-discriminatory communication should entail the use of an african language with simultaneous interpretation into english and sign language being provided (kamwendo 2014) to promote equity (ngcobo et al. 2016). educational qualifications to link the preceding claims with educational qualifications, the participants were asked to indicate their educational background. during the interviews it emerged that the majority of the participants claimed they had a schooling level that was below secondary school with a few in possession of secondary education. none of the participants said they had any diploma or degree. this finding was on the whole taken to suggest that the literacy levels were low in the area and would require special care when communicating with the community. khuluvhe’s (2022) findings confirmed this state of low literacy levels among adults who were in 2020 at 10% with women (10.7%) faring worse than men (9.3%). in this case, written english could prove to be a challenge to many community members as much as spoken english to a certain extent because the majority were black people. spoken english could be expected not to be a serious issue because many black people tend to use it in their everyday lives together with their african languages (makaleka 2016; ngcobo, ndebele & bryant 2021). the language of communication the next question sought to understand if other than false promises, the language usage was one of the issues. isizulu was indicated by all the participants as the language used to announce meetings in the form of loudspeakers and notices. this practice suggests that those not familiar with isizulu, even though few, are left out or get to receive information second hand. thus, some of the participants said: ‘loudspeakers pass by announcing in isizulu when there is going to be a meeting.’ (participant 3, female, black person, isizulu-speaker) ‘flyers and notices informing us about meetings are in isizulu.’ (participant 4, female, asian person, english-speaker) ‘meetings are usually conducted in isizulu. but when there are external persons that do not speak isizulu, you find that english is used by some of our leaders without any interpretation provided sometimes.’ (participant 5, male, black person, isizuluspeaker) other than the issues of calls for meetings, it was also revealed that the language of conducting meetings was insensitive to both non-isizulu and isizulu speakers. local leaders conduct their meetings mainly in isizulu. in cases where there are visiting leaders, it was revealed, leaders tended to address the community in english without any interpretations provided on certain occasions: ‘isizulu is used most of the time because we all know it and our leaders speak it.’ (participant 1, male, black person, isizulu-speaker) ‘yaah … i agree with you … but that sometimes become a problem to some of us who are not fluent isizulu speakers. i wish they could find a balance of some kind.’ (participant 2, female, black person, sesotho-speaker) ‘a balance … how? i hope you don’t mean english because that could … ehh … mmh … make many of us not follow what is said. or you mean … eeh … interpretation?’ (participant 3, female, black person, isizulu-speaker) ‘ohh yaah…they do interpret sometimes when a visitor cannot speak isizulu… it helps.’ (participant 4, female, asian person, english-speaker) the above transcripts indicate some poor communication which has the potential to contribute to service delivery protests emanating from communities not sharing the same information equally (msenge & nzewi 2021; toendepi 2021). moreover, this practise goes against the use of official languages act, 2012 (act no. 12 of 2012) (rsa 2012b) which strives to give effect to the constitutional obligation of multilingualism. this act requires that every national department, national public entity, and national public enterprise must adopt a language policy and establish language units to facilitate language policy implementation. the finding implies that the officials do not involve all communities in decision-making processes so that they are later accountable to the citizens (rulashe & ijeoma 2022). this linguistic insensitivity also extended to private meetings in the offices of officials. as leaders are isizulu-speakers they usually converse in isizulu with all africans to the disadvantage of those who are not isizulu-speakers. the concern raised by asian community members was that while they would be addressed in english, they found it unacceptable that the leaders would switch to isizulu when communicating among themselves while one is there waiting for a response on the issue they have raised: ‘i find it disrespectful when someone switches languages in my presence when they know very well that i cannot fully understand what they are saying.’ (participant 6, male, asian person, english-speaker) ‘they will gossip about you in their language in your presence.’ (participant 7, female, asian person, english-speaker) dos santos (2022) found a similar situation in south korea where asians would linguistically discriminate against each other. in the case of the context of this research, it is considered discriminatory and insensitive not to acknowledge speakers of other south african languages other than the dominant one (isizulu) in the province of kzn. awareness of municipal processes participants were also asked on their awareness of municipality processes in taking decisions which affect community matters. the follow up questions were specific on certain types of documents, such as the municipal integrated development plan (idp), that were assumed to have been shared with communities. the following responses were received: ‘i don’t know about others, but i have never heard of such documents.’ (participant 8, male, black person, isizulu-speaker) ‘what is a municipal plan for?’ (participant 9, female, asian person, english-speaker) ‘they do explain some of the processes and procedures without actually presenting the documents they are talking about. we know that certain procedures have to be followed in doing certain things. sometimes they will say that the municipality or the regional government expect things done in a particular way and then we will do as told by following their guidance.’ (participant 10, male, black person, sesotho-speaker) the majority of participants were not aware of municipal plan and the role that they can play in making the municipality accountable in the provision of services. this may suggest that the number of service delivery protests frequently experienced are a result of communities not knowing the intentions of the municipality. the integrated development plan for local government (idp) is a thick document written in english, which could be problematic to most members of the community and their leaders to read and understand because of limited education and proficiency in written english. these critical documents should be simplified, translated and disseminated to the public. msenge and nzewi (2021) have argued that poor communication channels account for the high rate of service delivery protests. in the same vein, toendepi (2021) emphasised the importance of leaders to communicate critical information with their constituencies in a language they understand. this finding therefore indicates that information that is available in english only is not communicated with the communities and measures are not undertaken to translate such information into the language(s) that would be easily understood by the majority. this practice points to a shortcoming from an informational justice viewpoint. multilingual communication on a positive note, written communication from the municipality was mainly received in both isizulu and english, as indicated below: ‘letters on rates and notices on water and electricity disruptions from the municipality are communicated in both english and isizulu.’ (participant 4, female, asian person, english-speaker) ‘there are now offices called … sizakala centres to which we can go to make enquiries and receive services in our languages.’ (participant 5, male, black person, isizuluspeaker) this is to be noted as it is in line with the kzn provincial language policy (2009). the current finding contradicts the earlier one that was made by hadebe (2009) when english was dominant and ethekwini municipality was without a language policy. the change suggests that there is transformation as indicated in the enactment and implementation of multilingual policies. conclusion the article aimed to understand if multilingual communication was used fairly by political leaders in an integrated settlement for poor communities to provide them with equal access to resources and participation. it was found that most community members were satisfied with the use of their language (isizulu) by the leaders and the municipality. concerns were raised by the minority of citizens who felt marginalised in some instances because of their limited use of isizulu. it also emerged that critical documents such as the municipality integrated development plan was neither provided in simplified language nor cascaded to the communities in their languages. the raised linguistic shortcomings are against the principles of governance which promote equal treatment of all despite any differences. multilingual policies are available in south african, provinces and municipalities to cater for all. it is therefore important for leaders in a democratic state to adopt resources that are available to address the linguistic needs of all their constituencies. these include the use of translation and interpretation to accommodate all equally. multilingual policies are an important tool that should be implemented by government officials to promote equality under the new political setting to redress the past linguistic inequalities, promote participation, and to provide services. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.y.c.m. conceptualised the human settlement part of the article and collected data. s.n. conceptualised the linguistics part of the article and conducted data analysis. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references avineri, n., graham, l.r., johnson, e.j., riner, r.c. & rosa, j., 2019, language and social justice in practice, routledge, new york, ny. 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management and administration, faculty of economic management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa tyanai masiya school of public management and administration, faculty of economic management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation moji, l., nhede, n.t. & masiya, t., 2022, ‘factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a94. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.94 review article factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities lebohang moji, norman t. nhede, tyanai masiya received: 08 july 2022; accepted: 17 oct. 2022; published: 13 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: many developing countries are experiencing many financial management and control challenges such as corruption, fraud and misappropriation of public funds. in south africa, municipalities are among the most affected public institutions. aim: this article investigated factors impeding the successful implementation of oversight mechanisms meant to promote accountability, with specific reference to south african municipalities. methods: a qualitative research methodology approach was used, and an extensive review of literature and key policy documents and reports was conducted. results: the findings revealed the following factors as impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities: ineffective internal control tracking, auditor general’s limitations to regularly make progress checks on recommendations made, nepotism in municipal appointments, futile audit committees and management’s inability to enforce consequences. conclusion: in the process, this article recommended that municipalities should adopt a radical metamorphosis through greater accountability measures, strengthened monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and improved leadership and accountability. contribution: this article proposed options for improving the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms at local spheres of government in developing nations such as south africa. furthermore, in general, this article contributed to literature on local government oversight mechanisms and local government performance in south africa. keywords: oversight; internal control; accountability; leadership; municipalities; auditor general. introduction the objective of this article is to investigate factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities. existing research reveals that south african municipalities are riddled with corruption and maladministration. for a couple of years now, reports from the auditor general of south africa (agsa), have been revealing a downward spiral of local government financial management. audit outcomes remain poor and have regressed in the last 4 years, internal controls have not improved and the response to calls to strengthen internal controls and fill critical vacancies has been slow (agsa 2021:18). budhram and geldenhuys (2018:28) observed that every year the government spends millions of rands on unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. in this regard, merten (2021) pointed out that only 27 of south africa’s 257 municipalities had obtained a clean bill of financial health, according to the local government 2019–2020 audit. mbanyele (2021) argues that this is because of a lack of accountability and good leadership. according to transparency international (ti) (2020), insufficient oversight leads to greater chances of public funds being pocketed by public officials. consequently, this behaviour has negatively affected service delivery and led to service delivery protests throughout the country. given the ongoing state of poor service delivery and escalating service delivery protests, an examination of factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities is of great significance. this can help policymakers spot internal control and oversight issues that have a significant influence on municipal finances. overall, this article proposes options for improving the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms at municipal level in developing nations such as south africa. furthermore, it contributes to literature on local government oversight mechanisms and local government performance in south africa. key research questions to be answered in this article are: what are some of the common causes of poor management at municipal level? what is the effectiveness of internal financial control mechanisms used in municipalities? what causes municipalities not to have clean audits? why are public officials not being held accountable more frequently? what measures can the government put in place to ensure adherence to the rule of law and effective performance management? previous studies have explored a broad array of research conducted on specific regions and provinces in south africa regarding maladministration and corruption. however, fewer data have been collected from a country-wide perspective, as this study will reveal. in this article, the framework that supports internal control and oversight systems is introduced, for the reason of exposing the failing finances and delivery of services within municipalities. in addition, questions surrounding municipalities’ technical resource capacity, including causes and effects faced by municipal authorities, are addressed. background and context the following sections will give some background to oversight, highlight the statutes and framework that govern oversight and define the oversight mechanisms utilised within municipalities, which include internal control, internal auditing and reporting. postapartheid municipal service delivery demands according to ngcamu (2019), the postapartheid era was prone to multiple protests and defiance campaigns, ignited and coordinated by several civil society groups. the violent service delivery protests, which were more prominent at the municipal level, were linked to the impact of apartheid, which was central to segregation. most people, particularly the black population, were subjected to marginalisation of basic needs such as clean drinking water, proper sanitation, electricity, health care accessibility, formal housing and infrastructure (ngcamu 2019). since transitioning to a democratic era in 1994, the south african government has focused on providing services to society (mutyambizi et al. 2020:1). however, the new democratic government, led by the african national congress (anc), inherited a country with great inequality, widespread poverty and scarce employment opportunities (mananga 2012). according to steyn and van heerden (2011:167), there was a perceived lack of basic service delivery and widespread corruption at municipal levels. in addition, steyn and van heerden (2011:167) state that local councils and municipal officials were not held accountable, technical and financial management was inadequate and cadre deployment was a common ritual. statutory and legislative framework for oversight in the three spheres of government, the legislative and regulatory frameworks provide a base for accountability and oversight. for the purpose of this article, focus will be on the requirements of improving accountability and oversight within municipalities. according to section 155(7) of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 (hereafter referred to as the constitution), the national government and provincial governments have the legislative and executive authority to ensure that municipalities fulfil their service delivery tasks effectively. service delivery tasks are required to be carried out by municipalities as per schedules 4 and 5 of the constitution. section 195 of the constitution lists the core values of governing public administration, including the need to be accountable, while in section 215, the constitution promotes transparency, accountability and effectiveness regarding the management of public finances. section 65(2)(a) of the municipal finance management act, 2003 (act 56 of 2003) (mfma) calls for municipalities to establish effective expenditure control systems that will detail how funds will be approved, authorised, withdrawn and paid out. furthermore, section 65(2)(b) requires the establishment of systems that will recognise incurred expenses and account for creditors and payments made by municipalities. section 165 of the mfma mandates each municipality to establish an internal audit unit to report to an audit committee on matters relating to internal audit, internal control, risk and performance management and compliance with applicable laws. section 166(1) of the mfma, 2003, requires each municipality to have an independent audit committee with the objective of identifying risks that would jeopardise the municipality and advising the council, management and the accounting officer on matters related to municipal oversight. similarly, section 79 of the municipal structures act, 1998 (act 117 of 1998) establishes the essential prerequisites for the formation of committees to help the local council in carrying out its oversight responsibilities. kraai, holtzhausen and malan (2017:63) affirm that the council uses oversight committees to encourage good governance, which allows municipalities to fulfil their tasks, while oversight committees help to increase executive responsibility. municipal oversight, committees and mechanisms kraai et al. (2017:63) assert that oversight comprises watching over the executive’s work in order to improve service delivery and improve the living conditions of all inhabitants. in addition, oversight is critical for ensuring that the executive is operating in a regulatory manner that applies the principles of good governance. kraai et al. (2017:65) further declare that oversight ensures adherence to clean audit processes and that concerns mentioned in the auditor general report receive the required attention. as stated by toxopeüs (2019), municipal authorities are responsible for ensuring that laws and policies are created and efficiently executed in a way that guarantees the delivery of basic services to their respective communities. according to toxopeüs (2019), the responsibilities of oversight are channelled through two essential committees within municipal organisations, established to support the council. the municipal public accounts committees (mpacs) are responsible for internal oversight, while municipal audit committees are established more autonomously to serve a more outward monitoring function. toxopeüs (2019) further expresses that mechanisms such as internal financial controls, internal audits, risk and performance management, accounting policies and legislative compliance are utilised by committees to effectively advise municipal councils. in addition, toxopeüs (2019) states that these committees are responsible for responding to any issues raised by the auditor general and investigating financial misconduct, per the council’s request. the commonly used oversight mechanisms by oversight committees are internal control, internal auditing and financial reporting. internal controls are a collection of policies used by managers to ensure that financial transactions are implemented in an orderly manner, ethically, economically, efficiently and effectively in order to prevent waste, theft and abuse of resources (abdulai, salakpi & nassè 2021:2; national treasury 2000:28). internal auditing is a consultancy service rendered independently and objectively to review and report on the adequacy, efficacy and adherence of the internal control structure established by management. it also involves examining financial and operational records and evaluating compliance with relevant laws and management practices (abdulai et al. 2021:2; institute of internal auditors 2016:23; national treasury 2000:31). financial reporting involves a timely submission of information that is relevant, verifiable and dependable over time; ensuring that information can be similarly compared with other spending units; and observing acceptable norms and standards (national treasury 2000:19; pauw et al. 2015:152). research methods and design the research approach of this article was qualitative. the qualitative research method seemed to be the best fit for this article as it is interpretive, reflexive and detailed in nature. babbie (2010) describes qualitative studies as the interpretation of observations in a non-numerical examination for the purpose of determining fundamental meanings and designs or relations. the article used secondary sources of data. according to martins, da cunha and serra (2018:2), ‘secondary data may include data that has been previously gathered and is under consideration to be reused for new questions, for which the data gathered was not originally intended’. vast amounts of valuable primary data and secondary data are collected and archived by relevant institutions or researchers all over the world (weijun 2008). gathering facts from existing secondary sources in this article included consulting documents from municipalities, government, agencies, projects and web scraping. the thematic analysis technique was used to analyse collected data. kiger and varpio (2020) posit that thematic analysis is a method for analysing qualitative data and entails searching across a data set to identify, analyse and report repeated patterns. to enable the thematic analysis technique, this article adopted a manifest content analysis using deductive reasoning. bengtsson (2016:10) describes manifest analysis as a process where the researcher stays true to the text being collected as practically as possible, makes use of the actual text and labels the obvious in the text. the manifest analysis was ideal as it enabled the researchers to get in-depth understanding of the factors influencing the implementation of oversight mechanisms in south african municipalities. review findings challenges affecting the effectiveness of financial oversight mechanisms various studies were reviewed and conclusions drawn on the challenges that affect the success of financial oversight mechanisms within south african municipalities. these challenges include staffing and skills shortage, funding, lack of consequence management and corruption. staffing and skills shortage insufficient human resources are one of the factors affecting local government performance. abdulai et al. (2021:4) point out that staffing deficiency can lead to mismanagement, errors and violence in some cases. furthermore, abdulai et al. (2021:4) declare that the proper staffing of an internal audit department, as well as good management of the workforce, are critical to the success of internal auditing. however, some officials appointed in key positions do not meet all the requirements and lack the necessary expertise to carry out their functions (abdulai et al. 2021:6). dodo (2017:19) indicates that a lack of technical experience and financial auditing skills are key factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of audit committees. other factors include the acquisition of adequate committee personnel and political involvement during the recruitment and selection processes. corruption watch (2021:9) lists nepotism and cronyism as key contributors that increase skills shortages in south african municipal governments. riggio and saggi (2015:19) define nepotism as preferential treatment given to a family member of a public official, regardless of qualifications, while zudenkova (2015:473) defines cronyism as the appointment of friends or colleagues to positions of authority, also without adequate qualifications. according to madumo and koma (2019:588), some municipalities have been appointing municipal managers in an acting capacity since 2011 because of a shortage of skills. for example, in 2011, 30 out of 83 municipal managers lacked the necessary educational qualifications, while 65 out of 83 municipal managers failed to either fulfil all of the competency standards or satisfied only some of them. in view of abdulai et al. (2021:6), most internal auditors lack a diverse set of skills, including analytical abilities, business intelligence, efficient communication and honesty, bravery and conflict resolution abilities. according to the agsa (2021:8), municipalities continuously rely on consultants to generate financial statements and analyse underlying records for major financial errors. over the 2019–2020 financial year, consultancy expenditures for financial reporting services amounted to over r1 billion (agsa 2021:8). this resulted in complex issues remaining a challenge for management to implement creditable audits in a timely manner. the agsa (2021:8) further declared that poor quality work was a result of inexperienced auditors, limited skillsets, poor training, unclear audit objectives, a lack of report writing skills and demotivation. funding effective performance and the implementation of adequate oversight are sometimes hampered by a lack of funding, as it is difficult for managers to hire extra staff to guarantee a sufficient division of functions (wadesango et al. 2017:62). the ability to adequately pay staff has an impact on the way data are processed, including adherence to reporting standards (abdulai et al. 2021:5). according to matlala (2018:92), financial limitations contribute to the delay in implementing internal control mechanisms, as resources are diverted away from dealing with discovered findings. another important factor underlined by matlala (2018:106) is that the public sector salary scale does not compete at the same level as that of the private sector, including benefits such as superior career and development opportunities and systematic mentoring programs which are offered to their employees. in his deduction, matlala (2018:106) is of the notion that political, economic and environmental instability make it difficult for some countries to attract, motivate and retain high-quality staff. lack of consequence management abdulai et al. (2021:6) are of the view that internal auditors take a long time to go over voluminous records and other documentation, which affects the levels of production negatively. as a result, abdulai et al. (2021:6) believe that auditing faces challenges such as fraudulent financial reporting and audit failures. further, the audit committees do not have the authority to subpoena municipality administrations for nonperformance or not submitting required financials on time. as a result, the committees’ demands for information most often go unanswered, leaving them with minimum options to work with (toxopeüs 2019). toxopeüs (2019) expresses that this has a significant impact on their capacity to report financial and institutional performance to the council timeously. in releasing his latest report on the performance of south africa’s municipalities, former auditor general, kimi makwetu, expressed that the undesirable state of deteriorating audit outcomes shows that various local government role players have been slow in implementing, and in many instances even disregarding, the agsa’s recommendations (agsa 2019:1). this, according to mr makwetu, has resulted in the decline of accountability and financial and performance management in most municipalities. in a 2018 agsa media release statement, mr makwetu criticised the lack of repercussions for senior government officials who misused state monies in unauthorised, fruitless, wasteful and irregular activities (agsa 2018:1). mr makwetu also lamented that his municipal audit results from 2011 to 2012 revealed a lack of decisive leadership to address the lack of accountability by enforcing legal implications against those who violated basic processes that hampered effective municipal governance (agsa 2018:1). mr makwetu further stated that the same accountability and governance challenges flagged over the years had not been addressed, and there was a reversal in audit outcomes observed instead. in another statement, mr makwetu stated that some municipalities had not yet investigated the previous year’s irregular, unauthorised and fruitless expenditures and had failed to determine if anyone was liable, or could be held liable, for the purpose of recovering such funds as required by the mfma (agsa 2019:3). in mr makwetu’s deduction, until consequences are implemented, the misappropriation of funds will continue for the foreseeable future and audit outcomes will either remain stagnant, be delayed or be poorly produced (agsa 2018:2). matlala (2018:74) reveals that findings extrapolated from auditor general reports from 2013 to 2015 show that negative findings in south african municipalities recur year after year. according to matlala (2018:74), the agsa presented such findings in 148 municipalities during the 2015–2016 financial year, indicating that nearly half of these municipalities did not investigate any of the findings, while a quarter of municipalities only investigated some of the findings. furthermore, matlala (2018:74) declares that for the 2016–2017 financial year, negative findings were reported by the agsa in 145 of the municipalities, 71% of which were recorded in 2015–2016. this demonstrates that municipal councils failed to conduct investigations into all cases of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure reported in the previous year and exposed their inability to take adequate and long-term corrective measures. as stated in the consolidated general report on the local government audit outcomes, mfma 2019–2020, the agsa has sent consistent warnings to the government over the past couple of years regarding the deteriorating state of local government that has put a heavy strain on the financial health of state funds (agsa 2021:14). in the view of the agsa (2015:85), officials who are not held accountable for their actions create the perception that such behaviour and results thereof are acceptable and tolerable. corruption according to budhram and geldenhuys (2018:30), corruption is the misuse of power or authority to achieve or facilitate the acquisition of a benefit or advantage to which the recipient or beneficiary is not lawfully entitled. section 4 of the prevention and combating of corrupt activities act, 2004 (act 12 of 2004) declares any public officer who receives, accepts or seeks to obtain compensation from another person, whether it be of benefit to himself or herself or others, to be corrupt. this includes persuading someone else to act in an illegal, dishonest, unauthorised, incomplete or discriminatory manner. furthermore, the act considers a public official’s breach of trust or violation of a lawful responsibility or set of norms as a corrupt activity (section 4 of the prevention and combating of corrupt activities act, [act 12 of 2004]). the findings of this study reveal that corruption thrives in public entities that lack effective financial controls. since its inception in 2012, corruption watch has received over 5000 reports of corruption in local government (corruption watch 2021:1). these reports provide a disturbing overview of how some municipalities are captured to serve private interests, how municipal managers abuse their power and position and how procurement and employment processes are constantly undermined. all of this, as corruption watch (2021:1) reports, results in disadvantaged communities being denied access to basic human rights and services. matlala (2018:96) expresses that the country’s major difficulty is the lack of a strong state champion committed to fighting corruption. according to matlala (2018:96), the anticorruption drive appears disconnected, with minor success achieved by members of the public, the media and certain government entities. furthermore, matlala (2018:96) claims that a culture of greed, propelled by south africa’s ever-present economic inequality, is destroying personal integrity at the national, provincial and municipal levels. as stated by corruption watch (2021:1), the public also has the responsibility to insist that authorities keep their hands clean and out of the state coffers, by subscribing to anticorruption, accountability and transparency principles. implications and recommendations lack of financial and performance management, which involves financial misuse, fraud and violations of the mfma regulations, is the most recurring challenge facing south african municipal administrations, according to the findings. this is a problem that has gone unresolved for more than a decade, implying that public finances are not being managed effectively and efficiently within some municipalities. the findings also reveal that municipal leaders and officials do not take their responsibilities, including the agsa’s audit recommendations, seriously. this lack of leadership has had a negative impact on municipal governance and oversight. there are systems in place to curb maladministration and corruption, but they are weak and ineffective. the next section lists recommendations to these recurring challenges, namely increasing internal staffing and skills, stronger leadership and policy implementation, improvement of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, increased authority for the auditor general and strengthening the anticorruption framework. increasing internal staffing and skills matlala (2018:91) asserts that adequate staffing is needed for a system to operate at its full potential. madumo and koma (2019:588) recommend for staffing in municipalities to be evaluated against a number of objectives, including ensuring that people with adequate skills and qualifications fill senior positions. in addition, madumo and koma (2019:588) call for human resource development and capacity building to be provided on an ongoing basis. regarding nepotism and cronyism, riggio and saggi (2015:19) are of the view that if all candidates applying for a position are considered through a fair screening and evaluation procedure, no one would be harmed. in the same breath, riggio and saggi (2015:19) add that if an individual with a social or family connection happens to be the best candidate for the position, although no one is harmed, the perceptions of nepotism or cronyism may affect employees’ satisfaction, motivation and the opinion of the organisation and its practices. stronger leadership and policy implementation based on the findings, it is clear that in order to have an efficient governance system in place, the complexities of local government operations require strong leadership. in the view of the agsa (2015:75), in order to improve the performance and productivity of staff, the leadership should set the correct tone by implementing sound performance management processes. in the view of the agsa (2015:75), leadership that consistently takes action demonstrates to all officials that poor performance has consequences. pauw et al. (2015:248–249) recommend two approaches for mitigating recurring leadership challenges, namely the policy implementation approach and the policy compliance and accountability approach. pauw et al. (2015:248) believe that the fundamental principle that is required in terms of the policy implementation approach is for the municipal council and the accounting officer to guarantee that the mfma policies are executed effectively. according to pauw et al. (2015:248–249), this would necessitate an organised and well-planned approach in which the requirements of the law and other directives are assessed. in the view of pauw et al. (2015:249), municipalities must include provisions for these policies in their integrated development plans (idps), as well as their service delivery and budget implementation plans (sdbips). regarding the policy compliance and accountability approach, pauw et al. (2015:249) believe that a municipality that does not comply with the applicable financial management rules and regulations, including its own standards, will be unable to account for its financial management. to avoid qualified audit reports or disclaimers from the agsa, pauw et al. (2015:249) believe that reporting should take place on a regular basis throughout the financial year and that disciplinary actions should be made as soon as possible. additionally, pauw et al. (2015:249) emphasise that it is important to apply best practices and benchmarking, which will require competent financial management practitioners and a political will at the council level. improvement of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms according to the agsa (2015:75), failure to comply with legislated obligations and the repeated offences of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure should be investigated and addressed accordingly to avoid financial misconduct on the part of accounting officers or officials. one of the recommendations for effective performance management in municipalities involves the enhancement of monitoring and evaluation systems, which require municipalities to report their performances to the relevant national and provincial government entities (the presidency 2007:4). this means that municipalities must prepare reliable quarterly, midyear and yearly reports on performance information that will be used by the relevant stakeholders for financial performance analysis and evaluation (national treasury 2015:9). matlala (2018:44) proposes that the department of performance, monitoring and evaluation (dpme) assume a more active role in providing technical assistance and guidance to municipalities during the self-assessment phase, as well as involving provinces in the process, to create a learning environment for the respective municipalities. furthermore, matlala (2018:44) advocates for internal capacity to be enhanced for municipalities to perform assessments more frequently. the national treasury (2015:5) regards audit action-monitoring as other means of corrective processes that can guarantee that appropriate measures are performed on issues highlighted by external and internal auditors. according to wadesango et al. (2017:51), audit action-monitoring is a method where auditors employ effective communication channels, such as face-to-face interactions in a straightforward, simple and structured manner, in order to decide the best way to convey findings and recommendations. another recommendation presented by toxopeüs (2019) involves establishing binding processes for mpacs in order to obtain the required information. toxopeüs (2019) advises that increasing the municipal council’s ability by enabling mpacs to take appropriate action against bad governance and maladministration will improve effectiveness and provide findings that are more credible. increased authority for the auditor general matlala (2018:92) is of the belief that because of the lack of consequences, managers usually take advantage of workplace environments and ignore or overlook the norms and standards required for effective consequence management. the findings of this study deduced that some municipalities could have been reluctant to implement the performance management principles or auditor general recommendations because of the consequences of non-application. in addressing the poor implementation of performance management, budhram and geldenhuys (2018:38) recommend the alteration of the mfma to make it criminally punishable for officials at all levels who intentionally, unreservedly or illogically fail to comply with procurement and financial management duties resulting in irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. furthermore, budhram and geldenhuys (2018:40–41) specify that the amendments are a necessity, as the mfma does not have provisions to hold public officials criminally accountable, especially for actions resulting in unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. as a remedy for implementing the auditor general’s recommendations, the public audit amendment act (act 5 of 2018) now gives the office of the auditor general the authority to refer major abnormalities to relevant parties for investigation, as well as some degree of authoritative capacity, such as the ability to recover financial losses as a result of irregularities discovered (agsa 2018:10). this remedy allows the auditor general the same powers entrusted to other chapter 9 institutions. the public protector, for example, is empowered by section 182 (1)(c) of the constitution to take effective action against governmental malpractice. such corrective actions are enforceable by law, and their legal implications must be adhered to and followed. a case in point, as stated by the international ombudsman institute (ioi), is the public protector’s report on the investigation into allegations of impropriety and unethical conduct relating to the installation of security measures by the department of public works at the private residence of former president jacob zuma in nkandla, kwazulu-natal. the constitutional court ruled in this matter that the remedial action taken by the public protector against former president zuma was binding, and was ordered to comply with these actions (ioi 2016). in reaction to the possibility of the introduction of the new bill, the agsa believes that the continuous waste of taxpayer funds will be prevented, and those responsible for inadequate financial management, be they the applicable director-general, board or municipal manager, will be held personally accountable and will be compelled to refund the state (agsa 2020:3). strengthening the anticorruption framework the agsa (2015:85) emphasises that leaders and officials who deliberately or negligently ignore their duties and contravene legislation should be dealt with in a decisive manner. according to the national development plan 2030 (ndp), south africa requires a zero-tolerance response to corruption, and an anticorruption system must be established to confront the issues of corruption and lack of accountability (the presidency 2012:447). furthermore, the ndp emphasises that the anticorruption system must hold public officials accountable in order to increase transparency, solidify public service, involve the participation of citizens and reinforce the integrity of the judiciary (the presidency 2012:447). the department of public service and administration (dpsa) developed the public service anti-corruption strategy to combat government-related corruption. the strategy proposes an increased institutional capacity, improved reporting of corrupt acts and whistle-blower protection and the introduction of robust procedures to keep corrupt people out of government jobs (dpsa 2002:3–5). in addition, the strategy recommends improved management policies; a professional ethics management system; training, education and awareness campaigns; and stakeholder collaboration with entities such as the national anti-corruption forum, the private sector, citizens and labour unions (dpsa 2002:3–5). conclusion the objective of this research was to determine the factors impeding the implementation of successful oversight mechanisms, with specific reference to south african municipalities. in order to reach the study’s objectives, the agsa’s consolidated general reports on the audit outcomes of local government for the financial years 2015 to 2021, as well as other relevant material, were studied. research showed that while the institutional mandate of local government is to ensure appropriate management of municipal finances, the agsa’s annual consolidated general reports revealed that municipal management and finances were in jeopardy, resulting in poor service delivery across the country. through the use of document analysis anchored in qualitative methodology, the findings revealed a couple of challenges that hindered the implementation of effective oversight in selected municipalities. staffing and skills shortage were identified as challenges involving the appointment of inadequate staff or friends and colleagues in key municipal positions. funding was a recurring challenge, affecting the hiring of a capable staff and retaining critical skills. the lack of consequence management revealed the inadequacy of managers in implementing effective performance management within municipalities, including the agsa recommendations, resulting in unauthorised, fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure. this was apportioned to indecisive leadership, the lack of consequences for mismanagement and the disregarding of the agsa’s recommendations. corruption was identified as a challenge involving the abuse of power by municipal managers and the floundering of procurement processes. recommendations were made for the oversight challenges. these included improving the quality of municipal administration by appointing competent professionals in senior management positions without political interference and strengthening human resource development. fair screening and evaluation procedures were recommended in order to dispel any discouraging perceptions among employees, which may affect employee productivity. for stronger leadership, recommendations called for the implementation of sound performance management processes, including adequate assessment and execution of policies and ensuring policy compliance and accountability, with regular reporting and prompt disciplinary actions. recommendations also called for the strengthening of monitoring and evaluation systems within municipalities, with the dpme providing technical support and guidance. this would allow municipalities to produce credible financial performance reports on a quarterly, midyear and annual basis. recommendations were also made for the mfma to include criminal punishment for officials found guilty of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. regarding the enforcement of the auditor general’s recommendations and adjustments to the public audit act, 2004 (act 25 of 2004), which are underway, will endow the auditor general with the ability to enact binding recommendations. regarding corruption, the ndp calls for a zero-tolerance response, while the public service anti-corruption strategy calls for corrupt activities to be exposed, whistle-blowers to be protected and training, education and awareness campaigns to be structured. as this was a broad desktop study of what has been written by others, including reports from various state organs, it is recommended that for future studies, one can use a case study approach and delve deeper by conducting interviews with professionals from different provinces. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m. conceptualised the study, analysed the data and wrote the original draft. n.t.m. supervised l.m. as a student and provided guidance through the original draft. t.m. strengthened the paper, reviewed and edited the manuscript. 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profiles results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) augustine n. eneanya department of political science, faculty of humanities, university of lagos, akoka, nigeria citation eneanya, a.n., 2023, ‘ict entrepreneurship training and job creation in post-covid-19 in ikeja local government, lagos state, nigeria’, journal of local government research and innovation 4(0), a92. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v4i0.92 original research ict entrepreneurship training and job creation in post-covid-19 in ikeja local government, lagos state, nigeria augustine n. eneanya received: 01 july 2022; accepted: 27 jan. 2023; published: 27 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: for an economy to live up to expectation in the committee of nations, information communication technology (ict) entrepreneurship training for employment generation has become a viable intervention. aim: the purpose of the study is to interrogate the role of ict entrepreneurship training on employment generation in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government, lagos state. setting: the study was conducted in ikeja local government area of lagos of nigeria. methods: a survey design was adopted for the study. data were collected from secondary sources, such as extant literature, journal articles, books, government records and newspapers. primary data were collected from face-to-face interview from six key informants and structured questionnaires distributed. one hundred and eight respondents were randomly sampled. out of 108 questionnaires administered, 104 questionnaires were returned (96%), while four non-responses were discarded. frequency distribution method was used for exploratory analysis, while chi-square statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level, using statistical package for social sciences (spss version 17) to analyse and interpret results. secondary data analysis was adopted to complement empirical analysis. results: findings showed that ict entrepreneurship training has promoted job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment in ikeja local government of lagos state. conclusion: the study concluded that ict entrepreneurship training promotes job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment in lagos state. contribution: the study has contributed to a body of knowledge on ict youths’ entrepreneurship education in ikeja local government. keywords: ict; information communication technology; ict entrepreneurship training; post-covid-19 pandemic; job creation; youths; unemployment. introduction globally, youth unemployment has become an issue of concern to many economies of developed and developing countries. in nigeria, about 13.9 million nigerian youths are unemployed, accounting for unemployment rate of 27.1%, in the second quarter of 2020. in this period, the highest unemployment rate was recorded for youths aged 15–24 years at 40.8%, followed by youths, aged 25–34 years at 30.7% (nbs 2020). following the adoption of information communication technology (ict) by individuals, businesses and government, the desire to train ict entrepreneurs to create jobs and reduce unemployment has become imperative. there has been strong desire to support such schemes. the federal government of nigeria, world bank, department for international development (dfid) and lagos state employment trust fund (lsetf) have initiated moves to support ict entrepreneurs in job creation and reduce youths’ unemployment. world bank and uk dfid provided ‘$200 million in 2015 creating 1.3 million jobs and $160 million as concessionary loans; while dfid provided 90 pounds to increase the ict-enabled services’ (uzor 2015:3). nationally, it was estimated in 2015, that ‘ict sector would create 150 000 formal jobs each year, 10 000 of which are for new it graduates’ (uzor 2015:3). this ugly trend at the national level prompted lagos state government to establish lsetf in 2016 with n25 billion intervention fund to halt the unemployment scourge. the fund was institutionalised to provide financial support to residents of lagos state for wealth creation and to tackle unemployment (lsetf 2016). three key mandates of the lsetf programmes focused on loan scheme, employability and lagos innovate for information and communication technologies (icts) entrepreneur start-ups. the loan scheme provides access to quick and affordable loans for micro, small, middle scale enterprises to start-ups, build, expand and create wealth and employment for lagos residents (lsetf 2016). so far, the lsetf has approved n4.9 billion for disbursement to 6548 small business owners and has successfully disbursed n4.1 billion loans to over 4762 beneficiaries (43% recipients are women) (lsetf 2020). currently, in lagos state, total unemployed persons accounted for 1 329 490 (19.5%) and under-employed persons of 1 504 345 (22%) (nbs 2020). the immediate consequences of high unemployment rates are gradual descent of these army of unemployed youths into crime, extreme hunger, malnutrition, inequalities and other social problems. the opportunities for jobs are hardly available and government’s efforts to create jobs for employment have become a big problem difficult to solve. with the covid-19 pandemic outbreak in february 2020, unemployment, poverty, inequality and insecurity exacerbated the staggering youth unemployment data. according to economic sustainability committee (esc) report (2020), covid-19 pandemic crisis risks pushed additional 39.4 million nigerians into unemployment by december 2020. according to national bureau of statistics (nbs) 2020, prior to covid-19 pandemic, unemployment rate that was 23.1% in 2019, reached 33% by the end of 2020. this was because of the impact of covid-19 pandemic and restrictions on business activities. for example, in lagos state during covid-19 lockdown, about 914 965 or 13.4% of persons have jobs but did not work (nbs 2020). micro, small and medium enterprises (msmes), self-employed individuals, event planners, travel agencies, aviation, transportation, health, education, agricultural supply value chains and hospitality were badly affected by covid-19 pandemic mostly in lagos state. these challenges compelled lagos state government to launch n5 billion post-covid-19 economic recovery support for micro, small middle scale enterprises, ict entrepreneurs and innovators in technological space (lseft 2020; oyekanmi 2020). this is in a bid to help businesses in lagos recover from the effect of the covid-19 pandemic. the fund will provide access to affordable loan at a single-digit interest rate, enhance capacity building, foster market linkages and leverage business expansion opportunities for its beneficiaries (abisoye 2020). for our purpose, ikeja local government is the area of study. it is the state capital and enjoys ict infrastructure development and regular power supply (electricity). it is the hub of ict entrepreneurs and hosts greater population of unemployed youths. in ikeja local government, ict entrepreneurial beneficiaries were targeted to benefit from the intervention, which was to be supervised by (lseft 2020). hence, choosing ikeja local government as the area of study is justifiable. against this background, the paper’s general objective is to examine how ict empowered entrepreneurs can create jobs and reduce youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era, using ikeja local government in lagos state of nigeria as a case study. specific objectives include: to find out the role of ict entrepreneurship training on job creation in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state. to find out the impacts of loan provided for ict trained entrepreneurs on reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state. in the light of this, the study is driven by the following research questions and statement of hypotheses: what is the impact of ict entrepreneurship training on job creation in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state? to what extent has loans provided to ict trained entrepreneurs reduced youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state? statement of hypotheses h0: there is no significance relationship between ict entrepreneurship training and job creation in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state. h1: there is a significance relationship between ict entrepreneurship training and job creation in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state. h0: there is no significant relationship between loans provided to ict trained entrepreneurs and reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government of lagos state. h2: there is significance relationship between loan provided to ict trained entrepreneurs and reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government of lagos state. conceptual framework for clarification of different concepts needed for the analysis of this study, the following concepts are defined as follows: concept of information and communication technologies herselman and hay (2003) described ict as technologies that support the communication, cooperation of human beings, their organisation and the creation and exchange of knowledge. information and communication technologies are electronic devices utilised by governments for public service delivery (sharma 2010). yu (2010) defined ict as a range of technologies that allow the gathering, exchange, retrieval, processing, analysis and transmission of information in this study; ict is described as technologies used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information. they comprise computer system, wide area networks, twitter, facebook, e-mail, the internet and mobile computing applications that have the ability to connect with citizens, businesses and other arms of government (sharma 2010). these technologies access information help to promote service delivery to businesses, government, employees and citizens. concepts of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship amit, colsen and muller (1993) define an entrepreneur as an individual who identifies and creates business opportunities, assembles and coordinates new combination of resources so as to extract the most profit from his or her innovation in an uncertain environment. for this study, an entrepreneur is one who is willing to search for and undertake business opportunities for profit. the word ‘entrepreneurship’ has been described in several ways by different scholars. entrepreneurship is a process through which individuals identify opportunities, allocate resources and create values (mcclelland 1966). entrepreneurship is the process of successfully running innovative enterprises, nurturing them to growth and sustaining them to achieve socio-economic development goals. entrepreneurship revolves around the realisation of existence of opportunities in combination with decision to commercialise them by starting a new firm. concept of job creation job creation is difficult to define and also difficult to evaluate or measure. for example, it is difficult to determine if job created did not merely displace jobs in other locations or sectors. job creation can mean as net new job created without displacing other economic activity (adam et al. 2011). however, job creation can be interpreted as job created, which can be measured from aggregate data from the bureau of labour statistics. this study adopts this definition because of special policy on ict entrepreneurship training for youths’ employment in small-scale businesses context in ikeja local government of lagos state. concept of youths conceptually, youth’s age is classified according to socio-economic and development peculiarities of each country. african youth charter (ayc 2006) categorised youths as people falling between 15 and 35 years of age. caribbean development bank (cdb 2015) reported that a youth’s age can be extended beyond 35 years, but it is generally possible to go to what is acceptable in the local labour market or be country specific. youths in nigeria are citizens aged between 18 and 35 years, which compares favourably with what obtains in other climes and global institutions. for this paper, youths in active labour force can be categorised as falling between 18 and 35 years. this is because between 15 and 24 years, youths in this category are still pursuing their educational careers. national bureau of statistics agrees that ages 15 and 24 are not actively involved in labour activities because of educational pursuit (nbs 2020). as such, in this paper, youths are regarded as those falling between 25 and 34 years of age. theoretical framework entrepreneurial theories and research remain important to the development of the entrepreneurship field. for the purpose of this study, social network theory has been adopted as the framework of analysis. in this theory, entrepreneurs are embedded in a larger social network structure that constitutes a significant proportion of their opportunity structure (clausen 2006). it was argued that entrepreneurs should have access to contemporaries in their social network, as the competence and experience these people have represent a kind of cultural capital that nascent ventures can draw upon in order to detect opportunities (aldrich & cliff 2003; gartner et al. 2004). this theory is relevant to ict entrepreneurs as they are expected to access experienced ict entrepreneurs to explore experiences and knowledge on chosen venture. this network for ict entrepreneurs’ start-ups was made possible because of the collaboration and partnership of oracle network with lsetf under the innovate programme (abissoye 2021). the social network theory is, therefore, justified for this study because ict entrepreneurship training for job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment in ikeja local government in lagos state of nigeria represents a resource that is heterogeneously distributed across individuals in post-covid-19 pandemic era and in effect central to understanding differences in opportunity for start-ups ict entrepreneurs benefiting from the professional trainings, benefiting from loan facilities and exploiting it for job creation and reduction of unemployment (anderson & miller 2003; chandler & hanks 1998; gartner et al. 2005; shane & venkataraman 2000). entrepreneurship training and job creation several empirical researches have been put forward by scholars to explain the field of entrepreneurship. akanwa and akpananbia (2012) examined the need for promoting employment in nigeria through the development of entrepreneurship. the study revealed that governments at all levels should encourage entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment. asad, ali and islam (2014) also examined the need to reduce unemployment through entrepreneurship development. the study revealed that high rate of unemployment has been associated with low level of entrepreneurship development in the economy of pakistan. obajaja (2016) in his study of youth unemployment and level of poverty in ekiti state noted that unemployment impacted on social vices and reduced economic growth. smilary, odukoya (2020) examined the impact of lsetf on msmes in lagos state. the study revealed that funding of msmes reduced unemployment in lagos state. badejo, agunyai and adeyemi (2015) also studied the policy of youth recruitment, empowerment and reduction on unemployment with o-yes programme in osun state. the study revealed that 57% of unemployed beneficiaries who responded to the survey said that the scheme did not improve their capacity because it focused on unskilled, mental, jobs, while 84% of the beneficiaries’ respondents of ministry of finance (mof) o-yes viewed the scheme as a palliative measure, and not a permanent solution to youths’ unemployment. this study has brought to the fore the significance of new technologies. new technologies have changed the characteristic of employment as they now enable fragmentation of work (donnelly & johns 2021). however, there is ‘shortage of ict professionals required to support entrepreneurship in nigeria. information communication technology industry itself requires 300 000 skilled professionals in the areas of software development, system development professionals, business analysts, ethical hackers, among others (uzor 2015:31). information communication technology entrepreneurship studies are becoming important in nigeria in the face of covid-19 pandemic era, where msmes closed shops. with the disruption of businesses during covid-19, researchers have argued that the increased use of technology for remote working could result in an autonomy paradox (mazmanian et al. 20). while ict offers more flexibility for working and living arrangements, it also imposes pressure for knowledge workers regarding constant connectivity and responsiveness (sewell & taskin 2015). from the review of previous studies, it is obvious that there is gap in literature. it is obvious that sufficient studies have not been carried on ict entrepreneurship and job creation as mechanism for reducing youths’ unemployment, in post-covid-19 era in ikeja local government in lagos state of nigeria. previous studies pre-covid-19 pandemic investigated causes, effects and remedies of youths’ unemployment and recommended that government at federal and state levels invest on msme to reduce unemployment. hence, this study’s focus is to bridge the gap in literature by investigating ict entrepreneurship training for job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment, in post-covid-19 pandemic, supported by lsetf agency programme in ikeja local government in lagos state. material and methods this study adopted a mixed-method design. a mixed method research design is a procedure for collecting, analysing and ‘mixing’ both quantitative and qualitative research approaches on a single study to understand a research problem (creswell 2003; johnson & onwuegbuzie 2004; eds. tashakkori & teddlie 2003). to investigate this study, therefore, qualitative and quantitative data were derived using triangulation method of data collection. these methods included purposive, snow-balling and simple random sampling techniques. qualitative data were collected using purposive and snow-balling sampling techniques. purposive sampling was used to select 10 key informants for in-depth interview through the telephone. the key informants included experts and practitioners in entrepreneurship. snowballing technique was utilised to select interviewees who are potential beneficiaries of lsetf’s programmes. interview guide designed was unstructured with some open items. the items were grouped into various sections based on research objectives. the sections included cross-questions and probes from interviewees. qualitative data analysis was conducted using the following steps: content analysis to elicit concepts, transcription of field notes, editing, coding, which involved sorting, categorising and grouping of responses into themes. inter-coders rating between the research assistants and researcher was undertaken to validate themes elicited. the themes basically fell under respective research questions, which were used to develop structured questionnaires for collecting quantitative data. key responses based on respective themes from qualitative data were cited verbatim in interpretation of findings and discussion. for quantitative data collection, a survey design using structured questionnaires were self-administered, using simple random sample on potential ict entrepreneurship training beneficiaries of lsetf programmes. to ensure the validity of the quantitative research instrument used in the study, the questionnaires were subjected to pre-test, using some selected students from school of entrepreneurial studies, covenant university, ota, ogun state. this was aimed at ensuring a high degree of validity of the instruments. they checked on the instruments’ content coverage based on the study parameters. the instruments were also given to peers for further review to determine the internal consistency. based on the experts’ comments, the researcher made improvement on the structured questionnaires before administering to respondents in study parameter. to obtain reliability of the structured questionnaires, a test-retest method was used to pilot it in order to estimate the degree to which the same results could be obtained with a repeated measure of accuracy from the same instrument. the questionnaires were administered to 10 respondents. these came from a population that shared similar characteristics, but they were not part of the study sample. the two research assistants collected the pilot data. after 2 weeks, the same questionnaires were administered to the same group of respondents. reliability coefficient between the two sets of scores was coded and analysed with the help of statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 17 for cronbach’s alpha test. this yielded alpha 0.7554 reliability coefficient. thus, the questionnaires were accepted as reliable (george & marllery 2003). the structured questionnaires were then divided into section a and b. section a comprises demographic characteristics of respondents, while section b consisted of five point-likert scale, with options ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5) for quantitative data analysis. descriptive statistics was used for exploratory analysis. tables were used to present frequency distribution data. the spss version 17 was used to run the descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistics – chi-square to test hypotheses. the quantitative data analysis findings formed the basis of interpretation of findings and discussion in the light of reviewed literature. limitation of research methodology the study is limited in scope as it focused on entrepreneurs who are potential ict entrepreneurship training beneficiaries from lsetf’s programmes on msmes. information communication technology entrepreneurs, who are potential beneficiaries of national directorate of employment and other skills acquisition centres in ikeja local government in lagos state, were excluded in this study. hence, future research is required to replicate this study at the federal and lagos state levels, whether ict entrepreneurship training promotes jobs creation and reduces youths’ unemployment. demographic profiles out of 108 questionnaires that were distributed to the respondents, 104 representing 96.3% were properly completed and returned for the study. in table 1, it was observed that 55 (52.9%) of respondents were male and 49 (47.1%) females. on marital status, 88 (84.6%) respondents were single and 16 (15.4%) married. there was no divorced or separated among the respondents. on qualification, respondents with primary six certificate were 8 (8%), general certificate of education (gce), o/l certificate holders 30 (28%), ordinary diploma certificate (ond)/national certificate of education (nce) holders were 10 (10%), general certificate of education (hnd)/bachelor of science (bsc) degree holders were 32 (31%), master of arts (ma)/master of science (msc) degree holders were 24 (23%) and no one with doctor of philosophy (phd) degree certificate. table 1: presentation of respondents’ demographic characteristics. in terms of age, respondents between 18 and 24 years of age were 32 (31%); between 25 and 34 years were 46 (44%), 35–44 years were 18 (17%); while those above 45 years recorded 8 (8%). respondents’ years of joblessness been 1–4 years record 76 (73%); 5–9 years recorded 24 (23%), while those on 10 years and above recorded 4 (4%). for employment status, respondents on employment were 15 (14%), under-employed 26 (25%), unemployed 36 (35%) and those in self-employment were 27 (26%). ethical considerations in this study, the rights of the research participants were ensured. this was done by ensuring that the principles governing research participants were followed. the researcher ensured that the principle of voluntary participation, which requires that people are not coerced into participating in research was followed. the informed consent of the participants was ensured by explaining the aim of the study and the procedures involved. the researcher also guaranteed the participants of the confidentiality in their responses to questions. furthermore, the principle of anonymity was adhered to. the participants remained anonymous throughout the study. results test of hypothesis 1 h0: there is no significant relationship between the lsetf sponsored vocational training for ict entrepreneurship and its impacts on job creation for youths in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government in lagos state. h1: there is significant relationship between the lsetf sponsored vocational training for ict entrepreneurship and its impacts on job creation for youths in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government in lagos state. decision rule for hypothesis 1 the hypothesis results of the analysis conducted showed that as chi-square (x2) calculated value is 68.019 with 4 degree of freedom is greater than the table value of 9.488 and p-value 0.000 is less than that of 0.05 alpha levels, which means that null hypothesis (h0: is rejected and alternative hypothesis (h2) is accepted, which states that there is significant relationship between the lsetf sponsored vocational training for ict entrepreneurs and its impact on job creation for youths in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government in lagos state. qualitative research conducted using key informants showed that respondents from eight out of 10 participants (80%) interviewed agreed with quantitative research analysis finding. the eight participants commented, thus: ‘lsetf vocational training has made youths to become self-employed in the past. and with the emergence of covid-19 pandemic era, the state government’s vocational training programmes for ict entrepreneurs have encouraged youths to go into self-employment, working from home instead of searching for unavailable jobs.’ (kii, 02 april 2022, ikeja local government)1 test of hypothesis 2 h0: loans provided by lsetf to ict entrepreneurs have no significant effect on youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. h2: loans provided by lsetf to ict entrepreneurs have significant effect on youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. decision rule for hypothesis 2 the hypothesis results of the analysis conducted show that as chi-square (x2) calculated value is 84.365 with 4 degree of freedom is greater than the table value of 9.488 and p-value 0.000 is less than that of 0.05 alpha levels, which means that null hypothesis (h0) is rejected and alternate (h2) accepted, which states that loans provided through lsetf to ict entrepreneurs have significant effect on reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. however, findings from respondents in in-depth interviews from 10 key informants showed that six out of 10 participants (60%) agreed that loans facilities for ict entrepreneurs promoted job creation in the form of self-employment, while 40% disagreed. this is summarised below: ‘we agree that lsefts’ loan facilities to entrepreneurs have helped us to start new small businesses and reduced youths’ unemployment in ikeja local government in lagos state. with introduction of ict, entrepreneurs can now work virtually. 4 out of 10 (40%) participants differed. the loans from lseft are inadequate for us as many unemployed youths are many in ikeja local government in lagos state. the loan facilities are not capturing all unemployed youths. so, the lagos state should allocate more funds to lseft as loanable fund now that ict entrepreneurs are involved.’ (kii, 02 april 2022, ikeja local government)1 table 2: h0: there is no significant relationship between the lagos state employment trust fund sponsored vocational training for information communication technology entrepreneurship and its impacts on job creation for youths in post-covid-19 pandemic in ikeja local government in lagos state. table 3: chi square (x2) test statistics (statistical package for social sciences). table 4: h0: loans provided by lagos state employment trust fund to information communication technology entrepreneurs have no significant effect on youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. table 5: chi square (x2) test statistics (statistical package for social sciences). the disagreements among the key informants clearly show the significance of funding to enable ict entrepreneurs develop adequate infrastructures for effective business success. inadequate funding has been a challenge for msmes and including ict entrepreneurs exacerbates the problem of finance for that enterprise. discussion the study investigated that ict entrepreneurship training for job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. the two stated hypotheses in the study were analysed with a chi-square statistical test, using the spss to analyse responses from the questionnaire designed for the study. the findings are quite revealing. the first finding from test of hypothesis 1 stated that vocational training provided through lsetf for ict entrepreneurs has no significant effect on job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. the result showed that vocational training provided through lsetf has significant effect on job creation through self-employment and reduction of youths’ unemployment in ikeja local government in lagos state. this was ascertained with the aid of chi-square statistics using spss. previous studies in the literature also support the hypothesis that vocational training enhances acquisition of skills for job creation facilitating self-employment in different aspects of the economy, especially agriculture, knowledge workers, information technology entertainment and events planning sectors (akanwa & akpanabia 2012; eghweree & imuetinyan 2019; emeh 2012; odukoya 2020; sewell & taskin 2015). the second finding showed that there is a relationship between loans provided through lsetf to ict entrepreneurs have significant effect on reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 era in ikeja local government in lagos state. this hypothesis was tested with the aid of the chi-square statistical tools, using spss. the chi-square tested rejected the null hypothesis that stated that loans from lsetf to ict entrepreneurs resulted in reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. the alternative hypothesis was accepted. this finding is supported by previous studies from the literature on the subject that granting of loans for entrepreneurs resulted in the reduction of youths’ unemployment in lagos state (lsetf 2020; odukoya 2020). test of hypothesis 2 on ikeja local government area, therefore, confirms previous studies on the subject matter. this finding is also supported by responses from participants in key informants’ interview in qualitative data analysis. the entire 10 participants (100%) agreed that loans provided by lsetf to ict entrepreneurs facilitated reduction of youths’ unemployment in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. conclusion in sum, the first finding from the first hypothesis tested showed that lseft’s intervention programmes for ict entrepreneurs resulted in job creation in post-covid-19 pandemic era in ikeja local government in lagos state. before covid-19 pandemic, unarguably, msmes were tools for reducing youth unemployment, creating jobs and promoting entrepreneurship or self-employment in lagos state (nbs 2020). training of ict entrepreneurs in post-covid-19 era changed the narrative and generated more ict-based entrepreneurs in local government of lagos state in nigeria. the second finding from the test of hypothesis also showed that loans given to ict entrepreneurs helped to reduce youths’ unemployment in ikeja local government area of lagos state as it boosted employment opportunities for potential unemployed youths. this shows that post-covid-19 pandemic era intervention programmes of lsetf for ict entrepreneurs in ikeja local government area have made them to become change agents for job creation and reduction of youths’ unemployment. however, future research direction is required to conduct comparative study on lagos state’s unemployed youths in ikeja local government area, who benefitted from federal government directorate of employment ict skill acquisition programmes. based on these findings, the following are the recommendations: improve information and communication technology infrastructural development: there is need to recognise the fact that government is simply unable to mobilise enough capital required to invest in youths’ employment and ict entrepreneurship intervention programmes, in ikeja local government. lagos state government should, therefore, collaborate with private sector for private capital and know-how required to drive critical sectors, such as electricity supply, computer hardware and software promote and sustain ict entrepreneurship development. developing these facilities would provide the enabling environment for sustainable development of msmes, especially for ict entrepreneurs in ikeja local government and lagos state in general. diversify sources of loan facilities for information and communication technology entrepreneurs. lagos state employment trust fund agency should collaborate with federal government agencies, such as national directorate of employment, small and medium enterprises development agency (smedan), world bank and uk dfid, banks, cooperative units, among others, for loanable funds accessible to youths. for example: federal government funding of n220 billion allocated for micro, small and medium enterprises development (msmed) and youths’ entrepreneurship programmes could act as buffer loanable fund for lsetf programme that could promote ict entrepreneurship. (onyekelu 2016:12) collaborating with such federal government programmes would create more opportunities for ict entrepreneurs. the financial programme can bolster loanable funds for startups and encourage working from homes. besides, multi-sector collaboration should be utilised with cooperative system in the informal sector to provide access for more finance needed for ict business development and expansion. provision of loans for information and communication technology-based creative enterprises: government should encourage wealth creation capability through entrepreneurship activities in ict-based creative enterprises. creative enterprises such as performing arts, entertainment, indigenous music, film, visual arts and craft markets festivals can contribute significantly as main drivers of personal wealth, tourism, foreign direct investment and employment. there are pool funds from smedan, such as creative industries fund, fashion fund, cottage fund, agro-processing funds, among others, that can be leveraged to create jobs, thereby reducing youth unemployment in ikeja local government in lagos. these funds can be utilised as additional loanable funds for ict entrepreneurs in creative industries. the loan would make it possible for ict entrepreneurs to make use of social media, such as youtube, facebook, twitter, whatsapp, linkedin, among others, to make income for themselves, thereby reducing unemployment. creative industries can be a medium of job creation for the government that can reposition ikeja local government and lagos state as cities of excellence in ict entrepreneurship. vocational information and communication technology entrepreneurship training for skill acquisition and internship: lagos state employment trust fund’s current vocational training should be reformed as a result of realities of post-covid-19 pandemic era. vocational training in digital technology should be emphasised to provide small businesses with a strategic advantage, which can positively influence youths’ competitiveness in wealth creation and self-employment. information and communication technology skills are now considered relevant for health care, such as drones for medical supply deliveries, robotics in surgeons and telemedicine as well as sensors for proximity monitoring, agriculture, e-learning, teleworking, security and surveillance (inuwa 2020). vocational training on ict skills acquisition for youths (male and female) can assist start-ups, who benefit from lsetf ‘lagos innovates’ programme. this would enable the youths to transit from being job seekers to job creators by establishing innovative, technology-based start-ups and other digital enabled businesses. moreover, internship should be encouraged for ict entrepreneurs so that they can network with mentors in their chosen field of business endeavours. information communication technology entrepreneurship education: ikeja local government and lagos state should integrate entrepreneurship education into career programmes in tertiary institutions, in order to stimulate ict entrepreneurial attitudes before they enter employment market, whether as employer or for self-employment. acknowledgements i would like to acknowledge my wife and children for their support and encouragement during the field work of this study. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.n.e. is the sole author of this research article. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability data collected through primary and secondary sources during field work. no breach of copy right laws, patent or intellectual property of any person or group of persons or any organisations. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and 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delhi. tashakkori, a. & teddlie, c. (eds.), 2003, handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioural research, sage, thousand oaks, ca. uzor, b., 2015, ‘skills shortage weighs down icts contribution to economic growth’, businessday, 18 july, viewed 19 november 2022, from www.businessdayonline.com. yu, e., 2010, ‘information and communication technology in food assistance’, viewed 15 january 2011, from http://home.wifi.p.ora/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp225.972pdf. footnote 1. key informant interview (kii) held with 40 participants (grouped into 10 participants per session) on 02 april 2022 on msmes awareness for youths’ unemployment and self-employment in ikeja local government of lagos state of nigeria. abstract introduction conceptualising integrated development planning international perspective on integrated development planning south african integrated development planning structural designs and operational features new public management framework research approach findings from the semi-structured questionnaires findings from the survey instrument key contentions for the designs and features conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) pandelani h. munzhedzi department of public and development administration, faculty of management, commerce and law, university of venda, thohoyandou, south africa kedibone phago school of government studies, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa betty mubangizi school of management, it & governance, college of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, westville, south africa citation munzhedzi, p.h., phago, k. & mubangizi, b., 2022, ‘contending for the designs and features of integrated development planning in south africa? an empirical analysis of the limpopo province’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a77. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.77 note: limited participant information is provided in order to protect the anonymity of the participants. original research contending for the designs and features of integrated development planning in south africa? an empirical analysis of the limpopo province pandelani h. munzhedzi, kedibone phago, betty mubangizi received: 29 apr. 2022; accepted: 25 july 2022; published: 31 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the sphere of local government in south africa serves a pertinent role of realising the provision of basic municipal services. in this case, the legislative interventions consider it mandatory for every municipality to develop integrated development plans (idps) to facilitate their developmental agendas. these municipalities are required to undertake approval process of idps to eventually generate measurable municipal agenda as the basis for basic municipal service delivery. aim: this empirical study sought to analyse contentious issues regarding the structural design and operational features of the idp process. setting: some municipalities in the limpopo province were selected for case study purpose where data were collected. this was in two district municipalities. methods: semi-structured interviews with adept municipal officials and councillors as well as surveys with some members of the community were conducted to gather relevant data so that informed analysis could be generated. results: the findings highlight that the fundamental challenges of designs and features manifest on both the development and the implementation parts of the idp process. conclusion: it is therefore proposed, on the one hand, that there is a need to strengthen municipal capacity building for officials to facilitate an effective idp process. on the other hand, municipal councils are considered necessary to have the capacity to undertake their oversight role over the municipal executive and functions in driving the idp process agenda. in this way, a remedial consideration suitable for various categories of municipalities should be introduced. contribution: no contentious issues regarding the structural design and operational features of the integrated development planning process was discovered and also demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all regarding municipal planning and implementation. keywords: integrated development planning; participation; implementation; capacity; local communities. introduction the sphere of local government in south africa is a constitutional construct that comprises 257 municipalities as local, district or metropolitan. these municipalities are required to regularly ensure that they generate their development plans in 5-year periods with annual reviews. these processes of integrated development plan (idp) development and reviews for these municipalities should be committed to working with local communities and respective organisations within those communities with the purpose of finding sustainable ways to achieve their social, economic and material needs as well as improve the general quality of life of their people (maserumule 2008; van der waldt 2018). this is in accordance with the provision of sections 151–153 of the constitution of the republic of south africa 1996 (hereafter referred to as 1996 constitution) to broadly address the status, objectives and developmental duties of the local government. furthermore, the white paper on local government of 1998 repositions the discourse on developmental local government within the four interrelated features, namely, maximising social development and economic growth; integration and coordination; democratising development; leading and learning (department of provincial and local government 1998; xali 2005). these have subsequently informed the structural design and operational features of the entire democratic local government since its establishment in the year 2000. there is a need that integrated development planning process should address inadequacies of the past and reposition local government with its developmental mandate (munzhedzi & phago 2020; pycroft 1998). the design and features in the municipal planning processes requires the sphere of local government in south africa to work closely with other spheres of government and relevent stakeholders both in the development and implementation of the idps (maserumule 2008; van der waldt 2018). the historical background and geographical location of such municipalities often play a significant role in forming these relationships, including their level of dependency on other spheres of government (hemson, meyer & maphunye 2004; kanyane 2012; koma 2010). it should also be noted that the constitutional requirement for public administration to be development-oriented also applies to municipal administrations and municipal organs of the state (craythorne 2006; republic of south africa 2000). a conceptualisation of the integrated development planning process is provided in order to properly locate the discourse as used within the south african context. the question of a design of the structure of local government and feature of operationalising integrated development is considered to clarify the process of development and implementation of the required integrated development planning. a discussion of new public management (npm) as an important conceptual framework underpinning studies of this nature is advanced to demonstrate how the general regulatory environment for local government that does not befit (appropriate) local conditions of development to require such an approach (there cannot be a cost-recovery approach, which is underpinned by idp–npm in rural local government). this article used a mixed method approach in the form of semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires for its empirical data collection. the article seeks to undertake an analysis of issues considered contentious regarding the structural design and operational features of the integrated development planning process in south africa. the findings are advanced critically to highlight weaknesses inherent in the structural designs and operational features of integrated development planning process. in the final analysis, the conclusions and recommendations are made for reconsidering the relevance of some practices to strengthening the sphere of local government. conceptualising integrated development planning planning is a managerial function for all public institutions and serves as a prerequisite to determine the possible usage of resources and maintain accountability in realising their institutional mandate. integrated development planning is referred to as a participatory planning process aimed at integrating sectoral strategies, in order to support the allocation of scarce resources between sectors and geographic areas across the population in a manner that promotes sustainable growth, equity and empowerment of the poor and the marginalised (mashamba 2008; van der waldt 2018). pillay, tomlinson and du toit (2006) posit that such a process aims to offer a long-term vision for a municipality, detail the priorities of an elected council, link and coordinate sectoral plans and strategies, align financial and human resources with implementation needs, strengthen the focus on environmental sustainability and provide the basis for annual and medium-term budgeting. for the south african sphere of local government, a process of planning referred to was legislated as a uniform system required for all municipalities, which result in a document referred to as an idp. an idp is a culmination of a holistic consideration of a broad range of socio-economic, environmental, legal and other contextual factors (maphunye & mafunisa 2008). in terms of section 25(1) of the local government: municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000), all categories of municipalities, namely metropolitan, districts and local municipalities, are required to formulate their own idps for the purpose of integrating development within their jurisdiction. craythorne (2006) defines an idp as a plan aimed at the integrated development and management of the area of jurisdiction of a particular municipality. the idp takes the form of a report that sets out a single, inclusive strategic plan for the development of the municipality (republic of south africa 2000). one of the objectives of an idp is that it must propose practical initiatives for the development of the municipality, and that it must align available resources and capacity of the municipality with the implementation of the plan (govender 2005). local government: municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000) defines idp as a principal strategic planning instrument that guides and informs all planning and development and all decisions regarding planning, management and development in the municipality (xali 2005). for the purpose of this article, an idp should be considered as an integrated plan of municipalities containing key designs and features resembling the socio-economic and other contextual needs of the local citizens. international perspective on integrated development planning for developing nations to adequately address needs of their people, decision-making powers to plan ought to be decentralized (rondinelli 1981). this is undertaken through the system of integrated development planning facilitated by the sphere of local government. many other countries in the world including new zealand, switzerland and the united kingdom have moved away from an ad hoc planning to a more strategic and integrated approach of planning (harrison 2001). this planning, which is integrated and decentralised in nature, is well informed by the provisions of the npm framework, which declares that management of government systems must be decentralised, efficient and involves relevant stakeholders (munzhedzi 2020a). this framework prompted a shift from a bureaucratic model, which was characterised by red tape and inefficiency to a managerial model based on performance, accountability and efficiency (maserumule 2017:104). it therefore meant that the integrated development planning in most countries in the world starting from the west adopted a more decentralised system that engaged relevant stakeholders such as local communities. one of the main ideas behind the decentralised planning in the sphere of local government is that the more stakeholders are involved, the more supportive they are on the plans and policies of government. section “south african integrated development planning” discusses integrated development planning in the south african context. south african integrated development planning section 152 of the 1996 constitution is the foundation within which a provision for engaging relevant stakeholders during the integrated development planning process by the sphere of local government is made (van der waldt 2018:114). there are many other legislative frameworks, including the local government: municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000), and local government: municipal finance management act, 2003 (act 56 of 2003), that promote the participation of stakeholders in the integrated development planning and budgeting processes. the process undertaken to produce an idp consists of six phases (mashamba 2008; van der waldt 2018:123). the main phases in producing an idp as provided for by mashamba (2008:430) are the following: preparatory, analysis, strategies, project, integration and adoption. different roles and responsibilities by stakeholders are clarified in the preparatory phase (mashamba 2008:430; van der waldt 2018). current circumstances within a locality are then contextualised in the analysis phase. this analysis is inclusive of current socio-economic, political and environmental reality of that area. municipalities deal with the existing situation in the municipal area and focus on the problems or challenges facing communities in a particular municipal area (van der waldt 2018). during the strategies phase, municipalities formulate strategies to deal with problems identified. they develop a vision that includes achievable statement of intent of what they would like to achieve in short, medium and long terms. the vision entails the direction the municipality seeks to take also considering its own capacity and resources (munzhedzi 2020b). project phase entails the design and specification of projects for implementation. municipalities must identify location, commencement and completion date, project managers, project cost (projections), source of funding as well as beneficiaries (mashamba 2008; motingoe 2011:25). the output of the integration phase is an operational strategy, including a clear plan on the implementation of the developed idp. evaluation is done to ensure alignment between the vision, objectives, targets and strategies of the municipalities as well as other organs of the state. once the idp has been completed (compiled and edited), it is submitted to a municipal council for consideration and approval during the adoption phase. before municipal council approval, all relevant stakeholders and interested parties, including the public and other spheres of government, are granted an opportunity of commenting on the draft plan (munzhedzi 2020b; van der waldt 2018). these phases must be carefully followed in order to produce a required idp document. if ever there is a need to amend the existing idp after the comments or participation stage by relevant stakeholders, such a process must be allowed. after the above processes have been completed, the document should be submitted to a relevant member of executive council for assessment purposes. a municipality may translate the idp to other local official languages. structural designs and operational features the regulatory framework that considers idp as a compulsory tool for municipal planning has inherent one-size-fits-all problem. this requirement assumes that all municipalities of various sizes should be able to generate a comprehensive plan for their institutions. this requirement includes even municipalities with salient features, such as the following: rural: a substantial number of municipalities in south africa are rural, including those in the vhembe district municipality (vdm) and capricorn district municipality (cdm). declining population: young people in rural municipalities often move to urban areas in search of better employment, business and academic opportunities. subsequently, the population levels in these areas deteriorate (limpopo treasury 2019; stats sa 2011). restraint in capacity: albeit to the capacity of metropolitan municipalities, rural municipalities lack the requisite capacity to plan, collect revenue and implement relevant municipal policies (ababio, vyas-doorgapersad & mzini 2008; munzhedzi 2019). sustainable revenue streams: municipalities that are small and largely rural are often not financially viable and to an extent largely reliant on the higher spheres of government for revenue (kanyane 2012). consequently, the minimal revenue streams available are not sustainable for them to achieve their constitutional mandate. high unemployment: the limited economic activities at most of the small and rural municipalities contributes negatively to the huge number of unemployment in their jurisdiction. vhembe district municipality was reported to be having a 55.85% poverty rate (department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (cogta) 2011). vhembe district municipality has unemployment rate at 37% while cdm has also noted that unemployment in their district is substantially high (43.4%) (limpopo treasury 2019; stats sa 2011), particularly in the blouberg local municipality (cdm 2016). lower literacy levels: early childhood facilities and basic education schools fail to attract the best experts compared to their counterparts in major cities (limpopo treasury 2019; stats sa 2011). cdm (2016) posits that the literacy rate at the district is low. the above features are some of the critical descriptions for conditions of many municipalities in the limpopo province. the province remains one of the provinces lagging behind in the provision of basic municipal services, capacity development and community participation (mafunisa & xaba 2008; munzhedzi 2019). the analysis of municipalities in this province often identifies inherent weaknesses, which include internal institutional problems such as inadequate procurement procedures, leadership problems, skill shortages, deficient management and a lack of capacity (ababio et al. 2008), ineffective performance management system (pms) and a lack of institutional monitoring and evaluation system (ambe & badenhorst-weiss 2011; munzhedzi 2020c). the reports of the auditor general highlight that these issues are perpetual and have bedevilled many of the municipalities for an extended period of time where it is clear that internal controls are seriously lacking (auditor general of south africa 2018). this lagging behind regarding the delivery of basic services in these cases could mean that the designs and features of idps that are developed and implemented within these contexts are not always as effective and functional tools as they are intended. this article seeks to examine the relevance of the legislated integrated development planning process in the context of municipalities, which are poorer and unable to sustain themselves. this examination is undertaken through the use of the npm framework. new public management framework the use of npm framework as a tool of analysis in this article serves at least two overarching purposes: to locate the constitutional and legislative purpose to argue for the relevance of the npm framework as a tool of analysis for the integrated development process in the south african sphere of local government. the npm framework propagates that government should function and operate from a private sector principles orientation, including but not limited to efficiency, participatory planning, decentralisation, outsourcing, financial service reforms, cost-recovery and performance management (carstens & thornhill 2000; maserumule 2017). at the sphere of local government, which is essentially a sphere closest to its people, there are enacted legislative frameworks to provide meaning to chapter seven of the 1996 constitution, which broadly makes provision for the local government: for example, the provisions of the local government: municipal finance management act, 2003 (act 56 of 2003), to prescribe the entire financial management including the supply chain. in terms of this act the focus of decentralised financial management powers to the accounting officers (municipal managers) or their respective managers is maintained. the act is also emphatic on financial reporting and control, financial performance, curtailment of wastage, maladministration as well as identifying risk factors and solving them (republic of south africa 2003). the act has also made provision for accountability measures, such as the municipal public accounts committee (mpac), which is used as municipal council committee where members of the executive and administration account regarding their respective functions. all these are provisions of the npm. the npm as a framework encapsulates good and necessary intentions of transforming and shifting a paradigm from a traditional and bureaucratic public administration to a business-oriented public sector underpinned by principles, including but not limited to decentralisation of powers, participatory planning, effective and efficient performance management, financial service reforms, outsourcing and contract appointments (maserumule 2017; munzhedzi 2020a). integrated development planning is also a provision of the npm in that it promotes the decentralised planning and participation of stakeholders in the entire process. however, it is the view of these authors that the relevance of npm frameworks should be considered a ‘straight jacket’ solution for any public sector institutions. this concern is necessary to raise also bearing in mind the origin and conceptualisation and intention of this model during the 1970s and 1980s. the contention raised in this discourse is that in the context of many developing countries, including south africa, the issue of rurality means social and economic exclusions. in this case of rural communities the question that arises is whether the required integrated development planning serves a purpose? this question is raised on the basis of the fact that key npm principles, such as outsourcing, financial service reforms, cost-recovery and performance management, may not find relevance and expression within the context of rural–urban divide. for example, it is often difficult for these rural municipalities to charge full user charges for its services and recover expenses from its communities because of the socio-economic issues, such as high unemployment rates. these conditions may only serve to frustrate the intentions of the integrated development planning process, as this process embeds the principles of npm, which are clearly not conceptualised for such situations as manifesting in municipalities, such as vdm and cdm. research approach context limpopo province comprises five district municipalities and 22 local municipalities. two district municipalities, namely capricorn and vhembe, which consist of four local municipalities each, are the areas of focus in this article. vhembe district municipality comprises makhado, thulamela, musina and colins chabane local municipalities while cdm is made up of blouberg, lepelle-nkumpi, molemole and polokwane local municipalities. sampling the research for this article considered purposive sampling because of its relevance in the social sciences studies of this nature. out of the 51 respondents, 20 community members were samples while 31 officials (counselors and administrators) were interviewed: 10 idp managers (or an official responsible for integrated development planning process at the municipalities), 10 councillors, 10 officials responsible for idp implementation at both the local and district municipalities and 20 members of local communities as well as one (1) senior manager responsible for idp coordination in the province at the limpopo’s department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs. members of local communities have also been selected purposively with specific focus to either civic committee members or ward committee members. this means that the targeted area is inclusive of eight (8) local municipalities and two (2) district municipalities. the reason these participants were chosen is because they are relevant and better placed at municipalities, and they are familiar with all the integrated development planning processes as well as the challenges that confront its development and implementation. the two districts were chosen because they are able to paint a good picture of a largely rural versus largely urban and semi-urban communities. data collection methods a good prerequisite for any research is a well-defined research problem, which should be logically followed by an adequate research design. babbie (2011) refers to research design as a plan or even a blueprint on how a particular researcher seeks to unfold himself or herself in so far as the identified research problem is concerned. descriptive research design was adopted because it collects accurate data and provides a clear picture of the phenomenon under study. the research problem is that regulatory framework governing municipal planning considers idp as a compulsory tool for municipal planning, and has inherent one-size-fits-all problem. the assumption is that all categories of municipalities in the country should be able to generate a comprehensive plan for their institutions. this difficult requirement includes even municipalities with salient features, such as the following: rural, declining population, restraint in capacity, unsustainable revenue streams, high unemployment and lower literacy levels. this article applied a mixed method approach of qualitative data from the provincial and municipal officials and quantitative data from the local communities. with regard to the former, participants in the form of ward councillors and public and municipal officials, data collection was done through semi-structured interview instrument. bless, higson-smith and kagee (2006) claim that semi-structured questionnaires are the most suitable in social sciences studies of this nature where examination, exploratory case studies or even studies based on qualitative analysis of data are concerned. in the case of the latter, participants from local communities were contacted to complete a survey instrument with structured questions where responses were limited to only the options provided. structured questionnaires are considered to have advantages, including the fact that it is easier to expedite the data collection process especially where community members are involved. critical ethical considerations were observed when collecting data. the data collected through qualitative means were thematically analysed while data collected through quantitative means were analysed using spss version 25.0. findings from the semi-structured questionnaires these findings were made on the basis of primary data collected from semi-structured questionnaires. the instruments were developed and informed by the literature review on local government and integrated development planning. what was also critical for consideration included the npm theory as a framework underpinning the study. in this way, some key aspects of the npm are considered on the basis of their relevance and/or contentions to the designs and features of integrated development planning process in municipalities within limpopo province. the following findings are propounded: municipal resources and capacity as expected, embedding npm framework assumes that municipal resources and capacity are an institutional strength. resources are inclusive of human, financial or material resources that are required in the development of an idp document. in the case of capacity, the focus is more on skills, education and experience of the municipal human resources as well as their technical know-how. one of the municipal legislative mandates is to develop, adopt and implement an idp framework. the question to the participants (officials and councillors) has been whether these municipalities (specifically in the limpopo province) have the required and necessary resources and capacities to develop their own credible idp documents. a majority of participants indicated that municipalities in the province lack capacity and required skills regarding the development and implementation of their own idp. one respondent puts clearly and said: ‘[t]he municipal idp units in the province are understaffed and also lack required skills and expertise to develop informative and credible idps. there is a need to appoint researchers, economist, and statisticians within these idp units to support this key municipal function.’ (p162) it was also indicated by another respondent that: ‘[m]ost municipalities only have an idp manager without support staff or an idp officer without a manager and fellow colleagues. this kind of a situation leaves a gap to engage thoroughly on municipal planning issues.’ (p163) however, the lesser number of participants indicated that in their view they consider capacity and expertise in the municipalities in the limpopo province sufficient. this lack of resources and capacity of most municipalities as highlighted by one provincial official is that: ‘[h]as led the provincial government through the department of cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs resolving that all municipalities in the province should strive to develop their own idps. only a few municipalities still needs to be capacitated to a desired level. this means that most municipalities in the province posses necessary resources and capacities to develop credible idps in their areas.’ (p163) the internal capacity assists municipalities regarding the development, adoption, review and implementation of their own idp as opposed to outsourcing the planning function to external service providers, such as consultants. several municipalities have relied on the services of consultants when they can develop their internal capacities as claimed by van der waldt (2018). it is also advisable for municipalities to dedicate sufficient resources (human and financial) to their idp programmes. they must appoint, equip and retain qualified personnel to deal with planning processes. participation of external role-players during the integrated development planning process, there is desired participation and involvement of intended external role-players, including but not limited to provincial and national government departments (mafunisa & xaba 2008; van der waldt 2018). the participants were asked whether they believe that there’s effective participation by government departments. all the participants unanimously concurred that there is no effective participation by provincial and national departments in the process of integrated development planning as posited by literature. while participants believe that some of these government departments do participate, their views are that they remain minimal and insignificant. a participant posited that: ‘these government departments which are considered as sector departments just provide the municipality with the list of projects they intend to do at a particular municipality. after the provision of such a list, there is no reporting on the status and progress of the projects.’ (p161) another participant indicated that: ‘instead of a cooperation for providing financial, human and capital support, these sector departments prefer to usurp municipal functions.’ (p162) the above responses demonstrate that there are cases where some sector departments have been unable to deliver on their mandates. other issues, which are considered to be hampering effective participation of these external role-players as highlighted by participants, include the following: limited knowledge of idp issues within sector departments poor coordination lack of adherence to idp review frameworks and process plans poor alignment of idp and intergovernmental structures and clusters poor participation of key stakeholders (important role-players) in the idp representative forums, such as the business community. the question of external role players as highlighted in these responses indicates a proper conceptualisation of what roles and skills are necessary. this should seek to determine interventions required to ensure that external role players are not only involved but also maximise their involvement for realising a municipal planning in any form. participation of internal stakeholders participation of internal stakeholders, such as idp manager and the municipal manager, in the integrated development planning is of paramount importance. these particular stakeholders are legally mandated to play a principal role during both the development and the implementation of the idps, including all other related municipal programmes (van der waldt 2018). on this basis, it was then probed from participants to provide a view on whether they consider the participation of internal stakeholders in the municipal idp processes is sufficient. an overwhelming response was positive that the participation of internal stakeholders is sufficient in that they are mandated and obligated by section 6(2) of the local government: municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000), to facilitate the whole process of development to adoption of the idp by the municipal council. a respondent stated that the municipal manager as the overall administrative head of the municipality (accounting officer) takes a lead in the integrated development planning, participation and budgeting processes. on the contrary, interviewees cautioned that: ‘one key challenge is that some senior managers reporting to the municipal manager do not regard the integrated development planning process as their key function. these managers often lack an understanding of their strategic role in the functioning of the municipality in relation to integrated development planning. such a situation leaves too much responsibility in the sole care of the idp manager who would easily get overwhelmed.’ (p159) these views require more investigations to understand what is needed to make sufficient participation of internal stakeholders successful. this observation is made on the above responses, which consider internal stakeholders as sufficiently involved despite the fact that responses on the other sections of the primary data and the literature review demonstrate municipal performance issues at a large scale as outlined below. aligning performance management performance management system requires a regular assessment of the performance of key stakeholders responsible for idp process. it is actually referred to as an instrument used to harness all available resources, including human, financial and material, in order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. participants were requested to respond on the alignment of performance management tool to the development and implementation of idp process. all participants were clear that while they were aware of the performance management tool and assessments, they were not always sure of the alignment with the entire municipal integrated development planning process. in addressing this point, a significant number of officials interviewed indicated that service delivery and budget implementation plan (sdbip) determines the performance agreements between the mayor and municipal manager, and the municipal manager and his or her senior management. the sdbip is a framework that provides for the costing and implementation of idp plans and needs to be approved through council. the participants concurred that: it is only through proper alignment and integration of the different processes that the design and features of the integrated development planning process could be made relevant. these processes are inclusive of municipal planning, budgeting, monitoring, measuring, reviewing and reporting that successful management of performance and service delivery (though performance management system) can take place. (p160) the above response points clearly to a lack of alignment necessary for performance agreements of the key stakeholders with the municipal integrated development planning. without such focused initiatives of consistent alignment of the various interventions, including performance agreements, it further weakens the prospects of any potential success (motingoe 2011). findings from the survey instrument structured questionnaires in the form of surveys were utilised on 20 carefully selected local community members to obtain their views on development and implementation challenges in the province. these selected community members were purposively selected on the basis that they are involved in the municipal processes and represent any community structure on municipal forums, such as ward committee. the identified challenges from the local communities are discussed in the following sections. municipal resources to implement integrated development plan process this question sought to determine resources that are considered to be most lacking in their respective municipalities and that could have a negative bearing on service delivery. the results are shown in figure 1. on the one hand, the highest percentage (45%) of participants believes that the most lacking resource in municipalities is financial resources. on the other hand, 35% of the participants claim that municipalities have resources but fail to manage them effectively and efficiently. quite a substantial percentage (15%) believe human resources is also lacking substantially to an extent of affecting implementation of the adopted idp, whereas 5% opines that other than financial and human resources, material resource is lacking in huge droves. figure 1: municipal resources to implement integrated development plan process. two key issues are observable regarding this feedback: firstly, community members consider allocation of resources a serious issue. secondly, community members believe that municipalities often lack the capacity to manage resources to support effective and efficient municipal functioning. both observations highlight that the community views regarding municipal resources are negatively based on the outcomes of municipal services delivery. budget expenditure in view of the ongoing under expenditures, respondends indicated what they consider as reasons for municipal budgets often not being spent even in instances where municipal services have not been rendered. as shown in figure 2, the responses highlight a lack of political will (by the municipal executives or council) (10%); a lack of requisite skills, such as accountants (15%); corruption and maladministration (30%); all of these (40%); some of these (5%); and none of these (0%). most participants (40%) considered the option of ‘all of these’, which is ideally intended to be inclusive of a lack of requisite skills, a lack of political will as well as corruption and maladministration. this is in concurrence to the assertion made by munzhedzi (2016). the second highest option of ‘corruption’ also means that there is a strong opinion within communities regarding the fact the public funds do not benefit citizens. figure 2: budget expenditure. monitoring and evaluation of municipal performance the purpose of the question was to probe understanding on how monitoring and evaluation of the overall municipal performance is undertaken. because this should be the primary role of a municipal council, the essence of this question was to determine whether community members are able to understand such basic municipal processes and keep councillors accountable. in the options provided, 52% signifies that it is the provincial government, 23% indicate that it is the municipal council, 15% showed that ‘it does not look like there is monitoring and evaluation of performance’ and 8% demonstrated that it is ‘internal structures including audit committees and internal audit’. the remaining 2% specified their own structure that does adequate monitoring and evaluation of municipal performance, which is the local communities. unfortunately, as shown in figure 3, a fair majority (52%) consider the monitoring of municipal performance as a function of the provincial government. the second moderate majority (23%) appropriately consider this as the function of municipal council. the responses of the third smallest majority (15%) reflect an interesting response, which is critical because it highlights the fact that some community members consider municipalities as seriously compromised and even unaccountable. figure 3: monitoring and evaluation of municipal performance. these overall key findings converge on the fact that community members are not conversant with the role of council in its monitoring and evaluation responsibility. the implications of such responses are dire as they highlight the fact that municipal participatory structures for community members need to be strengthened in ensuring that citizens’ roles are well understood, including the lines of accountability (mafunisa & xaba 2008; munzhedzi 2020b). community participation to establish the meaning of community participation for local communities, participants were requested to identify the most appropriate options as provided in the survey instrument. the three options were that community participation refers to (1) attending community meetings (2) disagreeing with municipal officials or (3) providing inputs on municipal issues that directly or indirectly affect their community as demonstrated in figure 4. as can be seen in figure 4, the highest number (58%) of responses considered option 1 highlighting a mere attendance of community meetings. the second highest responses (30%) were of the view that community participation is about making inputs on municipal affairs, which could essentially inform municipal decisions as posited by mafunisa and xaba (2008). figure 4: community participation. the above responses highlight the fact that a significant number of participants understand their role as more passive in that mainly attendance of meetings could be sufficient. the important matter of community participation needs to inform the design and features of municipal planning. key contentions for the designs and features the article sought to undertake an analysis of issues considered contentious regarding the structural design and operational features of the integrated development planning process in south africa. an empirical study was undertaken in vdm and cdm of the limpopo province for this analysis and provides essential observations on what could be done to improve these designs and features of municipal planning. the essence of this approach is also corroborated by the report for 2017/2018 financial year by the office of the auditor general of the republic of south africa highlighting a declining audit performance for many municipalities in south africa, including vdm and cdm. some of the following key contentions serve as challenges that need to be addressed to effect improvement in municipal planning process in no particular order: municipal capacity while the issue of municipal capacity remains a serious challenge, it is clear that many of the interventions such as project consolidate and local government turnaround strategy (lgtas) have not yielded the required results to improve municipal performance. project consolidate was a presidential programme that was designed by the government of south africa to address the underperformance of certain ailing municipalities in 2004 (cogta 2009:10) while lgtas was a mechanism of ensuring that municipalities are able to render required municipal services. however, to this day municipalities are still grappling with the ability to provide basic municipal services (kanyane 2012; munzhedzi 2019; van der waldt 2018). this perpetual lack of capacity since the democratisation of local government in 2000 to deliver continues to position municipalities as fragile and unable to meet community expectations to provide basic municipal services. this situation therefore presents this fragility and suggests that municipalities are clearly unable to strengthen their capacity where their structural designs and operational features serve the interest of local communities. one-size-fits-all mentality the nature of regulatory environment for municipal planning provides some serious contradictions with categorisation of municipalities as provided for in the 1996 constitution and the local government: municipal structures act, 1998 (act 117 of 1998). this is because categorisation of municipalities takes into account key local features such as population and economic activities. in this case, there is a need to acknowledge that key municipal designs and features, such as municipal capacity, performance and revenue should, also follow a similar approach and structural design of municipal categorisation. the main contention of this aspect is that the one-size-fits-all approach as currently used, which has demonstrated flagrant limitations over the 19-year period since democratisation of the local government. this approach continues to undermine the urgent needs of many local communities of the rural municipalities in south africa as their designs and features would instead continue to serve the needs of the political elites. municipal oversight the current configuration of municipalities requires radical changes to improve their oversight functions. clearly municipal structures, such as ward committees, councils and mpacs as indicated in this article, are struggling to optimise their contribution to ameliorate municipal planning (van der waldt 2018; vdm 2016). new models and approaches are required for appropriating municipalities to their local communities instead of having them as a burden to the national fiscus. such models could provide significant shifts to allow external stakeholders, such as institutions of higher learning and civil society organisations, to provide professional support and participate in the decision-making processes to improve municipal oversight. for such external stakeholders to be involved, an accreditation requirement could be made for experts within schools of governance and civil society organisations. in this case, professional support and participation should be linked to possible localised development initiatives in accordance with the developmental mandate of local government instead of political interests and expediencies. this would serve to strengthen structural designs where integrated development planning implementation is realised and value chain processes remain fully accountable. municipal revenue many rural municipalities, such as vdm, are experiencing economic hardships and high unemployment rates (poverty rate is at 55.85%) (cogta 2011). capricorn district municipality cannot be absolved from these hardships as well. the municipal revenue bases of many of these struggling rural municipalities are caused by a lack of robust business activities in their areas (kanyane 2012). it is imperative that a requirement be considered for municipal status to be maintained and that at least 50% of its operational budget be generated from within. this could be important to maintain accountability and sustainability where various adept structures and features take ownership of these key municipal decisions. strengthening municipal accountability the problem of impunity and accountability requires stringent measures that are able to deter the misuse of municipal resources, which mainly benefits the political elites and their connections. there is a need to increase investigative and prosecution capabilities of both the police and national prosecuting authority. while reports are regularly and annually issued by the offices of the auditor general and public protector, among others, there has been low prosecution rate on wrong doing on municipal corruption. the stubborn problem of fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditures continues unabated at the expense of a local development agenda. in this way, the potential for maintaining strong structural designs and operational features remains subverted. conclusion and recommendations it is clear from this article that the structural designs and operational features of municipalities in south africa are deficient in that there is a one-size-fits-all approach despite the various categories of municipalities. based on the qualitative and quantitative data collected and analysed from the selected participants from vdm and cdm in the limpopo province, it is concluded that these municipalities lack requisite municipal capacity (often technical), financial and human resources, and political will to develop and implement credible idps. a metropolitan municipality in a city can never have the same planning and revenue collection capacity like the collins chabane local municipality in the vdm, which is mainly rural. in instances where the financial resources are available, the collected data state that municipalities often lack the capacity and skills to implement most of their programmes, including the idps and municipal budget, because of the same structural designs and operational features of many rural municipalities. one of the functional challenges is that there is weak participation by external stakeholders such as sector departments. internal stakeholders do play their mandated role in terms of the relevant legislative prescripts notwithstanding their often limited capacity. it is further concluded that there is no effective mechanism of monitoring and evaluating municipal performances. to that end, there is no proper alignment between individual performance, idps, sdbip as well as the municipal budget. the understanding of the community participation processes by members of the local communities is not sufficient. the npm theory, which inculcates the principles of decentralisation, cost-recovery approach and continuous accountability, is generic in nature in that some municipalities particularly rural ones lack the requisite municipal capacity to plan and to do cost recovery. on the whole, municipal idps cannot be a reflection of community issues when the participation of local communities is not to an adequate level precisely because their understanding is limited. the contention highlighted in this article is that the structural designs and operational features of rural municipalities are totally different from those of urban municipalities. while the legislative prescripts prescribe uniform procedures and methods of planning, revenue collection and policy implementation, this article proposes a revision to this model to reverse a one-size-fits-all approach. the following is recommended to address some of the highlighted challenges: municipalities should work with institutions of higher learning to capacitate their officials through shortand long-term learning programmes. regular workshops and bursaries to study at these institutions may contribute positively to skill capacity. largely rural municipalities should benchmark with effective urban ones to learn how best to collect revenue from their jurisdictions. this is because not every member of a largely rural municipality is unemployed and lacks financial capacity. the municipal councils should be beefed up to ensure effective and efficient oversight over the municipal executive and administration. this should be cascaded to all committees of the municipal councils, including mpacs. all officials must be held to account through various municipal mechanisms, including pms, and monitoring and evaluations. the specific environmental factors of each municipality must be taken into consideration when municipal plans, budget and policies are developed to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. acknowledgements these research results were part of a doctoral thesis submitted at the university of kwazulu natal in south africa for examination purpose. competing interests the authors declare that there is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. authors’ contributions this is from a supervised doctoral work. the first author is the student while the other two authors were supervisors. ethical considerations ukzn approved the ethical clearance as part of a completed doctoral study (hss/2186/017d. 6/12/2017). funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. 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informal settlement project’, unpublished masters dissertation, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. abstract introduction and background overview and conceptualisation of terms overview of municipality performance and efficiency literature review materials and methods results and discussion conclusion, policy recommendations and areas of future research acknowledgements references appendix 1 about the author(s) syden mishi department of economics, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa nwabisa mbaleki department of economics, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa farai b. mushonga department of economics, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation mishi, s., mbaleki, n. & mushonga, f.b., 2022, ‘financial mismanagement and efficiency trade-off in local municipalities: lessons from eastern cape, south africa’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a68. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.68 original research financial mismanagement and efficiency trade-off in local municipalities: lessons from eastern cape, south africa syden mishi, nwabisa mbaleki, farai b. mushonga received: 15 feb. 2022; accepted: 01 june 2022; published: 29 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: local governments are considered an essential part of interpreting and integrating laws and policies at the local level. there is a growing realisation that the success of local government is vital to alleviating poverty and delivering services to communities. however, financial mismanagement as per audit reports has affected a number of local authorities and continues to be a hindrance to progress. aim: this study was set to investigate the level of efficiency in each municipality and how financial mismanagement (unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure) influences that efficiency. setting: the study considered all local municipalities within the eastern cape province of south africa, using publicly available data on each municipality’s performance and financial management. the data available and utilised are for the financial years 2012–2015. methods: the study used a non-parametric linear programming-based technique to compute efficiencies, with the local municipality being the decision-making unit. the implications of financial mismanagement on efficiency are determined in a second-stage regression model with the use of panel tobit regression. results: we found that the mean efficiency ranges between 0.407 (moderate) and 0.724 (high) in general, however, with greater variation across municipalities. fruitless and wasteful expenditure and unauthorised expenditure negatively affect the total effciency scores. irregular expenditure has no statistical effect on efficiency, arguably because of the nature of this financial mismanagement being expenditure that may be for a good cause but not approved procedurally. conclusion: there is room to increase efficiency in studied municipalities, especially by reducing wasteful expenditure and unauthorised expenditure. the public finance management act provides astute guidelines that will bring efficiencies in municipalities; however, a review may be necessary to be progressive. the south african local government association and cooperative governance and traditional affairs department must capacitate municipalities and work with the auditor general to implement audit recommendations. keywords: smart cities; public finance management; local economic development; municipality efficiency; decentralization; wasteful expenditure; irregular expenditure; service delivery. introduction and background in many developing countries, the failure of the central government to avoid large fiscal deficits and macro-economic instability and to provide adequate services has generated an increasing interest in the decentralisation of government functions (ebel & yilmaz 2003). south africa, like australia and new zealand, has a developed government structure that gives much authority and discretion to lower tiers of government (province and local government). the idea of such a structure is that development is best administered and spearheaded at the grassroots where it is needed. however, that depends on how competently such authorities will be run, mostly when it comes to financial resources. skilling of municipal management is one way to ensure operational efficiency, as argued in a study by patience and nel (2021). the south african local government is viewed as an essential part of integrating laws and policies to cater for every citizen and those who were unfairly treated by the apartheid system by providing services to people in a sustainable way (gopane 2012). however, when local governments fail to meet these expectations, decentralisation has often been blamed for the underperformance (ebel & yilmaz 2003). south africa consists of 257 municipalities, but according to the audit report by south africa’s auditor general, only 8% of the total municipalities had a clean audit in the financial year 2017–2018, with irregular spending estimated to be r21.2 billion in the region (agsa [auditor general of south africa] 2019). the south african government has taken great steps in ensuring the promotion of economic growth and development through implementing legislation and regulations that target the improvement of living conditions of its citizens, especially the poor, since democratisation in 1994 (madumo 2015). however, it has been challenging for the government to accelerate development because of increasing difficulties such as corruption, mismanagement, maladministration and much more ills within different spheres of government (mathiba 2021). despite the country’s strong economic policy framework, the government has failed to create jobs and increase productivity aimed at improving the country’s gdp per capita (fourie 2014), especially in the eastern cape province (kavese & erero 2018). local economic development has not yielded expected results to address unemployment, create business opportunities and help diversify local and regional economies. in addition, municipalities and provinces were structured with federal elements of self-governance to try to tackle the socio-economic issues in south africa (dick-sagoe 2020). however, the municipalities have faced challenges, such as the inability to facilitate and improve societal development (madumo 2015; mathiba 2021). furthermore, to fast-track the implementation of service delivery, financial management and infrastructure development, the local government introduced the local government turnaround strategy (cogta [cooperative and governance and traditional affairs] 2019). this strategy was introduced to promote accountability and effective, efficient local government. however, the government is continuously experiencing revenue shortfalls because of the increasing government expenditure that usually exceeds the estimated budget and planned outlays, which then leads to periodic fiscal stress. according to nini and sgqolana (2018), municipalities in the eastern cape have struggled to be efficient because of their poor performance, political instability and irregular expenditure, where municipalities are constantly asking for financial assistance from the national government. the eastern cape (ec) is mostly known as the manufacturing centre for major auto companies, such as volkswagen and mercedes-benz, and it has a rich cultural heritage embodied in the home of legends, which is also a true reflection of the senior political leaders who have emerged from this province. the ec consists of 45 municipalities (six district, two metropolitan and 37 local), and only 13% of these municipalities have shown improvement and could provide a quality financial statement to comply with key legislation for the financial period of 2017–2018 (ncapayi 2019). therefore, 77% of these municipalities have remained inefficient with irregular expenditure and mismanagement of funds. according to the public finance management act (1999), government spending that is not in line with the required application of any legislation, the state tender board (as implemented in 1968) and any provincial legislation for procurement procedure in a local government is considered irregular expenditure. gopane (2012) stated that these municipalities are characterised by poverty and the expanse of rural communities; hence, there is a desperate need to improve their functioning to help address problems of inequality, poverty and unemployment. in addition, booysen (2012) reported that most executive positions in these municipalities are occupied by unqualified personnel. this compounds the problem, with the system generally being unsuccessful in converting debt into cash over several years, as evidenced by the age of the debt in municipalities. the resulting overall challenge is poor service delivery. lack of service delivery has in many cases led to violent and destructive strike actions, which put leadership capabilities in question (mbandlwa & mishi 2020). according to rakabe (2013), most provinces claim to face exogenous cost pressures (some of which are imposed by national government departments) and increasing demand for services that do not always match adequate transfers. with so much complexity over what constitutes provincial fiscal stress, the ability of the national government to hold provinces accountable for service delivery becomes limited, whilst provinces have limited incentives to use resources efficiently because they know that they cannot be held fully responsible for failure to deliver (fourie 2014). fiscal stress for cities has long been acknowledged globally (dethier 2013), vindicating the more urgent need for optimal use of available resources. against this background, this study measures the efficiency levels of each municipality in the eastern cape and examines trends over time. this study then investigates how inappropriate expenditure (financial mismanagement) affects such efficiency. there is often an argument by municipal management that irregular, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure often takes place to improve service delivery in the face of the stringent municipal financial management act (mfma) – that is, it is in the interest of the public (clive ndou 2021; greater tzaneen municipality 2019; north west provincial legislature 2019). the rest of the study is organised as follows: the next section presents a conceptualisation of the key terms and contextualising variables, followed by the literature review, followed by methodology, results and discussion, then the conclusion and recommendations. overview and conceptualisation of terms financial mismanagement in south africa performance measurements for municipalities are diverse (pollanen 2005), one being from financial management, which rangongo, mohlakwana and beckmann (2016) defined as strategies that are implemented by an entity (in this case a municipality) to meet its financial goals. the implementation of these financial management goals can be analysed to evaluate their actualisation. sibanda, zindi and maramura (2020) stated that the evaluation of the financial management goals involves an analysis of how effectively the financial resources have been managed to achieve the optimal goals of the municipality. the analysis of the actualisation of these goals in south africa has revealed that there is financial mismanagement that can be described as unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure causing financial distress (glasser & wright 2020). according to dlomo (2017), financial mismanagement in south africa is mainly dominated by unacceptable tender processes and inability to follow procedures and variations in the procurement of goods, in which all these are regulated by the law. financial management of municipalities in south africa is guided by legislation in which the constitution provides the framework and guidelines of financial management in south africa (dlomo 2017). section 152 of the constitution of south africa states that municipalities must provide adequate services to their residents to pursue their services (south african constitution), which dlomo (2017) argued to mean that municipalities are accountable to their residents. dlomo (2017) further stated that numerous components of financial management are also explained in section 195(1), section 160(2), 215 and 227, explaining budgetary components, revenue and expenditure, respectively. according to perez-lopez, prior and zafra-gómez (2015), the sustainability of the constitution is supported by the municipal finance management act (act 56 of 2003), the municipal structures act (act 117 of 1998) and the municipal systems act (act 32 of 2000). another legislation that governs local government is called the public financial management act (pfma). the pfma regulates the handling of budgets in national and local governments. furthermore, the pfma is responsible for promoting efficiency and effectiveness of income, expenditure, assets and liabilities by laying out procedures (south africa, national treasury 2010). it points out the roles and obligations of government officials handling finance. the goal is to enforce accountability and transparency amongst government and public institutions. furthermore, the act describes expenditure that was not incurred in the manner prescribed by the legislation; this expenditure might have been incurred out of the budgetary guidelines, for instance, somewhere in the process that led to the expenditure, and the auditee did not comply with the applicable legislation that is stipulated in municipal finance management act 56 of 2003. monkam (2014) stated that financial mismanagement in south africa is a result of failures that are derived from poor supply chain management, performance reporting and risk management, whilst sibanda et al. (2020) found that one of the causes of financial mismanagement is inefficient internal control measures. dlomo (2017) and glasser and wright (2020) also identified that municipalities in south africa have poor internal control systems, and there is a need for the effective implementation of internal control measures to ensure that financial activities are completely accounted for and presented. dlomo (2017) further identified that financial mismanagement in south africa is a result of poor benchmarking, with lampe, hilgers and ihl (2015) stating that benchmarking derives from commitment and adherence to policies, processes and practices to achieve a clean audit. nzama (2019) identified that municipalities in south africa do have budgets that they follow, and the issues of irregular expenditure arise from amendments of these budgets that do not follow due process and fall under financial mismanagement, as guided by the municipal systems act of 2000. nokwazi and prunella (2017) highlighted that south african municipalities face irregular expenditure because of auditing, which is in itself not done on a regular basis. dlomo (2017) noted that auditing is important as it reveals fraud and incompetence, and when done regularly, any mismanagement can quickly be rectified and prevented. laubscher (2012) noted that financial management can also be because of poor planning of the municipality and that poor human resource management is one of the organisational issues that lead to irregular expenditure. the enactment of the municipal finance management act (mfma) brought new hope to local municipalities that are expected to adhere to their provisions in the delivery of services. however, poor financial accountability and lack of transparency in municipal finance management adversely affect the capacity of the local municipality to uphold good governance mbatha, (2020). overview of municipality performance and efficiency municipal performance measurement municipal performance is assessed through five key performance areas (kpas), namely municipal transformation, organisational transformation, local economic development (led), basic service delivery and good governance and public participation. their details and how each is related to this study are presented subsequently. key performance area 1: municipal transformation the following factors illustrate how organisational frameworks and job dynamics of municipalities relate to municipal transition and structural growth to achieve municipal transformation and local government needs. stabilisation of administrative and political elements within municipalities: according to de visser (2010), municipalities face significant problems in terms of interfaces between politicians and authorities. furthermore, the order of the day appears to be inadequate political interference in administrative matters, as well as strained relations between key political and administrative officials in the municipalities. this is often blamed for the lack of division of authority between legislative and executive bodies at the local government level. according to motta and moreira (2009), municipal administration can be influenced by municipal circumstances and election disputes for elected offices or by local elections for state and federal offices. political officials, however, also have other goals other than supporting their local citizens. when politicians prioritise their own goals that will benefit them instead of the community, this often leads to looting and wasteful expenditures. this is common in most municipalities in the ec, with wasteful expenditure increasing, and more blame is directed at councils who are not even qualified for the job positions they occupy, according to an audit report (ncapayi 2019). implement a comprehensive capacity-building program: local government has a special role in the state system, and there is a growing realisation that the success of the local government is vital to alleviate poverty and deliver services to communities. however, there is also a need to reflect on the ability of individual municipalities to enhance their quality of government and the standard of service delivery (scheepers 2015). this includes having municipal managers, senior managers (section 57 of the systems act), professionals such as chief finance officers, engineers and it specialists and all other staff levels. organisational structure and skills development: for municipalities to be efficient, programmes that promote development skills and performance-oriented needs must be adopted. this includes offering bursary schemes to both employees and students within the jurisdiction of the municipalities, adapting management programmes making sure managers and supervisors are competent and providing training for councillors to enhance their leadership skills and competency in the organisation. the efficiency and financial management of municipalities are dependent on how competent employees are. therefore, local government is encouraged to invest in human capital and implement an organisational structure that promotes efficiency in the organisation. key performance area 2: local economic development it is acknowledged that local economic development is based on a local effort, guided by local stakeholders, and requires the recognition and use of local resources, ideas and expertise in an organised way to promote economic growth scheepers (2015), there are four fundamental forces that drive the new call for funding cooperatives and smmes: firstly, the mainstreaming of youth entrepreneurship; secondly, support for smmes through manufacturing and service sector growth; thirdly, encouraging and understanding the township economy; and lastly, strengthening led planning and service. there has been an improved performance in municipalities with regard to led (eastern cape annual report 2016). the general increase in results may be mostly because of the fact that certain municipalities have correctly given complete attention to their performance in accordance with all performance metrics, as stipulated by the cogta department. these municipalities have managed to create jobs, alleviate poverty and improve the standard of living, whilst being financially accountable for budgetary expenditure and revenues (meyer 2014). therefore, the implementation of led encourages efficiency in municipalities because resources are directed to where they are needed the most. key performance area 3: basic service delivery the delivery of essential services is the central business of local government. without the required provision of infrastructure, efforts to meet this mandate would be unsuccessful. provision of basic services by municipalities has increased in the eastern cape province. most citizens have access to basic services such as clean water, electricity, housing and more. however, the province is faced with net immigration. therefore, it is unable to fund all goals because of limited income (kavese & erero 2018). municipalities therefore need to have programmes of urgency to provide service for urgent matters that may hinder economic growth and development, whilst concentrating on systemic and sustained capacity development over the long term (south africa, department of provincial and local government 2005). service delivery is used as the output variable to measure the efficiency scores of municipalities. there is a positive relationship between efficiency and service in delivery. this is because service delivery also improves as efficiency improves. when service delivery increases at a decreasing value, wasteful expenditure increases, and this means that instead of using the limited available resources to provide basic service to society, these resources are used for activities that do not promote economic growth and development in societies. key performance area 4: municipal viability and management the goal of this kpa is to ensure that there is financial stability and transparency in municipalities. financial viability, capital expenditure, budgetary revenues and expenditures are used to measure municipal viability and management (south africa, department of provincial and local government 2005). according to makwetu (2019), the financial state of municipalities in ec has worsened. furthermore, only 13% of municipalities managed to produce financial statements and had a clean audit, whilst other municipalities failed to produce adequate financial statements that are important to enable accountability and transparency. most municipalities fail to get a clean audit because their expenditures are more than the budget expenditures, whilst wasteful expenditures continue to increase by millions every year (wasserman 2019). according to the cogta (2005), improving the local capability of municipalities includes the following: firstly, municipalities need to have a long range of budgeting and financial planning. this consists of the ability to manage the cost of the organisation to promote accountability, increase investment social and economic infrastructure and have a reasonable balanced expenditure for capital investment expenditure, operational expenditure and wages. secondly, management of both debt and revenue is necessary; thirdly, municipalities need to adhere to the mfma regulation by having financial controls, and this is done through implementing anti-corruption programmes; and lastly, municipalities must improve financial reporting, and this consists of improving the quality of financial statements for auditing and working on correcting matters raised by the general auditor. key performance area 5: good governance and public participation the goal of this kpa is to foster a transparent, ethical, competent, sound and responsible governance structure (gopane 2012). scheepers (2015) reported that the continuous organisational growth and training strategy, which aims to improve service delivery via successful administrative structures, is an essential component for the development of effective and efficient human capital. this can be done through empowering and improving participation in communities. conceptualising efficiency efficiency of an organisation or entity is the ability to implement its plans using the smallest possible expenditure of resources (benito, bastida & garcia 2010; black, calitz & steenekamp 2015). on the flip side, it is getting the most possible output from limited resources (inputs). every decision-making unit needs to optimally utilise available resources that ensure avoidance of waste and allocate resources to non-productive areas. with shrinking fiscal capacity, municipalities (albeit mainly those that provide social goods and services, like health, that do not require profit maximisation) still require the effective utilisation of the available resources to provide the most relevant services. this study is focusing on municipal efficiency, according to mahabir (2014), in the face of scarcity, and it is critical for economic actors in order to reduce wastages and maximise outputs. a municipality is considered efficient if the output is maximised at a lower cost (fewer inputs). secondly, the provision of public goods is allocated to those most in need and efficient in allocation of resources, ensuring that everyone is better off in terms of accessing services. lastly, expenditure is used to produce the optimal level of service delivery. municipalities are inefficient when they incur a higher cost of producing or providing the same or fewer public services compared with other municipalities using a higher input (expenditure). according to dilber (2021), the variables used as inputs are the factors that have a cost and should be kept at a minimum, and the outputs are the products that have a positive value and should be increased and maintained at a maximum. literature review the theoretical framework of the study can be derived from agency theory, participative budgeting theory, trade-off theory and decentralisation theory. adam delis and kammas (2014) stated that agency theory explains the agent-principal relationship, where the agent in the context of local governments is the municipality, whilst the principal is the general public. the agent (municipality) is responsible for implementing a sound financial management system that reduces financial mismanagement (dzomira 2017). participative budgeting theory focuses on the correlation between the priorities of the municipality budget and the requirements of the constituents. according to mwambere and kosimbei (2022), participative budget theory states that the financial planning and management of municipalities must prioritise consultative procedures to include the constituents’ requirements and allocative efficiency. the novelty of the studies of the link between financial management and municipality efficiency can be identified with fiscal decentralisation theory. this is because participative budgeting theory and agency theory mainly focus on financial management, whilst financial decentralisation explicitly explains the link between financial management and efficiency. financial decentralisation theory explains the delegation of the delivery of government services and management of public funds from a centralised national sector to a subnational level (benito et al. 2010). decentralisation theory provides subnational levels such as municipalities with the role of making expenditure decisions, collection of taxes, raising revenue, borrowing funds and making intergovernmental fiscal borrowings (adam et al. 2014). in addition, adam et al. (2014) noted that fiscal decentralisation links financial management and efficiency in terms of increased electoral control and yardstick competition amongst local governments. the electoral control argument of fiscal decentralisation notes that decentralisation reduces the diversion of rents by officials because they will be voted out, thereby increasing efficiency (adam et al. 2014). according to the theory of yardstick competition argument, which identifies that decentralisation equips citizens with the ability to evaluate across municipality performance, which is their municipality’s performance against their neighbours, fiscal decentralisation may increase public sector efficiency, as it offers citizens an opportunity to compare public services and taxes across jurisdictions and helps them to assess whether their government wastes resources through low human capital capacity or rent-seeking (besley & smart 2007). however, there are certain necessary conditions that need to be met to achieve efficient service delivery through decentralisation, as detailed in khan (2021), which includes (amongst others) political will, the relationship between governments at various levels and how revenue generated is managed. furthermore, the theory states that fiscal decentralisation improves the efficiency of public services to communities through preference matching and allocative efficiency (hayek 1945). ter-minassian (1997) followed and emphasised that financial decentralisation can exacerbate the delivery of public services. in addition, brosio & ahmad (2008) argued that financial decentralisation will boost efficiencies by promoting greater transparency, and the geographical closeness of public agencies to the local community (final beneficiaries) encourages transparency and can boost the results of public services, particularly in social sectors such as education and health. therefore, there is no consensus on the implications of government structure (khan 2021). one of the most significant consequences of a successful fiscal decentralisation program is the creation of representative and accountable municipalities, as noted in the electoral control argument. furthermore, fiscal decentralisation creates municipalities that are closer to the citizens and equipped with considerable flexibility and capacity to better address subnational differences in the needs and desires of their constituents (monkam 2014). therefore, demand for efficiency is not only allocative, but technological or productive, for which the delivery of local government services is one of the greatest expectations of a sound process of fiscal decentralisation. however, fiscal decentralisation may also exert a negative impact on government efficiency (khan 2021; razafimahefa & sow 2015). this impact can be attributed to a number of potential advantages gained by the provision of public goods by central governments. firstly, in the presence of economies of scale, higher decentralisation might lead to a higher average cost of production for the public good (stein 1997). secondly, other scholars emphasise the potential danger that local politicians and bureaucrats are likely to face, particularly an increase in pressure from local interest groups, with these groups being more influential when the size of the jurisdiction is small (bardhan & mookerjee 2000; prud’homme 1995). service delivery is influenced by different factors in different locations; for instance, moreno (2005) found that transparency and competition in the world of politics have a positive and significant effect on the provision of basic services by municipalities. implying that municipalities that are hotly contested are more likely to be efficient, chowdhury and al-hossienie (2012) also added that the efficiency of municipalities is dependent on political economy, specifically how policies are crafted and the degree of accountability to the citizens. motta and moreira (2009) argued the importance of politics on policies crafted, whilst benito et al. (2021) found that the dedication required from politics for efficiency is also dependent on their remuneration. it is important to note that zafra-gómez, antonio and muñiz (2010) identified that smaller municipalities have high levels of political efficacy, and the citizens participate more in the day-to-day activities than large municipalities. zafra-gómez et al. (2010) stated that politics play a significant role in smaller municipalities, and mcdonnell (2020) stated that municipalities that are governed by progressive parties tend to have higher efficiency. loikkanen et al. (2011) found that there are four main facets of political factors that impact efficiency, which are ideological position, political concentration, voter turnout and potential for re-election. on the contrary, loikkanen, susiluoto and funk (2011) stated that characteristics of city managers, such as educational level and their ability to motivate workers, contribute to the level of efficiency in municipalities. mbandlwa and mishi (2020) found a u-shaped service delivery and councillor leadership characteristics, depicting that there is an optimal level of leadership characteristics to be reached to start to have a sustainable high level of service delivery. loikkanen et al. (2011) stated that the educational level of the citizens has a positive effect on municipality efficiency, as they require accountability. loikkanen et al. (2011) found that municipality management does not only depend on the educational characteristics of the managers but also can be affected by their age, political affiliation and gender, where they found that female managers had an insignificant impact on efficiency. however, it is important to note that the sample of the study in loikkanen et al. (2011) was small, and that might have had a significant impact on the results. whilst perez-lopez et al. (2015) deviated from looking at mangers’ characteristics and looked at the management style of the municipality, which they described as a new public management delivery form. perez-lopez et al. (2015) stated that new public management involves contracting out, creation of public agencies, cooperation with private companies and other municipalities to improve efficiency and finding out whether contracting out, agencies and intermunicipal cooperation reduce cost efficiency. service delivery is also dependent on government expenditure, as argued by charles & lemos (2018) concluding that government expenditure on education, health and other services is statistically significant. the author further argued that government investment in education bears more returns, as it increases total revenue for municipalities because more constituents will be employed once they have acquired the relevant skills. however, according to liu et al. (2017), an increase in government expenditure to stimulate service delivery did not necessarily translate to efficiency in china. liu et al. (2017) stated that in china, increasing government expenditure failed to transform into efficiency because they solely focused on the level of investment whilst coupled with poor management, political determination and skills. the effect may differ based on other factors like the national government structure, degree of tolerance for corruption and irregular activities in society and the size of the economies, amongst other factors. to this, zafra-gómez et al. (2010) suggested that the small-scale municipalities face high costs compared with large municipalities that have economies of scale, and there is need to give them government grants to increase their efficiency. the analysis of the impact of financial management and its importance towards the efficiency of local municipalities has varied from large municipalities and small municipalities taking cognisance of differences in economies of scale between the small and large municipalities. hence, zafra-gómez et al. (2010) stated that small municipalities do not have economies of scale, and there is need for an extra funding to ensure efficiency. the studies that have explored financial management in municipalities include benito et al. (2010), kalb (2010), lampe et al. (2015) and zafra-gómez et al. (2010), with kalb (2010) measuring financial management using fiscal capacity. according to kalb (2010), fiscal capacity is explained relative to the needs of the municipality, stating three categories of fiscal capacity: fiscally abundant (when the fiscal resources exceed fiscal needs), fiscally weak (when fiscal capacity lies between 60 and 100% of the needs of the municipality) and very weak (when fiscal capacity has less than 60% of the needs of the municipality). on the contrary, lampe et al. (2015) analysed the accrual accounting in municipalities and how an accounting approach can have an effect on the efficiency of municipalities. zafra-gómez et al. (2010) explained financial management using short-run solvency, self-funding, weight of financial load and budgetary results. the facets of municipality efficiency can be measured using outputs in terms of service delivery in spheres such as safety and security (policing), refuse collection, sports and water supply, as in benito et al. (2010) and geys and moesen (2009). lampe et al. (2015) stated that the proxies of output to reflect efficiency have been explained with variables such as education, recreation, social needs and infrastructure. the mandate of a municipality needs to be understood to correctly identify the outputs. it is important to note that the analysis of financial management or any other factors that impact municipality efficiency has been largely analysed using data envelopment analysis (dea) to obtain technical efficiency in municipalities (afonso & fernandes 2008; boetti, piacenza & turati 2010; kokkinou 2009; murillo-zamorano 2004). benito et al. (2010) stated that when applying dea as a method of extreme point, having a borderline of efficient units, deviation from the efficient border is defined as inefficiency. the simple dea input/output quotient is mainly applied in the analysis of efficiency, and the advantage is that it does not require a priori specifications of weights of each input or output; however, it is important to note that the commonly used method is the weighted sum of outputs and the weighted sum of inputs (zafra-gómez et al. 2010). contrary to benito et al. (2010), loikkanen and susiluoto (2004) critiqued the use of dea and free disposal hull (fdh) models for two reasons. firstly, the dea model carries less information in that the location and shape of the predicted output region are calculated purely by the most effective measurements. secondly, dea is essentially a non-stochastic method. procedurally, monkam (2014) stated that to generate output y decision-making units (dmus), use input x; therefore, the test is on how efficiently the input is being used to generate y. to measure efficiency assumptions of how increases in scale relate to the returns on the entity, we either assume variable returns of scale (vrs) or constant returns of scale (crs) (foo et al. 2015). municipalities are input oriented instead of output oriented, and this is because the nature of service delivery is determined by the needs of societies and welfare considerations, providing a social public good (mahabir 2014). furthermore, the level of service delivery by municipalities may have significant social and political effects on the citizens. in the case of france, narbón-perpiñá et al. (2020) asserted that no one method can be considered the best. most empirical studies in the available literature have employed total current expenditures as municipal inputs for analysing productive or technological efficiency in local service delivery (i.e. resources used in the provision of local services). these include loikkanen and susiluoto (2005), who studied the cost efficiency of municipalities, whilst stein (1990) investigated the budgetary effects and effectiveness of municipal service and found that one of the current expenditures of municipalities is the cost of labour. the cost of labour is known to be an input variable which reduces both profitability and efficiency of firms. therefore, voorn, van genugten and van thiel (2017) stated that municipalities who manage to reduce operational costs are more efficient because they can foster basic services to communities. population also plays a big role in determining the effectiveness of municipalities, as the bigger the population, the broader the revenue base. according to hauner and kyobe (2010), richer countries have better performance and efficiency in the public sector. furthermore, institutional and demographic factors also have a significant role to play. this is because higher government expenditure compared with gdp appears to be correlated with lower efficiency in the industry. loikkanen and susiluoto (2004) also added that most municipalities are more efficient when they are large in size because the efficiency of service delivery is dependent on the scale of activities. as a result, the inputs utilised in literature included total revenue per capita (the budget – as in benito et al. [2010]), employee cost (labour costs – brettenny and sharp [2016]; thanassoulis [2000] only considered operational costs) and population density (revenue base), and the expected outputs are service delivery or infrastructure (enabling an environment for citizens and businesses to flourish), gva per capita (output of the region in relation to its population, a proxy for well-being) and productivity (output per worker employed) (boetti et al. 2010). the details and the nature of data utilised will be defined fully in the next section. revenue for municipalities comes in the form of taxes; therefore, the efficiency of municipalities is dependent on how well revenue is utilised given limited budgets. managa (2012), who studied local government performance and south africa’s issue of poor service delivery, concluded that efficiency of municipalities is dependent on the service delivery; this is a result of municipalities facing a massive backlog of service delivery whilst festering with maladministration and corruption. municipalities who are not able to deliver basic services to households are regarded as inefficient. to assess the efficiency of municipalities, total revenue (budget) is measured and compared with the service delivery. benito et al. (2010) found that financial management has an impact on certain facets of the municipality, such as water supply, because of the financial requirements of treating it and a supply system to sustain it. benito et al. (2010) stated that the effect of financial management coincides with the impact of financial mismanagement coupled with vandalism in south africa. benito et al. (2010) further noted that in spain, the short-term financial health of the municipality has an ambiguous relationship with service efficiency. it is imperative to note that the study by benito et al. (2010) also found that the indebtedness of the municipality has a positive impact on the efficiency of the municipality. zafra-gómez et al. (2010) found that there is no interrelation between financial management and local government efficiency for small municipalities. narbón-perpiñá et al. (2019) identified inefficiencies in spanish municipalities, suggesting that the same level of output can be produced using 26 and 46% fewer resources. on the contrary, zafra-gómez et al. (2010) advocated for the increase in government funding to increase the efficiency in small municipalities, which contradicts kalb (2010), who analysed the impact of inter-governmental grants on cost efficiency and stated that there is a negative incentive effect of inter-governmental grants on cost efficiency in german municipalities. in the context of developing economies, studies include monkam (2014) and mahabir (2014) for south africa. monkam (2014) stated that municipalities in south africa experience inefficiency and could achieve the same output levels with 83% fewer operating expenditures. furthermore, monkam’s (2014) findings were supported by mahabir (2014), who found that wasteful expenditure has a negative effect on municipal efficiency, and the reason that most municipalities are inefficient in south africa is because 60% of resources are spent inefficiently. according to gopane (2012), deterioration in the financial performance of municipalities is caused by the lack of accountability of both the national and local governments. mbura (2013) assessed the efficiency of internal auditing on financial management in tanzania. the study revealed that inadequate support from top management, lack of autonomy amongst internal auditors, insufficient human and financial resources and absence of quality assurance mechanisms are critical factors affecting the performance of internal audit units in municipal and district councils. on the contrary, the higher economic performance of countries such as china indicates that municipalities are operating efficiently (tang, tang & lee 2014). this shows that efficiency is often measured by the economic performance of local government, and hence most municipalities in developed countries are efficient. materials and methods this study analysis was performed for a sample of south africa’s local government in one of the nine provinces, namely, the eastern cape province. this region consists of 45 (6 districts, 2 metropolitan and 37 local) municipalities with an estimated 6.7 million population (the fourth largest in the country) and is one of the worst performing on a number of indicators such as employment, economic growth and well-being (kavese & erero 2018). however, because of data availability, the study’s sample was restricted to 37 municipalities (35 local and 2 metropolitans) for the period of 2012 to 2015. the study makes use of secondary data sources from statistics south africa and the national treasury’s local government budget database, drawing six variables for efficiency computation, in which three are input indicators and five are output indicators. both input and output indicators are designed to capture the crucial attributes of the most significant programmes rendered by local governments. data for population were extracted from the 2007 community census from statistics south africa, whilst data for tax revenue, conditional grants, income or employment costs, irregular expenditure and service delivery were sourced from the south african national treasury’s local government budget database. as there are no specifically direct factors to measure and quantify the efficiency in municipalities, both municipal inputs and outputs are used to approximately determine the inefficiencies in municipalities. efficiency scores range from 0 to 1 and are obtained from the dea estimation, implying that the distribution is constrained, and ordinary least squares estimations will be biased (banker et al. 2010; das & ghosh 2006). therefore, the tobit model is used to examine the relationship between the computed municipal efficiency and irregular expenditure in the eastern cape province. according to adepoju, salau and obayelu (2007), continuous variables bounded by nature are generally addressed using tobit models, censored regressions or truncated models. according to weimar (2008), the tobit model can be used to determine a more appropriate estimate of how various characteristics affect efficiency. the tobit model allows adjustment of the estimated slope when data are censored. in tobit analysis, a single maximum likelihood estimate of the slope coefficients is generated, which corrects for the bias associated with the use of censored data. this type of methodology uses minimal assumptions about the structure of the economy; instead, it focuses on the derivation of a good statistical representation of the previous interactions between the variables, letting the data determine the model. table 1: description of the variables on efficiency. to estimate efficiency in the eastern cape municipalities, we followed balaguer-coll et al.’s (2019) functional form specification, given as follows: yi = 0, otherwise where xi is the vector of the explanatory factors, i corresponds to the municipality and β is the vector of the variables to be measured. yi* is a latent variable that can be interpreted as a level above which the explanatory variables will have an impact for yi to ‘move’ from 0 (here being efficient) to a meaningful value (here being inefficient in specific degrees). the tobit model can be estimated using the maximum probability method by assuming that the µi error is normally distributed. the study uses tobit regression, and this is because the dependent variable (efficiency) is constrained or censored (weimar 2008). the model is specified as in equation 3, given as follows: where i denotes municipalities, t denotes time (years), efficiency is the estimated local efficiency index, inwexp represents the log of wasteful expenditure, iniexp denotes the log of irregular expenditure, inunexp signifies the log of unauthorised expenditure, inlges denotes the log of local government economic services, ingvt trans stands for the log of government transfers, indebt denotes public debt and ui is the error term. results and discussion output-oriented efficiency was computed using stata software, following the dea specification discussed above. the efficiency measures presented are constant returns to scale (crs), variable returns to scale (vrs) and non-increasing revenue (nir) for technical efficiency and scale efficiency; theta was also presented, which is an optimal solution of efficiency score. table 3 provides descriptive statistics of efficiency scores with different efficiency measures, and the mean efficiency variables ranged between 0.407 and 0.724. however, theta is the best one to measure efficiency in the studied dmus and is therefore used in further analysis. the efficiency mean of constant returns to scale technical efficiency (crs-te) of all the municipalities for all the years is 0.407. the efficiency mean of variables returns to scale technical efficiency (vrs-te), including all municipalities for the years, is 0.724. for non-increasing returns to scale technical efficiency (nirs-te), the mean efficiency for all municipalities in all the years is 0.773. the scale efficiency (scale) of all municipalities for all the years is 0.545, and for theta, the mean efficiency is 0.724 for all the municipalities. the similarity in the values of vrs and theta points to the relevancy of vrs assumptions in the municipal setup, compared with the other assumptions of scale. table 2: variables in the regression equation: drivers of efficiency. table 3: descriptive statistics. table 4 compares the statistics over the period 2012–2015 based on the constant returns to scale (crs) measure. the results show that there is noticeable variation of mean efficiency across the years. the mean efficiency in 2012 was 0.456, and in 2013, the mean efficiency increased to 0.488. for 2014, the mean efficiency decreased to 0.263 and increased to 0.43 in 2015. all the mean efficiencies are below 50%, meaning, on average, most municipalities had low efficiency for the period 2012–2015 under the constant returns in the model. table 4 summarises the efficiency scores over time. table 4: summary statistics of the different measures of efficiency. for vrs, the mean declined between the 2012 and 2015 period. the mean efficiency was 0.815 in 2012, and in 2013, the efficiency averaged was 0.793 and 0.646 in 2014. however, in 2015 the average efficiency increased slightly to 0.673. this means that the municipalities’ efficiency scores are above 60% based on this measure. the nirs presented in table 4 show that the mean efficiency for nirs over the years has been decreasing. in 2012, the mean efficiency was 0.871. in 2013, the mean efficiency declined to 0.828. in 2014, the mean efficiency continued to decrease amounting to 0.73. in 2015, the average efficiency was 0.673. this means that the municipalities’ efficiency scores are above 65%. even though the efficiency scores have been decreasing, the decrease rate is very low. for the scale efficiency measure, the mean efficiency has subsequently declined from 0.533 to 0.401 in 2012–2014, and in 2015, the mean efficiency started to increase, amounting to 0.627. theta average efficiency of all municipalities was 0.815 in 2012 and decreased to 0.793 in 2013. in 2014, the mean efficiency further declined to 0.646. in 2015, the average efficiency increased to 0.673. this shows that the mean efficiency has decreased between 2012 and 2014 and increased in 2015. however, even though the efficiency scores have been decreasing, the municipalities’ efficiency scores still managed to be above 65%. efficiency scores are used by the tobit regression as an endogenous variable for prospective candidates of influential variables (lee, lee & kim 2009). table 5 shows the estimation measure using theta variable, and all independent variables are logged to have numbers that are comparable to the ones with efficiency scores. as theta is the best dependent variable at estimating, other estimations using different independent variables are included in appendix 1. table 5: random effects tobit regression. the study found out that government transfers and public debt are positively related to total efficiency scores, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, unauthorised expenditure and local government economic status are negatively related to the total efficiency scores. on the contrary, irregular expenditures have no relationship with efficiency. the results show that fruitless and wasteful expenditure is negatively related with the total effciency scores of dmus at 1% level of significance. this means that a 1% increase in fruitless and wasteful expenditure will lead to 0.153 unit decrease on total efficiency, holding other variables constant. this is in accordance with a study conducted by mahabir (2014), which found that about 60% of this wasteful expenditure has a negative effect on efficiency. according to classical economics, there must be no or limited government intervention because markets are efficiently operating on their own. furthermore, government intervention will cause inefficiency in the markets, because government imposes policies that increase the cost of production (minimum wages) and discourage demand for goods and services by imposing taxes, and because of money neutrality, government intervention leads to inflation. from this discussion, it is understood that the economy is better off without government intervention. however, the keynesian theory disagrees, stating that markets will fail, and therefore, the government is needed to correct the instability in the economy (keynes 1930). keynes encouraged deficit expenditure, especially when there was high inflation. furthermore, keynes modified wasteful expenditure, stating that legislators must be made aware of the repercussions to avoid making those mistakes in the future. the results show that irregular expenditure is insignificant, and therefore, there is no relationship between efficiency and irregular expenditure. according to the pareto efficiency theory, as long as the allocation of resources benefits most people, the policy is considered efficient. therefore, if the local government allocates its limit to service delivery, municipalities will be considered efficient because many people benefit from the services provided by the government, regardless of how some of the money was spent. however, gopane (2012) found that irregular expenditure has a negative effect on the impact of municipal efficiency and the ability to provide basic services to communities. unauthorised expenditure is negatively related with the total efficiency scores of dmus at 5% level of significance. this means that a 1% increase in unauthorised expenditure will lead to a decrease of 0.149 units on the total efficiency of municipalities. these results coincide with those of balaguer-coll et al. (2019), which state that irregular expenditure and budgetary mistakes result in a higher level of municipalities’ inefficiency and that local government economic status is negatively related with the total efficiency scores of dmus at 10% level of significance. this means that a 1% increase in local government economic status will lead to a 0.204 unit decrease in cost efficiency. this is in accordance with the findings of tang et al. (2014), which indicate that the province with higher economic performance often demonstrates better performance in government efficiency. government transfers are positively related with the total efficiency scores of dmus at 5% level of significance. this states that a 1% increase in government transfers will lead to a 0.09 unit increase in efficiency. this coincides with the findings of susetyo et al. (2017), which state that the influence of regional spending on gross regional domestic product districts or cities is positive and significant. the bigger local spending will increase the gross regional domestic product of regencies or cities. local spending is one form of government investment to stimulate local economic growth. public debt is positively related with the theta efficiency scores of dmus at 5% level of significance. a 1% increase will lead to public debt with a 0.249 unit increase on efficiency. this is in accordance with the keynes theory, stating that to access public debt, municipalities must provide a detailed plan on how they will utilise this public debt; therefore, this promotes efficiency in municipalities. table 6 lists all municipalities in the eastern cape with highest and lowest output-oriented efficiency scores. the top 4 municipalities with the highest average efficiency scores (with a max of 1) across the period are nkonkobe municipality with an efficiency score averaging at 0.855 with 100% total efficiency, followed by ngqushwa municipality with a mean efficiency score of 0.842. inxuba municipality is the second last, with a 0.836 mean efficiency score. lastly, ikwezi has a mean efficiency score of 0.831. table 6: summary statistics. this research has quantified the technical efficiency scores of municipalities in the eastern cape under the effect of wasteful expenditure for the period of 2012–2015. it assessed how these municipalities use their limited resources such as money available (input) to feed the increasing demand of service delivery by communities whilst measuring the effect of irregular expenditure, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and authorised expenditure on the efficiency scores of municipalities. conclusion, policy recommendations and areas of future research the study investigated the level of efficiency in local municipalities and assessed the implications of financial mismanagement as defined by legislation using a two-stage procedure, namely dea and tobit regression. the dea empirical results show that the mean efficiency is between 0.407 and 0.724, showing variations between municipalities and that no municipality is completely inefficient on average. the study in the second stage used the tobit regression to determine the relationship between explanatory variables on municipal efficiency scores. the results show that fruitless expenditures have a negative effect on the efficiency scores of municipalities. according to the auditor general, the main reason why municipalities are inefficient is because these municipalities are managed by personnel who are not qualified for their jobs. therefore, policies guiding competency levels for certain office bearers must be enforced at all times and not yield to political pressure, which is often exerted to meet cadre deployment goals (mbandlwa & mishi 2020). there is a need to broaden the demographic groups who are actively seeking leadership roles in community. in the eastern cape, the majority of people who participate in government matters are the elders. therefore, diversifying participation will allow in a younger generation with ideals that also accommodate the needs of the youth, such as employment. this can be done by municipalities employing young people, whether inside the organisation or on other government programmes. the chief financial officer and other officials need training and capacitation in budgeting in line with the needs of the municipality and they need to be guided by mfma. unauthorised expenditure may arise because responsible officials do not cater for all needs when budgeting, and then when expenditure is needed, it is carried out without supporting budget lines. therefore, many are adamant that the funds are used for the benefit of citizens, not individuals, and it is the process of budgeting and expenditure that is not aligned. the empirical results of the study provide the basis for major improvement in the efficiency analysis of municipalities. the study discusses a variety of fields of study that can be explored, especially if primary qualitative data can be gathered to solicit responses from municipal managers and chief financial officers for what led to those expenditures and what was the exact use of the expenditures. acknowledgements competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all the authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this work is based on the research supported wholly by the national research foundation of south africa (grant no. 121890). data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available in the public domain. data sharing 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author(s) tshepo e. rangwato department of public management, faculty of humanities, tshwane university of technology, polokwane, south africa ricky mukonza department of public management, faculty of humanities, tshwane university of technology, polokwane, south africa john molepo department of public administration, faculty of business, development, economics and business sciences, mpumalanga university, mbombela, south africa citation rangwato, t.e., mukonza, r. & molepo, j., 2022, ‘the spending of municipal infrustructure grant at ba-phalaborwa municipality’, journal of local government research and innovation 3(0), a88. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v3i0.88 original research the spending of municipal infrustructure grant at ba-phalaborwa municipality tshepo e. rangwato, ricky mukonza, john molepo received: 11 june 2022; accepted: 24 oct. 2022; published: 19 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in the period between 2014 and 2019, several municipalities in limpopo demonstrated an inability to expend the municipal infrastructure grant (mig) funds allocated to them by the national treasury within the provided timelines. as a result, monies were returned to the national treasury and communities forfeited the expected infrastructure developments. the ba-phalaborwa municipality was not exempt from this problem. aim: this article investigated the factors impeding the spending of mig funds in ba-phalaborwa municipality. methods: a qualitative research approach was followed, using a literature review and interviews to collect data with a convenient sample of key informants who were also local government officials. results: the study found that a lack of planning for the municipality’s consolidated mig application, community unrest and inadequate monitoring mechanisms, among others, were the prime factors impeding the overall spending of mig funds in the ba-phalaborwa municipality. conclusion: the municipality needs to act proactively, especially with consolidating mig applications, which will provide officials with sufficient time to assemble the necessary tools, charting a way forward for spending the mig, which translates into service delivery and infrastructure development in the municipality. contribution: this article confirmed findings that emanated from the existing literature as far as implementation of mig was concerned in municipalities. however, lessons from ba-phalaborwa municipality showed that the extent to which such problems affected municipalities could differ, depending on factors such as political management and municipal capacity. strategies peculiar to the ba-phalaborwa environment are proffered, especially with respect to the enhancement of the spending of mig funds for improved service delivery provision through infrastructure development. keywords: municipal infrastructure grant; ba-phalaborwa municipality; south africa; infrastructure; development. introduction this article is an extract from the study that was submitted to meet the requirements of a postgraduate university qualification (rangwato 2022). the study investigated key factors affecting the spending of the municipal infrastructure grant (mig) within ba-phalaborwa local municipality in limpopo, a province of south africa. in south africa, the service delivery responsibilities are divided among the national, provincial and local spheres of government but the local sphere in particular is tasked with the role of providing basic services such as water and sanitation, housing infrastructural and other forms of development. the other spheres mostly play supportive roles and it is for this reason that most scholars, including van der waldt (2021) and shopola (2022) consider the local sphere not only crucial but also the closest sphere that directly interconnects government and communities. the mig was introduced in 2003 to provide basic infrastructure-related services to poor communities in south africa (cooperative governance and traditional affairs 2014). the programme was introduced two years after the new local government system was introduced in 2000 to ensure that basic services could be provided through municipalities and to assist the national government in its challenges of alleviating poverty and creating employment. notably, it is one of the largest conditional grants that the national government dispatches to municipalities to improve infrastructural backlogs in poor communities across the country (national treasury 2012). however, municipalities have been met with several challenges in the implementation of the mig programme. the unspent mig funds remain a common problem in municipalities. provinces such as kwazulu-natal, the eastern cape and limpopo received a large portion of the mig allocation for the period 2011 to 2016 (national treasury 2017). the section 47 report on municipal performance for the financial year 2013–2014 highlighted that a total of r538 127 000.00 of mig funds were reimbursed to the national treasury from limpopo’s 30 municipalities (25 local authorities and five districts) for the 2012–2013 financial year, mainly because these municipalities failed to spend the allocated funds (cooperative governance human settlement and traditional affairs [coghsta] 2014). ba-phalaborwa municipality was one of these municipalities. according to the previous studies conducted on the subject of mig (mulenga & bekker 2015; tjebana & rachidi 2018), depending on the municipality, some of the key impediments to the spending of mig may include natural hazards, community unrest and constant political infighting in municipal councils. a common result of not spending the allocated mig funds, regardless of the peculiarities of a municipality, is that they have to be returned to the national treasury, which effectively means that communities are deprived of basic services and much-needed development. this study reports on key factors affecting ba-phalaborwa municipality because it has a repetitive record of misspent mig funds (ba-phalaborwa local municipality annual report 2015; cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs [coghsta] section 24 report 2014; limpopo provincial treasury 2014). apart from its main objective, this study confirms the common findings on the impediments to the spending of mig funds in the local sphere of government from the existing literature. problem statement it has been established in the introductory section that most municipalities, including the one investigated in this study, have accepted that spending the mig funds has its own challenges, which are detrimental to service plans. preliminary findings have shown that in the 2014–2015 and 2019–2020 financial years, ba-phalaborwa municipality did not spend the allocated mig funds within the expected timelines and this means that the funds were reimbursed to national treasury as it is a norm (coghsta 2014; limpopo provincial treasury 2015). however, the consequences of returning funds meant for infrastructure development are often felt by residents, especially because their living conditions are frustratingly undesirable and need state-sponsored development. kopung’s (2017) study, for example, focused on the selected municipalities in north west, where it was found that poor capacity was the main weakness preventing effective spending of the migs. in the study that put western cape’s theewaterskloof and overstrand municipalities in the spotlight, majali (2019) investigated systematic hindrances preventing these municipalities from achieving mig objectives. the study found that the challenges that both municipalities are faced with stem from the ever-growing old and new infrastructure backlogs, ‘the maintenance of the ageing infrastructure assets versus the limited funding – there is thus a disparity between the municipal demands and mig allocation’ (majali 2019:viii). a qualitative study conducted by matabane (2017) in limpopo’s elias motsoaledi municipality, however, produced different results. matabane enquired about the impact of mig on basic service delivery and found that the municipality was compliant with the necessary implementation requirements, but the mig was not enough to cover the basic needs of communities because of population growth (matabane 2017). hence, it appears that most of these studies have largely focused on the relationship between mig and service delivery, giving very little attention to the impediments to spending the mig funds. considering various factors that differentiate municipalities in south africa such as category, size of the population, spatial arrangement and the amount of mig funds municipalities receive, as well as individual capacity, municipalities are bound to differ significantly in handling mig projects. there is no evidence of similar studies in the ba-phalaborwa municipality. using the municipality as the study’s contextual setting, it is set to make a significant contribution as it is the first to explore mig-related issues in that area. therefore, the study investigates impediments to spending mig funds, focusing on ba-phalaborwa municipality. literature review the literature review is important as it attempts to highlight different methods used by governments across the globe to fund local government infrastructure development. the studies by various scholars provide a platform for researchers to synthesise research findings revealing evidence at the meta-level and uncovering specific areas in which research is needed (brynard, hanekom & brynard 2014:33–39; snider 2019). in the process, researchers can then create and build theoretical frameworks and conceptual models. the considered literature sources in this study demonstrate that mig as the model of funding local government infrastructure development is not unique to south africa. international experience in canada, mehiriz and marceau (2013:76) mention that in the year 2000 the federal government established the infrastructure development programme called the infrastructure canada programme, with the aim to develop urban and rural infrastructure. the primary goal of the programme was to improve the quality of life of canadians. accordingly, this grant receives over $2.65 billion annually. funding allocation often is subjected to time frames within which states (provinces) and territories (local authorities) are expected to have expended the funds. in allocating the funds, the federal government applies a pre-determined formula that usually takes into account the population and the unemployment rate within a given area (matabane 2017; mehiriz & marceau 2013:78). in australia, the australian community development grant (acdg) programme was established in 2013 with the aim to support infrastructure development within sub-governments. the primary intention was to promote the stability, security and viability of local and regional economies (carter 2013). the administration of this grant is facilitated by the central government and is not a competitive grant. what this means is that based on its own identification criteria, the australian government decides which project is to be funded through the acdg. this is almost like the usa’s categorical grant and south africa’s mig programme in the sense that the grant provides for continuous or ongoing operational costs of the sub-governments or any other maintenance costs, except for infrastructure development programmes (matabane 2017:18). india was also identified during literature review as one developing country that is using grants to fund local infrastructure development. according to the world bank india (2020:online), india is one of the developing countries in east asia and with a population of more than 1.2 billion; it is globally the second largest nation after china. accordingly, one of the common governance traits between india and south africa is that the local government works on the decentralised governance system in both countries. a study by chattopadhyay (2015:60) found that local authorities in india, also known as urban local bodies, have a limited revenue base and therefore rely heavily on intergovernmental transfers or central government grants for the delivery of services and development projects. in 2005, the government of india adopted the jawaharlal nehru national urban renewal mission to drive urban reform and accelerate development in urban local jurisdictions. it is a subsidy programme that is subject to conditions. the conditions include a series of reforms to be adopted by the city government by requesting funds from the state within the city’s jurisdiction (chattopadhyay 2015:56). south african experience in south africa, the support programme for accelerated infrastructure development report (2009), sogoni (2010), kahn, madue and kalema (2016) and tjebana and rachidi (2018) seem to agree that the mig programme is an important funding mechanism for almost all municipal services, which include basics such as electricity, water, road, housing and recreation. municipal infrastructure grant is implemented through the following: (1) consolidated municipal infrastructure programme, (2) the local economic development fund, (3) the community water and sanitation services programme, (4) the community based public works programmes, (5) the south african housing fund, the national electrification fund and (6) the urban transport fund. all these are part of the conditional grants made to municipalities. prior to the 2013 decision by cabinet to centralise the administration of these programmes in the hands of the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs the above mig programmes were administered by individual departments including the: (1) national treasury, (2) water affairs and forestry and (3) transport and public works, as these are the departments responsible for infrastructure (department of provincial and local government 2004; tjebana & rachidi 2018:603). crucial factors that affect municipalities in spending the municipal infrastructure grant in south africa there are a number of studies that dealt with factors affecting the spending of mig by municipalities in south africa and they made some interesting findings. for example, a study by maake (2017:25), which looked into the causes of unspent mig allocations in two local municipalities within capricorn district municipality, found that municipalities lacked capacity to handle finance and projects. the researchers stated that: ‘municipalities ought to be capacitated in order for them to be able to handle municipal finances and projects’ (maake 2017). municipalities should be financially capacitated and have human capital. capacity is viewed as abilities, skills, understanding, attitudes, values, relationships, behaviours, motivations, resources and conditions that enable individuals, organisations and the broader social system to carry out functions and achieve development objectives over time (bolger 2000:1). another study on capacity problems was carried out at or tambo district municipality by mulenga and bekker (2015) and contains important findings regarding factors leading to unspent migs. using a mixed methods approach, their study made the following observations: the municipality officials were not well informed on the project information implemented by their service providers, especially at the initial stage of the project. most budgets presented in project registration applications were below the prescribed unit costs and it is believed that this was to improve the likelihood of obtaining approval. technical report appraisal and project registration did not meet the prescribed turnaround time. projects were registered by the responsible sector departments only if the budgets were within the prescribed unit costs, except for a few cases where exceptional motivations were tabled. the registered and approved budgets were broken down during implementation into sub-projects and awarded to different contractors. this approach could create extra costs through the establishment of sites, as it runs counter to the benefits provided by the ‘principle of aggregation’ in buffer estimates. it further increases the project management interface complexity, straining the already stretched project management unit as it increases the number of service providers and contractual agreements. some tenders exceed the tender validity period before the municipality appoints contractors and this often leads to price escalations and under-spending of the mig at the end of the financial year (mulenga & bekker 2015). complementing the given findings, kopung’s (2017) study, which focused on selected north west municipalities, found that poor capacity was the main weakness in spending migs effectively. in the study that put western cape’s theewaterskloof and overstrand municipalities in the spotlight, majali (2019) investigated systemic hindrances preventing these municipalities from achieving mig objectives. the study found that: [t]he challenges that both municipalities are faced with stem from the ever-growing old and new infrastructure backlogs, the maintenance of the ageing infrastructure assets versus the limited funding – there is thus a disparity between the municipal demands and mig allocation. (p. viii) however, a qualitative study conducted by matabane (2017) in limpopo’s elias motsoaledi municipality produced different results. the study explored the impact of mig on basic service delivery and found that the municipality was compliant with the necessary implementation requirements, but pointed to the fact the mig is just not enough to cover the basic needs of communities because of population growth (matabane 2017). however, capacity, especially institutional capacity to implement mig programmes has been a problem in most rural municipalities. according to the national capacity building framework for local government cited in hlongwane and nzimakwe (2015:170), institutional capacity speaks to a wide range of facets, which may include human resources, strategic leadership, organisational purpose, institutional memory, internal confidence, partnerships, intergovernmental relations and functions, infrastructure and financial capability. lastly, the study carried out by the financial fiscal commission in 2012 attributed the non-performance of municipalities and unspent mig funds to capacity constraints, pointing out that most municipalities have been functioning without chief financial officers, project managers and other critical skills, thus affecting service delivery and project implementation (financial fiscal commission [ffc] 2012:2). based on the given information, two crucial points can be deduced. firstly, international literature agrees that infrastructural support grants are important to achieve local development but can also be used to enhance national policy implementation and serve as a support-inducing method to the national programmes by local authorities in federal and semi-federal governments, canada and india being prime examples. secondly, mig facilitates service delivery provision and improves local development, which under local government remains unviable and slow-paced. lastly, it is also deduced from the consulted literature that the challenges and factors affecting spending of mig differs from one country to another and one municipality to another. therefore, it is precisely in this context that the current article sought to add to the existing body of literature the experiences of mig as captured in a different context, namely ba-phalaborwa municipality. the section that ensues presents the findings of this study. however, it begins by indicating the kind of methods used in gleaning data from the selected case study. legislative framework for municipal infrastructure grant this part of the article describes background issues on the mig as practised in south africa. this includes its guiding legislative framework, which is dealt with later in the section. apparently, mig in south africa cannot be understood outside the context of intergovernmental fiscal relations and transfers, a context from which it hails practically. fiscal intergovernmental relations and transfers to municipalities in south africa, the greater part of revenue collection is carried out by the national government. according to khalo in moeti (2014:81–82), this is one of the defining characteristics of a unitary state. that basically is a political system in which almost all powers of government are vested in the central or national government agency; this level of government may delegate some of its powers to provinces and municipalities. this context, therefore, necessitates fiscal intergovernmental transfers, which in south africa are fundamentally set to address certain key aspects, namely the structural imbalance between the revenues available to municipalities and the spending responsibilities assigned to them; incentivising good governance and building local government capacity within a sound fiscal framework; as well as supporting national priorities as outlined by various sectoral policies, particularly those focused on providing universal and sustainable access to services (kahn et al. 2016:97). scholars such as tshamano and shopola (2021) have criticised the current method of sharing revenue collected at the national level as undermining the fact that some municipalities have a smaller revenue base and rely largely on fair share and national grants. this criticism is based on the fact that during the apportionment, larger budgets go to the national and regional governments and only a relatively small part of the revenue collected nationally goes to the local government, mainly because of its power to collect its own revenue. this can be seen from the budget review statement 2011–2012 and 2018–2019 in which both national and provincial governments received 40% of the budget and local governments 10% (national treasury 2013:111). notwithstanding the foregoing, intergovernmental transfers are conducted in two ways, namely through conditional and unconditional donations. the equitable share to municipalities remains the only unconditional grant in south africa, mainly on the basis that it is a constitutional right. this assertion is spelt out in the constitution of the republic of south africa (republic of south africa [rsa] 1996) in section 227, which underlines that local government is entitled to a fair share, collected at the national level, to enable the provision of basic services and the fulfilment of assigned tasks. in other words, equitable share means having a fair share or receiving a deserved portion (pauw et al. 2015:295). however, equitable share should not be confused with saying ‘equal share’, which implies that the involved parties are entitled to the same amount or are required to produce the same output. according to the national treasury (2011), the notion of equitable share, including unconditional transfers, first appeared in fy1998/1999 after it was observed that poverty in communities was increasing. as correctly stated in the white paper on local government (republic of south africa 1998), the equitable share not only closes the gap between local government revenue and expenditure but is also helpful in allocating financial resources between local governments in light of the share of poor households within local government responsibilities. as the south african local government association (south african local government association [salga] 2012:7) observed, transfers currently account for an average of 25% of municipal budgets, and in poor (lower income) municipalities, transfers can account for up to 75% of municipal revenues. conditional transfers, on the other hand, constitute the aide-memoire of resources transferred from central or national government to local governments or municipalities. the goal of this form of transfer, as explained by the national treasury (2011) and salga (2012), is to empower communities and support community infrastructure investment programmes. lastly, conditional transfers are concomitant with mig, because the mig is regarded as the largest infrastructure transfer programme (sogoni 2010) and is administered and facilitated by the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs. in the 2003–2004 and 2009–2010 financial years, kahn et al. (2016:99) pointed out that the ‘mig accounted for 54.1% of all infrastructure transfers’, which led to its actual growth projected to be an average of 21.4% over the medium term (national treasury 2010). as indicated in the introduction, mig was introduced in 2003 with the purpose of providing basic infrastructure-related services to poor communities through municipalities in south africa. however, just like any other government project, mig is guided by specific legislation. the following paragraphs highlight some key legislations that affect the implementation of mig in the local sphere of government. the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 the constitution rsa (2019) is the overarching legal framework of the republic of south africa that gives rise to all interpretive statutes and other pieces of legislation in the country (nkuna & sebola 2019:163; shopola & mukonza 2019). most importantly, it establishes the three spheres of government as national, provincial and local government in section 40, while at the same time in section 54 it defines local government as the lower sphere consisting purely of municipalities. furthermore, sections 41 and 214 require that these spheres of government and the revenues collected at the national level be shared with or allocated to sub-governments to enable them to perform specific functions under schedules 4 and 5 of the constitution (rsa 1996). it does this by calling for a law that improves the process of revenue sharing, namely the division of revenue act, 2014. division of revenue act, 2014 (reviewed annually) the division of revenue act, (dora) as it is affectionately known in government circles, in the context of local government, regulates the process of transferring resources from the national government to municipalities. accordingly, the act is passed before the beginning of each government year to determine the allocation of government revenue to all government agencies, including local government. as it pertains to mig, the act provides that the transferring authority, in this case the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, may withhold funds under conditions or in cases where a municipality overspends or underspends in a given period. box 1 outlines an example of an equitable formula that the national treasury uses to allocate revenue to municipalities. box 1: structure of the local government. basic service components, being the first stratum in the formula in box 1, provide for the cost of free basic services for less privileged households and accounted for 78% of the funds allocated in 2016–2017. the second stratum, which is institutional component, directs funds to municipalities that have a limited revenue base in order to enable such municipalities to afford administrative and governance functions and execute their municipal functions (financial fiscal commission 2016:17). to do so, three critical aspects are taken into consideration: (1) institutional component whereby municipalities are subsidised to enable them cover the cost of municipal operations, (2) community services component, which makes available funds to cover other critical municipal services that are not necessarily included in basic services, and lastly, (3) the revenue adjustment component that provides for funding to municipalities with a lesser revenue generation ability (national treasury 2016:93). the municipal finance management act the municipal finance management act (mfma), no. 56 of 2003, deals with the national and provincial allocations of funds to municipalities. the act stipulates: in order to provide predictability and certainty about the sources and levels of intergovernmental funding of municipalities, the accounting officer of a national or provincial department and the accounting authority of a national or provincial public entity responsible for the transfer of any proposed allocations to a municipality, must by no later than 20 january of each year notify the national treasury or the relevant provincial treasury, as may be appropriate, of all proposed allocations, and the projected amounts of those allocations, to be transferred to each municipality during each of the next three years. (rsa 2003:54) in addition, this act is an important local government statute as it establishes treasury norms and standards for the municipalities. it seeks to ensure good governance in financial management issues. section 126 (1) (a) of the act requires that all accounting officers prepare annual financial statements of their municipalities within two months after the end of the financial year. these must be submitted to auditor general. it also makes a provision in section 102 for the guidelines on how to deal with fruitless, irregular and wasteful expenditure by the involved municipal authorities. this act certainly affects the administration of mig funds. the following section attempts to understand mig from the existing literature. theoretical framework decentralised governance for development was adopted as a theoretical framework to analyse the phenomenon investigated in this study. from the united nations development programme’s (undp 2009) perspective, decentralised governance for development in south africa comprises empowering lower levels of government to ensure that local people take part in, and benefit from, their own governance structures and development services. decentralised governance for development is the focus of the decentralisation from higher levels of government to the local level. the undp (2009) suggests that decentralisation is a key area of democratic governance, being the cornerstone for societal development and the millennium development goals, with a view to empowering all levels of society and providing services for and to the people. the arguments on ‘lack of capacity, fragmentation of services and standards’ as reasons not to devolve powers, especially financial powers, and functions to the local sphere are overstated and lack substantial insight in respect of democratic and representative governance (mohan 2001; tshamano, shopola & mukonza 2021). thus, considering that the devolution of powers to local government is to empower and develop representative governance, shopola (2021, 2022) has argued that the rationale should be to provide services where needed most. the subsequent movement towards devolution is to improve service delivery, cost efficiencies and increased capacity and productivity at local level. devolved governance creates the opportunity to improve local governance and positive externalities for national governance. as argued by oakley (1995) and mohan (2001), no matter what terms are used, whether it is devolution, decentralisation or assignment of powers and functions to the local sphere, it effectively means that the rationale is: representative and democratic governance effective decision making service provision to benefit the local citizenry building local capacity and capability cost efficiency in service delivery. the aforementioned rationale was considered in this study to examine how municipalities in the local sphere of government apply their assigned powers and implement the service delivery aspirations of the national government through the grant system. it must be emphasised that the aim of local government and local governance is to ensure a functioning city, district, town or region with decent living conditions supported by economic development. this means that citizens should expect acceptable levels of income and good local service delivery. the impact of economic development is the stimulation of the development of society and create viable communities where people can live, work, and have a good life. the conceptual framework adopted is devolved governance for development. the framework encompasses the aspect of fiscal decentralisation that is crucial for supporting local governments in fostering community development and providing sustainable services to the people. fiscal decentralisation and intergovernmental fiscal relations frameworks adopted by governments make provisions such as the mig programme to occur, hence the adoption of the devolved governance for development concept in this study. research methods and design the study from which this article was based on employed descriptive and case study research designs. these designs, according to schurink, schurink and fouche (2021:293–306), are grounded in qualitative research. descriptive research, on the other hand, is concerned with obtaining and describing information about the current status of the studied phenomenon. case study, on the other hand allows for in-depth enquiry into a particular problem as opposed to a sweeping statistical survey, which is common in quantitative studies (brynard et al. 2014; fouche & roestenburg 2021). in the context of this study, the chosen designs proved useful for probing and describing the lived experienced of the officials regarding the implementation of mig in the case study of ba-phalaborwa. interviews were the data collection method and the participants were asked case-specific questions such as, ‘what do you think are the impediments or challenges to the spending of mig funds in ba-phalaborwa municipality?’ the target population in this study were all members of the management and at the time of this study, the municipality had only 20 employees serving in managerial positions (ba-phalaborwa local municipality employment statistics 2019), inclusive of directors and unit managers. a sample of 10 participants was selected using the purposive sampling method, in which only eight participated while the other two could not participate because of other commitments. this method is based entirely on the judgement of the researcher (strydom 2021:382). in this study, the management team were selected on the basis that their day-to-day work in one way or another involves implementing the mig programme in the municipality. this, therefore, made them relevant sources as per the researcher’s selection criteria. guided by schurink et al. (2021), data were analysed using the content analysis method, which included note-taking and voice recordings of interviews, transcription and arranging data in terms of key themes that emerged. furthermore, the study was cognisant of quality and trustworthiness issues, which was achieved by means of returning the transcribed data to the participants for verification before the actual finalisation of the research report. biographical details of the participants the researcher received institutional approval from ba-phalaborwa municipality (depicted in figure 1) to interview the officials from different units and political office-bearers who formed part of the 2016–2021 municipal council. contact (interviews) with the selected participants happened between april and september 2021. ten interview questionnaires were distributed and only eight interviews were secured. the two outstanding interviewees cited different reasons, with one of them citing a tight work schedule and the other hospitalisation as a result of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). in terms of the gender proportion, three out of eight participants were females while the majority (five in total) were their male counterparts. although gender proportion has no bearing whatsoever in this study, the outcomes of this profiling are consistent with the municipality’s organogram, which cites that gender inequality remains high among employees with a ratio of 3:1 in favour of male employees (ba-phalaborwa local municipality 2020). figure 1: the map depicting ba-phalaborwa municipality. most participants were relatively old, with six ranging from 45 to 55 years old and two younger than 35. the outcomes also showed that six participants were in possession of university degrees that complemented their positions, and two had post-school qualifications obtained from colleges. four of the six had completed their postgraduate qualifications (honours and masters). of the eight interviewed participants, only three had been working in their current positions for less than five years. the other five had over five years of working experience in their present posts. however, interactions with the participants revealed that all of the participants had more than five years of experience of working in a municipal environment. this demonstrates that their knowledge of the democratic local government dispensation was more than adequate and indisputable. ethical considerations in social research such as this one that this study is premised on, ethics are important because they serve as ‘the moral deliberation, choice and accountability on the part of the researcher throughout the research process’ (steyn & edge 2019:14). some of the ethical practices that were considered in this article included obtaining written letters of permission letters to conduct the study from the tshwane university of technology’s faculty research committee and baphalaborwa municipality. in addition, written consent was also sought from the participants prior to the actual interviews and participants were assured that the information would neither be shared nor used for anything except academic purposes. this included the assurance that their information would be kept confidential and that access to the information would only be accorded to the university if required. ref #: fcre/pm/std/2021/09. results this section presents and analyses the findings. as indicated earlier on, the article itself is an extract from the study that was conducted in ba-phalaborwa local municipality and which consisted of numerous objectives. one of these objectives is central to the reporting in this section, namely to establish the factors affecting the spending of mig in ba-phalaborwa. research aim the aim of this study was to establish the impediments to the spending of mig funds at ba-phalaborwa municipality. empirical findings and analysis the study explored the spending of mig funds in ba-phalaborwa. numerous probing questions were asked based on the answers of the participants. impediments to the spending of mig funds emerged as the key theme, and the supporting descriptors that were noted from the interactions with participants were political instability, community unrest, delays in supply chain management (scm), and a lack of forward planning. it is important to note that all the participants accepted that the municipality was indeed facing challenges when it comes to spending mig funds. a male participant (participant bpm 9), who works as a senior budget department official, warned against improperly spending mig funds, stressing that mig grants account for 50% of the capital budget in ba-phalaborwa. according to its budget adjustment report (2020–2021), the municipality’s total capital expenditure in 2020–2021 (also the time when this study was conducted) stood at r95.8 million. this indicates how dependent the municipality was on the national government, which also suggests that the municipality was struggling to collect revenue. this finding ties directly to the mig’s goal of helping communities expand their revenue base to provide essential services to communities (municipal infrastructure grant 2004–2007:16). delays in supply chain management participants mentioned that one of the major challenges in meeting the deadlines set out in the mig conditions was the delays in the scm process. while this was a major challenge, participants had two slightly different views on the issues that could potentially cause scm delays. while some believed that the scm process would be delayed by issues related to improper contracts and legal compliance, others felt that scm was a regulated process and therefore should not be viewed as a delay; they believed that the pre-planning phase dealing with tendering procedures were the underlying cause, rather than the actual scm process. here are some participants’ views from the interviews: one participant, a senior manager in the office of the chief financial officer, stated: ‘for me [referring to finance office] to spend mig funds i have to go through the most competitive bidding process … right! this process comes with stringent laws and regulations. mostly, the famous one would be that you [have] procured and found later that the contract was irregular. so the results of this is that you will always have to be cautious when evaluating to ensure that … that bid do not become irregular. then if you don’t award that bid because of irregularity it means you will not expend the allocated grant. much as it the desire of the municipality to deliver … irregular expenditure is also not a desired outcome.’ (participant bpm10, female, senior manager in the office of cfo) another participant shared the following: ‘for me, the problem really is not the regulated part of procurement or supply chain processes. the problem lies in the planning phase where the municipality has to do forward planning in terms of preparing the spec or tender documents which are informed by the design [a process which is not regulated or which can be done anytime] … uhhhm if we delay in terms of this process, eventually we will delay the procurement process which takes up to 90 days before finalisation. the pre-planning phase is a problem because it is not regulated and our municipality often encounter problems in designing bids specifications.’ (participant bpm3, male, director) forward planning a lack of forward planning was identified by the majority of participants as another problem that contributed to the unspent mig funds in ba-phalaborwa municipality. forward planning refers to a process whereby the municipality identifies key possible projects that can be funded through mig for the next three financial years. the 2019–2020 ba-phalaborwa municipality special adjustment report attests to the fact that the municipality had not set priorities for the 2019–2020 financial year. according to the limpopo provincial treasury (2014:65), the mig spending plan must be submitted with municipalities’ funding requests. although the implementation of such contingency plans will always depend on some contextual factors and political manifestations, according to some participants, having them is prudent and perhaps safer than not having them: ‘sometimes the issues of misaligned financial years between the spheres of government are discouraging … you find that our financial year ends at july but theirs end at march and they allocated based on their financial year.’ (participant bpm3, male, senior manager) political stability and community unrest in the municipality the majority of participants also acknowledged that there was a direct and immediate link between political instability and the mig implementation process, which is often detrimental to the latter. a volatile political environment always poses a threat to the implementation of community projects. the reviewed literature confirms that a change in the political system or leadership can result in a complete reversal of some community policies and performance goals (johnston & pongaticat 2008:947; powell 2004:1019; shopola 2022). according to one of the male municipal officials in the project management unit (participant bpm7), the inauguration of the new mayor in 2019 meant changes in the existing council committees and membership of the mayoral committee and other internal committees such as the bid adjudication committee. the study found that all directors in ba-phalaborwa municipality sat in the bid adjudication committee; hence, changes in the councils could affect all directors. in addition, such changes always pose a threat to the approved project implementation or spending calendar or schedule. furthermore, barriers to mig spending are also linked to community unrest. the community protests experienced by ba-phalaborwa reportedly coincided with the implementation of mig projects, as communities wanted direct benefits: ‘it is always a common practice that communities must benefit from the projects happening in their back yards. sometimes you will find that … the contractor is reluctant to sub-contract existing contractors in the communities or hire members because of a lack of experience. then, revolts will ensue.’ (participant bpm7, male, municipal official) from the given findings, it is evident that ba-phalaborwa municipality is a predominantly rural municipality with limited revenue base. hence, the municipality is heavily dependent on mig funds to fulfil its service delivery mandates. this point was established through interaction with a senior male official in the budget and finance department, who revealed that mig funds in ba-phalaborwa accounted for 50% of the municipality’s capital budget. in addition to this local experience, international studies such as those of mehiriz and marceau (2013) and carter (2013) have also shown that delegating tax powers to sub-governments and supporting them through grant schemes is an ill-considered way to spur development in the developed and developing nations such as canada and australia. therefore, it can be argued that the decentralisation of (fiscal) powers in south africa has not yet produced the desired results. this is related to the national treasury’s revenue-sharing process, in which the national and provincial spheres share 90% of the total revenue generated and the local sphere receives the remaining 10% (national treasury 2013; tshamano & shopola 2021). although the rationale is that municipalities are given tax powers to collect revenue, the results of this study indicate that predominantly rural communities such as ba-phalaborwa municipality are struggling because of weak revenue bases. one participant also suggested that some provincial functions would need to be delegated, particularly road functions, to provide general revenue to the municipality. in this context, it can be suggested that the current decentralisation system, in particular the fiscal decentralisation model, needs to be revised to look for ways to allow municipalities, especially in disadvantaged areas with a weaker financial revenue base, to have more functions than they currently have, as moeti (2014) and tshamano and shopola (2021) have argued that relying on mig alone does not resolve the service delivery backlog that these communities are struggling with. conclusion the study concludes that the underutilisation of mig funds has wider implications for the communities of ba-phalaborwa municipality and the municipality itself. for example, if funds are withdrawn, it means that the goals set in the integrated development plan and service delivery budget and implementation plan will not be met, and the municipal budget or financial planning for the current and future years will not only be disrupted but also postponed. as a result, communities are being denied much-needed developments and basic services are not being provided as expected. major projects are responsible for employment; the withdrawal of funds does not mean the creation of employment opportunities. in addition, the study managed to establish that ba-phalaborwa municipality needs serious plans to increase revenue. thus, relying on mig funding has proven insufficient as communities’ revenue bases are weaker. the idea that some provincial functions need to be delegated to municipalities, particularly those found in rural spatial structures, is noble. effective service delivery is required for the ba-phalaborwa municipality to earn the trust of its communities. without it, community unrest will be inevitable; this study has shown that such unrest is a leading cause of unspent mig funds in the community. the following paragraphs address the recommendations that this study proposes. most participants agreed that poor planning was responsible for the underutilisation of mig funds. the result is that the community is late in appointing contractors, which puts tremendous pressure on the supply chain unit, which in many cases has led to disputes by members of the community, if not irregularities in the appointment of contractors. the need to revise the equitable revenue-sharing formula is evident. it is clear from the literature reviewed in this study (hendricks & senago 2017; moeti 2019; senogi 2010; tshamano & shopola 2021), that the present equitable share formula is based on demographics. it is suggested that to strengthen the fiscal sharing model, tangible variables must be considered, such as the rural set-up that most municipalities are demarcated in, the vastness of the municipal space and the cost profiles for service delivery because of factors such as topography and the distance from markets. in conclusion, the key factors impeding spending of mig in ba-phalaborwa, as outlined in this article, included a lack of forward planning, slow supply chain processes, community unrest and political instability. although some of these findings are also common in other municipalities, as revealed by the literature, community unrest emerged as being pertinent to ba-phalaborwa municipality. the probable reason is that the mining activities from which community members have not been benefiting as expected have bred anger, which in turn affects the implementation of municipal projects. in addition, the study recognises that obstacles such as community unrest and natural causes, including weather conditions are unpredictable events and will prove very difficult to avoid. against this background, it can also be concluded that planning and maintaining political stability can be addressed as it requires commitment from project managers and political maturity and understanding from elected officials. this study had limitations, one of which is that its findings are context-bound to ba-phalaborwa municipality and therefore cannot be generalised to other municipalities. hence, for this context, another study is needed that will look into the investigated issues from the perspective of district and provincial administrations in respect of the overall management of an mig programme. this will assist in locating the role of other stakeholders in the implementation of mig within the local sphere of government. acknowledgements the support rendered by tshwane university of technology especially the faculty of humanities and the department of public management throughout the study is greatly appreciated. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing does not apply to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and 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rural – local municipalities in limpopo province coping with the effects of climate change?’, journal of african rennaisence si(1), 147–166. https://doi.org/10.31920/2516-5305/v2021sin1a8 tshamano, w., shopola, a. & mukonza, r., 2021, ‘unmasking merger problems from employees’ perspectives: a case of the disestablished aganang local municipality, south africa’, africa’s public service delivery & performance review 9(1), a501. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v9i1.501 united nations development programme (undp), 2009, strengthening local government participation, a.k. office suppliers ltd, london. van der waldt, g., 2021, municipal management: serving the people, 3rd edn., juta and company ltd, cape town. abstract introduction conceptualising and theorising public participation power dynamics structuration theory and power dynamics governmentality and power dynamics methodology results and discussion satisfaction with participation in municipality’s strategic development planning capability as power in public participation platforms and spaces public participation power dynamics and resource capital accessing public participation spaces perceptions of domination and networking in public participation spaces community commitment and trust in the integrated development plan process and outcomes public participation as tokenistic community knowledge in municipal strategic development planning representations versus marginalisation and powerlessness conclusion and implications for local governance acknowledgements references about the author(s) modeni m. sibanda department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bisho, south africa liezel lues department of public administration and management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation sibanda, m.m. & lues, l., 2021, ‘public participation power dynamics in strategic development planning in a metropolitan municipality: eastern cape province’, journal of local government research and innovation 2(0), a44. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.44 original research public participation power dynamics in strategic development planning in a metropolitan municipality: eastern cape province modeni m. sibanda, liezel lues received: 30 sept. 2021; accepted: 16 nov. 2021; published: 17 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes does not occur in a vacuum; it is juxtaposed within contextual community realities of power, politics, institutional, systemic practices, cultures and inequities in resource capacity, amongst other relational social practices. aim: the aim of this study was to explore the nature of power dynamics in participatory governance platforms and spaces during municipal strategic development planning processes and the extent to which they impact developmental outcomes in a metropolitan municipality. setting: a metropolitan municipality in the eastern cape province, south africa. methods: an interpretive, constructivist, cross-sectional exploratory case study collected in-depth qualitative data from purposefully sampled participants (n = 34) using focus-group discussions. qualitative data were processed using nvivo 8 computer software and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. results: the results indicated mixed views on participants’ satisfaction with public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes. participants reported inadequate knowledge, capacity and capability; resource limits; political exclusion and language barriers, which muted community voice and disempowered, marginalised and excluded some residents from meaningfully participating and articulating community voice, priorities and needs. conclusion: public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality is at best tokenistic, constituting mere ‘window dressing,’ co-option and ‘pretence’ of inclusion of communities/residents in public participation platforms and spaces. whilst on the surface, public participation appears inclusive of a range of stakeholders, at best powerful andr elite interests shape strategic development planning outcomes. a local governance framework for enhancing community voice in public participation platforms and spaces is recommended. keywords: public participation; power dynamics; strategic development planning; structuration theory; local governance; metropolitan municipality. introduction in agenda 2030 on sustainable development, ‘leaving no one behind’ emphasises inclusivity and citizen empowerment in development initiatives. however, in many cases, communities are afforded little opportunity to formulate development policy programmes. in such cases, public participation becomes merely a ‘form of decoration and tokenism, where communities or residents are either used as adornments for pre-set agendas or are only involved through pseudo-participation’ (masuku & macheka 2020:8). local governance remains unaccountable without a community voice demanding accountability (masuku & macheka 2020:10; walker 2018:181–182). meaningful public participation is touted as a critical ingredient of democratisation, local governance and sustainable development (mankuebe & manicom 2020:370). inclusive governance is reiterated in sustainable development goal 16, which promotes inclusive societies and sustainable development. inclusivity is predicated on the right of all citizens to participate meaningfully in the governance processes and to influence policy decisions that affect them (oni et al. 2020:2–5). both public participation and inclusive governance originate from the theory of deliberative democracy. deliberative democratic theory has close affinities with public administration values of inclusiveness, responsiveness, answerability and transparency of governance institutions. accordingly, deliberative democracy directly affects the legitimacy of policy choices and the underlying governance systems, structures and institutions (oni et al. 2020:5). nevertheless, public participation, democratic citizenship and public accountability have an uneasy coexistence in local governance. the extent and substance of public participation have been and continue to be a matter of contention for governance and democratic theory (buccus 2021:e2720; zakhour 2020:350). ironically, whilst public participation is consistent with democratic citizenship, much of what governments do is complex and requires technical competency and expertise to make policy decisions. where technical knowledge is needed, too few voices are heard (van holm 2019:136). resourcing is also a source of relational power. resources are deployed by social actors and stakeholders to reproduce or change power structures in public participation platforms and spaces (coelho, pozzebon & cunha 2021:2). paradoxically, the administration often positions and opens its work to participatory feedback for legitimacy within the confines of often conflicting public values, responsibilities and accountability expectations (eckerd & heidelberg 2020:133). democracy, however, continues to be affected by the habermasian public space (habermas 1996) – a ‘participatory society’, ‘citizen-centric’ or ‘people-centric’ model of democracy – where the public is a constituent power (parvin 2021:268). this exposes the enduring classic tenets of public administration, realising both the promises of the administrative state (waldo 1981) and the political values of democracy to a participatory philosophical paradox. as parvin (2021:278) aptly puts it, ‘the strengthening of democracy requires the weakening of democracy’. this implies that the empowerment of citizens necessitates their disempowerment (parvin 2021:278). wilson (1887:215) had similarly affirmed that public opinion must reign supreme in policy formulation, but opined that it could also be a ‘clumsy nuisance, a rustic handling of delicate machinery’. it is argued that whilst democracy is an essential administrative value, it is just one amongst several other values. wilson thus declared that it is the task of ‘administrative study [to] find the best means for giving public criticism’ control over the matters of formative policy ‘and for shutting it out from all other interference’ (wilson 1887:215). frederickson (1980:97) also observed that ‘effective public administration has come to be defined in the context of an active and participatory citizenry’. situated within an instrumentalist perspective, eckerd and heidelberg (2020:135) postulated that public participation is worthy to the extent that it improves decision-making. public participation furthers the ex ante goals of the agency. thus, in that regard, it can improve social justice outcomes and generate citizen-government trust (eckerd & heidelberg 2020:135). by so doing, public participation may increase policy legitimacy, government efficiency and the promotion of social justice. it may advance governance effectiveness by promoting community voice in policy decision-making processes (van holm 2019:136). however, whilst public participation structures may comply with legislative prescripts regarding public inclusion, deliberation is often tokenistic and unevenly distributed. power asymmetries (fung 2003) often mediate public participation amongst the wealthy, older, more educated, well networked, better resourced or beneficiaries of the status quo (eckerd & heidelberg 2020:135). income inequality, socioeconomic status and education are significant predictors of the rate of participation and the roles accorded to participants because of their relationship with social capital and resource availability (van holm 2019:136). pateman’s (1975) notion of ‘extended citizenship’ calls for citizen control and power in the advent of entrenched structural inequalities. similarly, landemore (2017:7) called for a decoupling of deliberative ‘citizen-centric’, people-centric democracy from elite-centric’ or ‘government-centric’ representative democracy. however, whilst participatory democracy calls for structural inequalities in liberal societies to be rectified, it often does not possess the ability to do so (parvin 2021:265). in pateman’s theorisation (2012:15), participatory democracy must exist where a participatory society exists first. hence, citizens should be empowered stakeholders in the co-production and co-creation of public value (eckerd & heidelberg 2020:136). public participation is connected to notions of power, agency, empowerment and inclusivity of the marginalised and less powerful in decision-making processes (arnstein 1969). to development theorists, participatory democracy implies the need to empower especially the less powerful, disadvantaged and often marginalised community segments in decision-making processes on the design and implementation of policies impacting their well-being (gaventa & valderrama 1999; khan & ara 2006). arnstein (1969:216) advances that ‘participation without the redistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless’. a symbiotic relationship exists between power and ‘community voice’. the public sphere is a plausible space for enabling voice, consciousness, agency and social justice (masuku & macheka 2020:7). closely associated with the notion of public participation is empowerment. rolfe’s (2016:99) community empowerment proposition encapsulates community voice and localist discourses. in reality, however, not all groups and their well-being are always represented (sibanda & lues 2019:79) or empowered, nor do they possess intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to) and collective agency (power with) to navigate the intricate power dynamics intrinsic in participation platforms and spaces (yount et al. 2019:1). often public participation platforms and spaces neglect and ignore the capacity of such spaces to manage the pervasive, complex power dynamics amongst stakeholders in municipal strategic development planning processes. the researchers explored the nature of public participation power dynamics in participatory governance platforms and spaces during municipal strategic development planning processes and the extent to which they impact developmental outcomes in a metropolitan municipality. it is argued that public participation is influenced by actors’ interests and actions, with the most influential actors usually controlling the participation process. power can be used to include and exclude actors in participation platforms and spaces. power dynamics create, produce, reproduce and transform public participation platforms and spaces within structures of social systems bound, reproduced and mobilised by agents during public deliberation (coelho et al. 2021:7). power, therefore, influences decisions and includes and excludes actors. a lack of resources, voice or legitimacy excludes less powerful actors (coelho et al. 2021:7). deconstructing societal and power structures that militate against community voice requires critical consciousness in those living on the margins, who experience conditions of exclusion, unjust power inequalities and marginalisation in public participation platforms and spaces. however, invisible power structures and the everydayness of power dynamics reproduce and perpetuate inequality and exclusion (kezar 2011:475; machin & ruser 2021:215). unmasking such structures, systems and practices makes them easier to navigate. by viewing public participation as a redistribution of power and an agency facilitating the process, the researchers sought to unravel how manifestations of public participation, power dynamics and community agency shape, in complex ways, why and how public participation may or may not be a space for giving voice to community priorities and needs in municipal strategic development planning processes. conceptualising and theorising public participation power dynamics public participation is community engagement at the grass-roots level (christensen & mcquestin 2019:456; koens & gunawardana 2021:464; masuku & macheka 2020:8; nikku & rafique 2019:880–888). its values embrace, but are not limited to, inclusiveness, openness, access, consultation, shared decisions and transparency (oni et al. 2020:5). murambo (2008:124–127) stated that citizens’ voices and participation are at the centre of democratic government. for bernhardt (2015:136), public participation is the direct or indirect involvement of community members in policymaking and decision-making processes. munyinda and habasonda (2013:13) contended that it is ‘an instrument of deliberative democratic systems’. auriacombe (2015:60) viewed it as the process through which the government seeks input from communities on what they want their government to do, as well as how, when and where they want it to do. in terms of section 19 of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 (rsa 1996), every citizen is free to make political choices and participate in political processes. public participation is, as a result, a process of engagement in governance, in which ‘people participate together for deliberation and collective action within an array of interests, institutions and networks, developing civic identity and involving people in governance processes’ (cooper 2005:534). it is a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives and the decisions and resources that affect them (nikku & rafique 2019:880–882). nikku and rafique’s (2019:880–888) view affords communities’ social and political action to expand choices, opportunities, equity and social justice in local governance. public participation is a crucial tenet of democracy (lues 2014:791). similarly, the governance paradigm emphasises the need for public participation in the design of public policy and decision-making processes (przeybilovicz et al. 2020:5). pandeya (2015:68) viewed it as the processes in which citizens take part in governance processes. for christensen and mcquestin (2019:456), it is an a priori theoretical concept in local democracy discourse and is at the core of participatory democratic governance (mankuebe & manicom 2020:370). it is a socially transformative action that seeks to redistribute power to the marginalised (cornwall 2016). consequently, it denotes how individuals and groups contest and redistribute unequal power relations that limit agency in their daily lives (koens & gunawardana 2021:464). as a concept, public participation draws on the dialectical relationship amongst authority, influence and power by covering ‘taking part’ and ‘being part’ of the decision-making process (gyan 2021:2). the above-mentioned closely resonates with makiva, bob and davids (2021), who explained that public participation is: the [p]rocess whereby stakeholders exercise influence over public policy decisions and share control over resources and institutions that affect their lives, thereby providing a check on the power of their government. (p. 173) dismantling and transforming unequal power relations calls for the exercising of agency. through democratic agentic acts, decision-making power shifts to individuals, communities and citizens (coy et al. 2021:101871; koens & gunawardana 2021:467). it entails the process of identifying and taking action to challenge and reform unequal power relations (koens & gunawardana 2021:468). thus, at the heart of public participation is the notion of agency. for sen (1999:19), agency denotes the freedom to act and make value changes within an actor’s everyday lived experiences. through the exercise of agency, inequalities, exclusions, oppressive structures, embedded structural societal cultures, and norms are dismantled, often in a recursive process (gammage, kabeer & van der meulen rodgers 2016:1). dismantling structures to expand the freedom to exercise agency is a process of empowerment. agency is often driven by empowerment. for ibrahim and alkire (2007:384), expanding one’s ability to make choices is indicative of empowerment as the ‘expansion of agency’ (ibrahim & alkire 2007:384). agency intersects with critical consciousness and social advocacy. critical consciousness, social advocacy and human agency drive transformative social change and community development through active ‘community voice’ in participatory spaces. structuration theory and power dynamics the postmodernist turn in social theory birthed giddens’ (1984) structuration theory. giddens (1984) suggested that individual human agency and social structures are mutually dependent – a concept he calls ‘duality’ (sommerfeldt 2012:273). in his schema, giddens (1984) proposed that every action involves human agency and the instantiation of structures (rules and resources), thus forming a duality. human agency denotes the capacity to make a difference and to have a transformative capacity (giddens 1984:14). human agency is often constrained or enabled by structures, social systems and other reproduced social practices. giddens’ (1984) theory postulates that actions produce and reproduce both constraining and enabling social structures, which are outcomes of social production and reproduction (giddens 1976). in structuration theory, the structure is held as ‘the rules and resources recursively implicated in social reproduction’ (giddens 1984:xxxi). social change is effected through the exercise of agency. structure influences agents by giving them power, constraints and vested interests. agency affords one the transformative capability to do things and effect change, where power is embedded. in contrast, structures are assemblages of rules and power resources (giddens 1984:24). in structuration theory, resourcing is a fundamental construct. there is also a dialectical relationship between resourcing and power. giddens’ (1984:50) conception of power views it as having two faces: it constrains and empowers the agent through human action. giddens’ (1984:15) power resource thesis argues that power is embedded in a pre-given social order, and agents’ capacity for transformative change is bound to power resource mobilisation, inherent in structures and constituents of institutions. social systems are therefore held together through an accumulation of power resources. in giddens’ (1984:164) schema, social systems are ensembles of reproduced practices across time and space. the more power resources are stored, the more powerful a social system gets. giddens’ (1984:16) notion of the ‘dialectic of control’ in social systems posits that a social system not only marginalises and disempowers, it also empowers agents. control is the capability that some actors have of influencing the circumstances of action of others (giddens 1984:283). in structuration theory, accounts of power are interwoven with solid notions of agency, and social change is a function of agents’ consciousness (hildebrand & martell 2012:190). accordingly, agents are not always at the mercy of their social position. agents’ consciousness provides the wherewithal for reflection upon social situations, behaviour and the self. consciousness allows one to coherently account for one’s activities and the reasons for them (giddens 1984:45). in this sense, actors are viewed as powerful and knowledgeable beings, with reflexive capabilities for monitoring the ‘ongoing flow of social life’ (giddens 1984:5). in structuration theory, actors negotiate and re-negotiate their positions within society through agency. bakewell (2010:1694) expounded that agency is the capacity of social actors to ‘reflect on their position, devise strategies and take action to achieve their desires’. in giddens’ (1984:17–21) postulation, systems are reconstituted by structures, with structures generating behaviour patterns in the enactment, production and reproduction of social life. such behaviour patterns (termed schemas or rules) are the means through which agents act in society (mcgarry 2016:2073). the multiplicity of structures and schemas is a crucial characteristic of structure, which enables agents, as strategic actors, to act in multiple systems (sewell 2005:141–142). conflicting structures and schemas often reconstitute systems in which agents’ lives are embedded. agents’ power or capacity for action is enhanced by acting through schemas to gain access to resources (mcgarry 2016:2074). however, in agents’ consciousness, structures are only memory traces amenable to transformation through action. as such, structuration theory acknowledges the role of power dynamics in mediating power asymmetries inherent in structures of society. hence, in structuration theory, power enables or constrains interaction and exists in social contexts, ‘manifesting itself in the dialectical interplay between agency and structure’ (giddens 1984:226). within this dialectic of control, power’s ability to constrain or enhance actors’ agency is contingent upon the ability of public participation stakeholders to act, subject to structures within the contexts. stakeholders may, for example, attempt to ‘manage resources in such ways, as to exert control over more powerful established power relationships’ (giddens 1984:374). access to resources provides stakeholders with the power and wherewithal to transform structures. agency is accordingly enhanced or constrained by structure. in giddens’ (1984:176) own words, ‘one person’s constraint is another’s enabling’. as argued by durham (2005:44), structuration theory provides a potent analytical schema for holistically comprehending power and generating consciousness and as a structuring agent – ‘a process of structuration’, dictated by giddens’ dialectic of control. structuration theory, therefore, allows us to reconceptualise the public-institutional interaction (cozier & witmer 2001:619). governmentality and power dynamics governmentality can be treated as a synonym of liberal government and governmental management (esmark 2018:245). as a term, barthes first used it in 1957 to link government processes with efficiency (barthes [1957]1972; mckinlay, carter & pezet 2012:6). as a process, it designates how the conduct of individuals or groups might be directed (bulley & sokhi-bulley 2014:453). within this logic, to govern is to control the possible field of action of others (foucault 2002:341). gordon (1991:2) succinctly defines governmentality ‘… as “the conduct of conduct” – that is, a form of activity or practice that aims to shape, guide or affect the conduct of some person or persons’. gordon (1991:3) further explained that, as methodology, governmentality refers to ‘a way of thinking about the practice of governance: who can govern, what governing is and what or who is governed’. it is a ‘govern/mentality’ (barron 2005:984). within the context of public participation, responsibility is at the heart of governmentality. an excellent democratic society is a responsible society, built on the virtues of civility, with the public taking responsibility (bulley & sokhi-bulley 2014:455). the hegemonic nature of public participation power dynamics is partly because of their structural articulation by governments and other influential public and social institutions. public participation power dynamics can thus be conceptualised in terms of foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’. governmentality is an organising framework of practices and technologies in the exercise of power to have effects on the conduct (i.e. action on the actions of the others) by the powerful (foucault 2007:109). access to resources shapes power dynamics, either negatively or positively, with profound implications for participatory governance, democratic legitimacy and the government–citizen nexus (coelho et al. 2021:20). thus, governmentality embraces both governments of the self and individuals by each other and by the state – ‘governmentalities of self and others’ (foucault 2019:288). this conception captures the totality of numerous power relations in society (kim 2021:186). this locates public participation power dynamics within the context of what foucault calls hegemonic exercise of power, which aims to discipline, control and marginalise (finlay & hopkins 2019:5). this form of power is essentially the practice of governing, controlling and subjugating the populace. it is the consolidation and exercise of government power in everyday culture and everyday practices. it is thus imperative to theorise power dynamics as the exercise of power in everyday culture and everyday practices: a power that ‘travels between state, society and citizens’ (kaya 2014:24). resourcing permits the production of new resources, which when deployed, can change structures of power (coelho et al. 2021:22). space is central to the exercising of power (gaventa 2006:25). the public sphere is an arena of public discourse and communicative rationality (finlay & hopkins 2019:5). marginalised spaces are not spaces entirely outside the public space, but rather on the periphery of the public sphere, where community voices in public participation spaces are undervalued and silenced (finlay & hopkins 2019:5). governance networks emphasise partnerships, co-operation and collaboration. four theories define governance networks: interdependence theory, governability theory, integration theory and governmentality theory (sørensen & torfing 2005:208). integration theory views governance networks as institutionalised fields of interaction between relevant actors, which are integrated into a community defined by shared norms and perceptions (sørensen & torfing 2005:209). governance theory implicitly advocates that governance networks are an attempt of an increasingly reflexive and facilitating state to mobilise and shape the free actions of self-governing actors (sørensen & torfing 2005:209). gaventa (2006:25–29) distinguished between ‘three forms of power: visible, hidden and invisible forms’. localism is a well-established policy discourse in most western liberal democracies (wargent 2021:571). proponents draw discursive links between localism and citizen empowerment, community control, responsive governance and deepened democracy (wargent 2021:571). a unifying assumption within this discourse is that power can simply be ‘put in the hands’ of local people. this notion is advanced by theorists adopting a governmentality perspective predicated on foucault’s (1990:93) synaptic conception of power that ‘comes from everywhere’, operating through social actors and their relations. governmentality explains how power operates in societal structures by creating discourses, subjects, potential resources and institutional systems and structures (foucault 1991). localism is thus governmental rationality. ‘proper’ distribution of power is made explicit throughout the localist discourse. as a concept, governmentality helps one to comprehend power’s varied and intersecting forms, opening out the power dynamics behind how power is propagated and experienced in organisational, governmental and societal institutions, systems and structures (finlay & hopkins 2019:5). as postulated by foucault (2002:361), ‘space is fundamental in any form of communal life; space is also fundamental in any exercise of power’. however, foucault (1990:93) also stated that ‘power is everywhere’; it is not the exclusive property of hegemonic subjects. there is also power from below, exercised by the less powerful, which foucault terms ‘resistance’. this closely resonates with hooks’ (1989) view of marginality as a space of resistance and deprivation. foucault (1982:783) similarly argued that resistance is a struggle against power. hence, public participation power dynamics can become a struggle to gain control, undermine and resist hegemonic powers seeking to construct, reconstruct and control systems and structures of public deliberation spaces. paradoxically then, for some, the public sphere is a space of resistance, whilst for others, it is a potential space of insecurity and vulnerability, which they seek to avoid (finlay & hopkins 2019:5). this highlights that public participation power dynamics may push other local governance stakeholders, including residential communities, into marginalised spaces. when they intersect with institutional, systemic, political and societal structures, they can marginalise agency and diminish confidence and trust in local governance decision-making processes. methodology the researchers adopted postmodernist, interpretive epistemological, and constructivist ontological positions (fouche, strydom & roestenburg 2021:7). interpretivism assumes that social reality is interpreted subjectively, that the ‘knower’ and ‘known’ are interdependent, and that reality is multilayered and complex and has multiple interpretations (fouche et al. 2021:7). constructivists view reality as a product of a series of constructive processes and hold that only a narrative truth exists (maree et al. 2016:4–5). constructivism is based on the ontological assumption that the ‘public’ actively and agentially seek out, select and construct their views, worlds and meanings. such processes are rooted in sociocultural contexts, interaction and deliberation (cohen, manion & morrison 2018:19–23), committing to social justice and empowerment (fouche et al. 2021:9). thus, for constructivists, empowerment as a process includes increases in intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to) and collective agency (power with) (yount et al. 2019:1). a constructivist, interpretivist worldview allowed the researchers to explore public participation power dynamics as inherently emotional, historical, cultural and contextual, as situated stories/narratives of communities and local governance stakeholders embedded within webs of beliefs and social structures (källström et al. 2020:4). the assumption was that reality consisted of people’s subjective experiences of the external world. the researchers, therefore, embraced an intersubjective and empathetic epistemology, which used qualitative and interactional approaches (maree et al. 2016:4). participants’ views were taken as ‘fact’, based on the assumption that participants constantly interpret and reinterpret their world – social situations, other people’s actions, their actions and humanly created objects and social spaces (blaikie 2007:124). concurring with babbie (2016:293–294), the researchers were also of the view that immersing themselves in participants’ viewpoints would allow them to obtain in-depth data on feelings, meanings, perceptions and beliefs (blaikie 2007:131; easterby-smith, thorpe & jackson 2008:116). the constructivist, interpretivist worldview aligns with a decentred theory of governance by taking a humanist and historicist perspective and a constructivist and historical social ontology (källström et al. 2020:4). such a decentred theory emphasises the social construction of practices through the ability of individuals to create and act on meanings (bevir 2013:56–57). the researchers assumed that, in the case study, practices and local governance narratives would make it possible to unpack the contested social and structural constructions situated in power relations and asymmetries (bevir 2013:65). it was assumed that inequalities and exclusion were situated in and mediated by public participation power asymmetries and social structures and were a consequence of how individuals and society perceived social relations (cohen et al. 2018:24). therefore, meaning-making power dynamics, overt and covert power issues and structuration practices were typical of interpretative, constructivist studies and the qualitative research approach (ospina, esteve & lee 2018). the researchers embraced post-foundationalism, based on meaning holism. meaning holism is premised on the assumption that propositions, meanings and beliefs can only be fully understood in the context of structural, systemic, societal and institutional public participation power dynamics. from this paradigmatic standpoint, administrative behaviour and public administration were less about correlations or associations amongst variables and more about experiences, stories/narratives, beliefs, actions, practices, meanings and how they are contingent on context and subjectivities (bevir 2011:190). the researchers thus adopted a qualitative approach, and data were collected through focus-group discussions (maree et al. 2016:95). the exploratory case study design enabled the researchers to understand public participation power dynamics in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality case study. a case study had the advantage of yielding in-depth explanatory insights (babbie 2016:302). the target population comprised ward councillors, ward committee members, integrated development plan (idp) representative forum members and community stakeholders. four focus-group discussions were conducted (maree et al. 2016:95–97). one focus-group discussion was conducted with each of the following sample groups: 8 ward councillors, 9 ward committee members, 7 idp representative forum members and 10 community stakeholders. purposive sampling enabled the researchers to achieve the typicality of settings in the selected metropolitan municipality (babbie 2016:187; bless, higson-smith & sithole 2013:172; maree et al. 2016:198). the selection was further based on the need to adequately capture the heterogeneity in the target population (warren, gerber & robinson 2013:128). another goal was to select information-rich cases. out of the original sample of 40 participants (n = 40), only 34 (constituting 85%) of the original sample attended the focus-group discussions. for bless et al. (2013:200–201), focus groups are a quick and inexpensive way of collecting data from participants (see also maree et al. 2016:97). focus-group discussions allowed participants to build on each other’s ideas and comments. the researchers thus found focus-group discussions suitable for collecting in-depth qualitative data (bless et al. 2013:200–201). hence, polkinghorne (2005) explained that qualitative researchers most often use a small number of participants in their studies. in support of the given explanation, curry, nembhard and bradley (2009) argued that the sample size varies depending on the breadth and complexity of the inquiry. thus, the adequacy of the sample size is determined by the principle of theoretical saturation. schwandt (2001) posited that theoretical saturation is reached when additional analysis no longer contributes to anything new about the concept or experience under study. from the given discussion, it is apparent that there is no agreed-upon sample size in qualitative research. hence, for this article, an adequate sample size was subjectively decided to be 20. data were collected from this sample using the data collection methods discussed in the following paragraphs. the validity, the extent to which a study measures what it claims to measure (maree et al. 2016:122), was considered. internal validity, the extent to which extraneous variables that might interfere with the results, was controlled (see maree 2007:216–218). threats to internal validity such as history, pretesting, instrumentation, subject attrition, maturation and diffusion were mostly guarded against. external validity, the extent to which findings can be generalised (babbie 2016:148–152), was also considered. this implies that if several focus groups expressed similar attitudes or experiences, it could be argued that the groups represent the opinions and experiences of a larger population, that is, the sample group. data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. rigorous, systematic coding and categorisation of significant themes were conducted on the focus-group discussions’ transcripts and notes (see creswell 2007:244). qualitative data were processed using nvivo 8 computer software. data analysis involved assigning descriptive labels (open codes) to text passages, clustering similar codes and assigning inferential labels or pattern codes (maree et al. 2016:116). the constant comparison was used to determine whether the data segments were in the most appropriate categories and themes. the themes that emerged from the data were then interpreted and discussed. in the qualitative data, trustworthiness was established (creswell & creswell 2018:166) by adopting the credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability criteria advocated by nowell et al. (2017:3–4). results and discussion this section presents and discusses the findings structured around the themes that emerged from focus-group discussions. verbatim quotes are selectively used to give voice to the participants and to illustrate participants’ perceptions and views. satisfaction with participation in municipality’s strategic development planning satisfaction is a psychological feeling and experience generated and affected by the differences between the public’s perceptions and their expectations of service delivery in a municipality (xu & zhu 2020:4). it is ‘an evaluative attitude or behaviour towards some experience or object’ (james 2009:108). perceived quality and perceived value were used to reflect the impact process of public participation on satisfaction (xu & zhu 2020:4). previous studies have shown that public participation positively affects citizens (wu & jung 2016). public value is intrinsically linked to a collective notion such as ‘the general interest’, captured by moore (2013:58) as ‘the collective arbiter of public value’. the discourse on public value draws on notions of democracy and public interest. as a result, ‘public satisfaction’ becomes a possible public value. consequently, community expectations and satisfaction vary concerning contextual public preferences, perceived quality and value (mangai 2016:89). the focus-group discussions showed mixed views on participants’ satisfaction with public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality under study. results from focus-group discussions showed the following sentiments. one participant pointed out: ‘in my area, everyone participates equally despite political backgrounds. in the idp meetings, the community is free to raise their needs and identify the projects they want.’ (idp representative forum member) a ward councillor in the metropolitan municipality had this to say regarding satisfaction with public participation platforms and spaces: ‘in many instances, identified projects in my ward have been accepted by the municipality. yes, of course i am satisfied. … i start the process from the planning stages up to the final stage [adoption stage].’ (ward councillor) a community stakeholder expressed dissatisfaction with the efficacy of public participation platforms and spaces in influencing strategic planning outcomes in the metropolitan municipality. the participant commented: ‘i get invited and attend. … i get involved in any process preceding the integrated development planning meetings. … i do participate, but at times priorities as been [sic] given by the community are not adhered to, they do not get included.’ (community stakeholder) participants also expressed mixed feelings about their satisfaction with the participation of stakeholders, such as the idp representative forum. another participant revealed: ‘they [idp representative forum] cover the needs of the community where they come from [sectoral integration]. … relevant people are brought in to explain their fields. … it is the idp forum which shapes the direction of the idp.’ (community stakeholder) another community stakeholder commented: ‘i don’t know if [the idp representative forum] it exists. … i don’t know because i never heard about it before, but as ward committee, i want more information to have for the community.’ (community stakeholder) a member of the idp representative forum emphasised the need for sectoral integration, emphasising that: ‘our sector plans should be an integral part of our municipality … in our idp … because it takes into account different views and that all stakeholders participate freely without fear.’ (idp representative forum member) these findings reveal a mixture of exposure, vulnerability and threat to public participation in the metropolitan municipality’s municipal strategic development planning review processes. corporatism requires that public participation be subordinated to local governance structures. however, as tew (2005:77) postulated about public participation spaces, dominant perspectives may be policed by disallowing the possibility of an alternative. rutgers (2015:39) viewed shared values as specific values that concern ‘the good society’ or ‘the general interest’. the possibility of public participation in municipal strategic development planning review processes creating public value resonated with focus-group participants, some of whom had this to say: ‘if the representatives can be active and trustworthy, the outcomes would be positive because they are presenting the community needs and influencing the idp outcomes. i strongly believe that these forums will make the people’s voice to be heard.’ (ward councillor) ‘different stakeholders bring projects that can change people’s lives. … idp representative forum is comprised of all stakeholders. … idp representative forum has all departmental representatives, business community, ngos and elite groups [interest groups]. … my take is: surely they are there to benefit themselves. … they support each other.’ (ward committee member)‘ ‘although we [idp representative forum] have less influence. … they [community needs] can be determined by the priority order. strong interest groups have more influence as to the final product. … it would be helpful if the municipal councils can work according to idp outcomes as suggested by communities. … it’s all about community needs, isn’t it?’ (idp representative forum) dissatisfaction with public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality was discerned from some participants who felt that: ‘not enough is being done to educate the community about the importance of the idp and public participation, therefore most do not attend or a few educated ones attend. … issues raised by the community remain the same throughout the system. the ruling party does not do well, they do not listen to public views, and they influence the people with their own decisions using their members.’ (ward committee member [opposition]) ‘the community needs to be given more knowledge, so they could be able [to] understand what is expected of them. integrated development plan (idp) does not satisfy community needs, because most residents don’t participate as they don’t really understand the importance of taking part in the process. they don’t hear most of our views. … public participation doesn’t make us aware of the idp. our ward area is vast so people are not heard.’ (community stakeholder) a community member pointed out: ‘municipality is not implementing the needs of the people, because some things people want, the municipality does not do it at all. … that is why people get angry and burn the streets all the time. some things are done quickly to the other communities, to some they do not do totally. some of them, they take time, such as houses, electricity. because there is nothing happening it is only empty promises.’ (community stakeholder) another participant expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of municipal strategic planning, saying with exasperation: ‘integrated development plan document is a cut and paste and is the same every year. no implementation and evaluations of projects.’ (idp representative forum member) these findings indicate that the contextual background is related to the expectations and satisfaction of the inhabitants of a neighbourhood or community. in their study, wang, jun and wang (2021:60) established that the public’s performance expectation plays a moderating role, mitigating the influence on public satisfaction. for bozeman (2007:12), the public interest is the outcome best serving the long-run survival and well-being of a social collective as a public. public value is predicated on the notion of the public sphere, public interest and political instruments that create public value. participants’ experience with public participation spaces in municipal strategic development planning suggested a mixed bag of satisfaction, frustrations and dissatisfaction. capability as power in public participation platforms and spaces the issue of limited capacity to fully understand the strategic nature of municipal strategic development planning amongst community members was a recurring theme. participants believed that a lack of capacity and/or capability reproduced the marginalisation of residents from meaningfully participating and articulating community needs and policy preferences. a recurring theme was that the idp was fully not understood by many community stakeholders, including those who represent them, the ward committees. qualitative data from focus-group discussions indicated that residents of the metropolitan municipality lacked functionings and capabilities (sen 1999) in strategic development planning processes. one participant reflected as follows on the strategic development planning outreach programmes in the metropolitan municipality: ‘most questions from residents during idp outreach programmes are based on houses and electricity and also jobs for the people. … there are lots of disagreements on which activities must be done first. very few understand the significance of this exercise [public participation in the idp]. … community education is highly needed. … people are not well informed about the municipal process concerning service delivery.’ (ward councillor) commenting on the capacity of the ward committee, another participant had this to say: ‘the ward committee is not capacitated to be public representatives. most of the questions are based on houses and the people ask about jobs in our municipality.’ (ward councillor) the practice of discussing issues unrelated to the idp was echoed by yet another participant: ‘the problem is about jobs. … people want jobs. i have experienced that the community is always shouting, complaining. … some are very angry when they want to raise their issues. … some of the issues are never attended to, so it is a longstanding problem.’ (community stakeholder) these results raise the issue of the need for agency and empowerment in the metropolitan municipality. sen’s (2002:585) conception of process freedom encapsulates agency and empowerment. empowerment subsumes agency, critical consciousness and transformative social change (coy et al. 2021:101871; ferrero y de loma-osorio & zepeda 2014:29). narayan (2002:3) identified two components of empowerment. firstly, the expansion of agency, which conditions opportunity structures for the effective exercise of agency. secondly, the institutional environment mediates power, accountability, participatory democracy, structuration and capability functionings to ameliorate unfreedom. in giddens’ (1984:14) theorisation, agency is constrained or enabled by social structures. the responses from the focus-group participants are suggestive of worrying about a lack of empowerment amongst stakeholders. that lack of capacity was raised by a focus-group participant who, for example, said: ‘there is a lack of understanding of the meaning of idp. … some think idp is an anc branch. … sometimes what the stakeholders suggest does not form the content of an idp. the community is not ‘educated’ enough to understand the processes of the idp. … what goes in there and what should be done by other government departments.’ (idp representative forum member) capacity challenges were further raised by a focus-group participant who observed: ‘capacity challenges [are an issue]. … they [community] do not know the process of the idp, … they must learn what it is … so they know what to do when it comes to mayoral roadshows. some community members do not take public participation in the idp process seriously, when it is the most important meeting for their future and needs.’ (idp representative forum member) the core concepts of ‘functionings’ and ‘capability’ in sen’s (1999) capability theory emphasise freedoms, citizen agency, justice, inclusion, poverty reduction, efficiency, equity, and resilience (alkire 2010:28; sen 2002:585, 2009:139). the study’s findings suggest that public representatives could be lacking in the process aspects of capabilities. similarly, lyhne, nielsen and aaen (2016:320) have established that a lack of skills, knowledge and capacity were constraints impacting public participation spaces. the capabilities of ward committees were, for example, questioned by a focus-group participant, who observed the following with concern: ‘the ward committees do not regard themselves as part of the municipality. when the community raises questions, only the ward councillor answers questions. … they [ward committee members] also want rdp houses and jobs.’ (ward councillor) this reflects coelho et al.’s (2021:2) assertion that power can also be associated with the use of resources and that resourcing is a source of relational power. in this regard, power resources from ‘structural power’ and ‘associational power’ provide strategic capacity for communities to further their interests (gavin 2021:6). the power resources and capabilities framework similarly emphasise that specific capabilities, like framing or learning, are needed to mobilise individual power resources, such as network embeddedness, internal solidarity and narrative resources (gavin 2021:66). narrative resources constitute a body of interpretive action frames that can be mobilised and deployed to build discursive power (gavin 2021:6). this means that, done poorly, public participation can result in undemocratic outcomes by reinforcing or perpetuating existing power inequalities, marginalising minority perspectives, creating dysfunctional consensus or fostering cynicism (sprain 2016:66). this can be the case when public representatives either lack the capabilities to carry out their mandates or the agency to initiate change. this lack of capacity was pointed out by a focus-group participant, who stated: ‘ward councillors forget their responsibilities as they begin to form part of the community and raise complaints and lead the public protests.’ (community stakeholder) alkire (2010:37) proposed that in addition to capability expansion, principles such as poverty reduction, durability, sustainability and support for human rights should be integral to human development. capabilities flourish where there is agency, consciousness and empowerment. power is related to the ability to guarantee positions of authority or control over resources and the allocation and control of resources are essential elements of power relations (coelho et al. 2021:4). declercq and ayala (2017:4) insightfully explained that power is capacity, potential, ability or wherewithal – it is dynamic and interactional. similarly, culley and angelique (2011:411) observed that discourse and decision-making are nested within systems of power that may mask manipulated and manufactured public consent. as such, public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes is always permeated by power and tactics, strategies and the microphysics of power (ferrero y de loma-osorio & zepeda 2014:31). public participation power dynamics and resource capital public participation draws on the dialectical relationship between authority, influence and power through ‘taking part’ and ‘being part’ of the decision-making process (gyan 2021:2). power can be the capacity to deny, repress or coerce (coelho et al. 2021:4). resource constraints often place access limitations on municipal residents who wish to participate. for example, a community member was worried that meetings were held far from where some residents lived, making it difficult for municipal residents to access participation spaces with limited or no resources for transportation. the following quotes capture the sentiments of participants: ‘our areas are far from venues.’ (community stakeholder) ‘sometimes ward committees find it difficult to reach certain areas because the stipend is next to nothing for travelling expenses … they are not capacitated to do consultation and to capture community needs and challenges.’ (community stakeholder) the issue of a lack of resources was further raised by a participant who lamented: ‘… no resources to attend municipal strategic development planning meeting. … some do not have money to attend the meetings. … there is no transport to attend the meeting.’ (idp representative forum member) on being asked if public participation was inclusive, a participant again pointed to the issue of a lack of resources for accessing such spaces. this suggests that public participation spaces in the metropolitan municipality systematically exclude those community members without their own means of transport for accessing participation platforms and spaces. this was corroborated by a participant who bemoaned the fact that: ‘[because of a] lack of transport, some members can’t attend, although interested … the municipality should budget enough in order to visit the people. the community have the right of say [voice]. the municipality should hire transport for the community to the idp outreach meetings.’ (community member) the resource-based theory insightfully provides an analytic framework for discerning situations in which community stakeholders are at a disadvantage concerning others in participation platforms and spaces. identifying who has authority and control over resources is critical because authority is a means of obtaining resources. resources may also be accessible to certain influential role players or some actors may lack formal authority but still have essential resources (coelho et al. 2021:4). thus, resources determine who participates and a lack thereof sets the agenda favouring more powerful interests (culley & angelique 2011:420). capital (material, embodied or institutionalised) represents a broad and generalised conception of social power as accumulated resources. in bourdieu’s (1986:241) theorisation, capital is embodied in economic and cultural, social and symbolic forms. central to bourdieu’s sociology is that society consists of relationships between social agents who dispose of different types of capital, such as economic, cultural, social or political capital. inclusivity is, therefore, also contingent on actors’ access to the resources, institutions and participatory spaces (chaskin, khare & joseph 2012:864). power is actualised by the degree of control over the material, human, intellectual and financial resources exercised by different community stakeholders in public participation platforms and spaces. consequently, fox-rogers and murphy (2013:245) opined that stakeholders’ access to the public sphere is contingent upon resource availability, with resource inequities fostering exclusion and elite capture. accessing public participation spaces the public is a partner in the co-production of public values (eckerd & heidelberg 2020:136). meaningful public participation seeks to empower the public through transparency, accountability, enhanced service delivery, equity and inclusiveness (mbithi, ndambuki & juma 2018:16). exclusion can stir up feelings of subordination, apathy, self-blame, powerlessness, unworthiness, hostility and anger amongst marginal groups. in governance discourse, subsidiarity emphasises the role of intermediary spaces between local government and residents (ruiz-villaverde & garcia-rubio 2017:2484). subsidiarity facilitates direct democracy by increasing opportunities for citizens to participate in public affairs. similarly, the pluralist theory of democracy asserts that pluralism and corporatism are ideals to strive for (ruiz-villaverde & garcia-rubio 2017:2484). notwithstanding the above-mentioned discussion, one crucial power resource is privileged or preferential access to discourse. elite capture can potentially control the occasion, time, place, setting and the presence or absence of participants in participation platforms and spaces. where residents access public participation spaces, language, discursive practices and discourse all influence how they put across and articulate their felt needs. this means that social and cultural practices and beliefs may also limit access to public participation spaces. this is because language encodes people’s social worlds and allows for systematic and precise analysis of those social worlds (declercq & ayala 2017:4). language barriers or discursive competencies may thus be both exclusionary and inclusionary. the issue of language and literacy and access to public participation spaces in municipal strategic planning processes also came up as a recurring theme amongst the focus-group participants. a community member raised the following concern: ‘ward committees do not involve the community in their jurisdiction.’ (community member) another participant further stated: ‘there is no time to work on ward plans. time taken in the meeting is too little.’ (community member) similarly, another participant echoed the same sentiment: ‘they do not give us more time to ask questions or they do not give us chances to talk … because they are saying we are asking difficult questions.’ (community member) a ward councillor raised the problem of accessing public participation spaces in the idp by pointing out: ‘we can’t raise issues because members of the municipality will be at the meetings.’ (ward councillor) reinforcing the concern about the inaccessibility of public participation spaces, a community stakeholder participant had this to say: ‘access is a big issue here … let me tell you … municipal officials are not available to the public. integrated development plan is not well publicised. municipality doesn’t open communication lines with communities, attendance is another issue. integrated development plan meetings is [sic] not attended as anticipated, only the ward committees and some few residents worry about the idp outreach meetings.’ (community stakeholder) in their study, salehi et al. (2021) have established that structural exclusion barriers are often based on age, with youths often being excluded. when invited, they were expected to participate on terms and settings set by adults. salehi et al. (2021) have further found that inequalities and opportunities are often constructed and reconstructed within sociocultural, political and economic structures, which empowered or disempowered individuals. thus, only selected groups in society influence decision-making power through socially legitimised norms for structural theorists. these include, but are not limited to, education, employment, work-life balance, confidence, gender stereotypes, ‘glass ceiling’ effects and inequitable access to resources/opportunities, social networking and gendered societal cultures (salehi et al. 2021:479–480). the relative value placed on different types of expertise and language and the professional assumption about decision-making competence can also make it challenging to hear community voices. for one to become an agent of change, developing consciousness is a prerequisite. three stages: ‘reflection – perception – action’, constitute the conscientisation process (ibrahim 2017:10). for freire ([1968]1972), conscientisation is: the process in which individuals, not as recipients, but as knowing subjects, achieve a deepening awareness both of the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives and their capacity to transform that reality. (p. 51) perceptions of domination and networking in public participation spaces participatory development structures are often critiqued for reproducing social inequalities within communities (drydyk 2005:261). the dynamics and sustainability of the conscientisation process are often mediated by several interrelated factors, including individuals’ personal traits, self-confidence, educational level, profession, social status and human agency (ibrahim 2017:11). thus, the conscientisation process is contingent on various contextual factors and power relations at the individual and community levels (ibrahim 2017:11). as such, exclusion and delegitimisation exclude certain groups (and their issues) from municipal strategic development planning processes. agenda-setting power games, as well as visible, invisible and hidden power, thus often shape meanings and values, which define what ‘normal’ is. accordingly, unequal power relations are reproduced and determine whose voices are heard in public participation platforms and spaces. results from focus-group discussions indicated that some residents are excluded during municipal strategic development planning based on their political beliefs and affiliation. this issue of political domination, networking and exclusion was echoed by a ward committee member, who had this to say: ‘politics is a problem here. … i am not satisfied because my ward community members belong to the other political parties, … thus there are conflicts. … this also leads the public to be unwilling to attend idp meetings.’ (ward committee member) this response suggests that political cleavages are likely to impact public discourse, decision-making, and access to the participatory public sphere. constraining issues identified by nielsen and aaen (2016:314) may include the value system, histories of marginality, sociopolitical dynamics and power balance. conflict of interest was raised by a ward councillor who complained: ‘the public participants in my ward are always having conflict of interests because of their political affiliations. the process is handled in a manner that alienates the opposition.’ (ward committee member [opposition]) similarly, masuku and macheka (2020:10) had identified situations where communities were used as adornments in preset agendas, making public participation platforms and spaces ‘decoration and tokenism’. in such situations, local social structures are exploited for political control (masuku & macheka 2020:13). within such contexts, public participation inclines towards patronage, associated with political kinships, with political cleavages often working to disempower, exclude and marginalise those considered insignificant others. zhu and westphal (2021:625) similarly observed that power typically becomes a property of the natural resource exchange relationship and direct resource dependence relationships. depoliticisation of public participation spaces was accordingly recommended by a focus-group participant, who had this to say: ‘i recommend that the municipality educates the community members to focus on development of the community rather than political interests. they must not be too interested in politics. … so i can say community needs must not be accepted or rejected based on someone’s political affiliation. … it just raises unnecessary community conflicts and tensions.’ (community stakeholder) penderis (2012:10) also observed that exclusion alienates and undermines feelings of identity, belonging and self-worth. it breeds powerlessness, a lack of control, vulnerability and emotional deprivation. power exhibits itself as ideology (vaneklasen & miller 2006:38) and invisible power often shapes the public’s beliefs and sense of self. as such, sociopolitical contexts and political willingness shape the local political frame for public participation practices. with resource limitations, subdued ‘community voice’, and exclusionary power relations, individuals and communities living at the margins are mostly excluded from participation spaces (ibrahim 2017:13). community commitment and trust in the integrated development plan process and outcomes focus-group participants consistently gave low assessments of trust in public participation spaces. some participants accused the municipal council of ‘hiding information’, giving out ambiguous or inaccurate information and ‘putting a spin’ on things or referring to municipal council announcements as ‘spin-doctoring’. thus, concern about the integrity of municipal council officials profoundly came into question. an idp representative forum member claimed: ‘there is lack of commitment and dedication from the ward committees. … ward committees struggle to mobilise people during idp hearings. … there is poor attendance. … not all community members participate. … i can say the community is not involved in this thing.’ (idp representative forum member) another participant complained: ‘the public is not given enough time to raise their concerns. … the challenge is time because these meetings are covered after hours. … the community need to come very early – around 12 pm, not at 5 pm. … there is not enough information and time to discuss issues or projects. … because of that, few hands are taken. … [there] is little time for questions.’ (ward committee member) similarly, another participant raised the following concern: ‘we have little time on the day of the idp outreach meeting. there is just not enough time for the community members to speak at idp outreach meetings. more time must be given to the stakeholders to voice their concerns. giving residents positive responses for their concerns will assist in minimising conflict and tensions, which lead to community protests.’ (community stakeholder) these sentiments from focus-group participants reflect the fact that trust is a critical component of social capital. bonding social capital is fostered by collaboration amongst actors or community members who take more directive and leading roles in local networks (vasstrøm & normann 2019:853). network participation nurtures dynamism, which combines ‘local and extra-local resources and knowledge to respond to local need’ (bosworth et al. 2015:444). putman (1993) viewed social capital as ‘features of social organisation, such as trust, norms and networks’. networks of civic engagement facilitate components of social capital – trust, reciprocity and cooperation (odeyemi & skobba 2020:4). social capital is embedded in relationships and networks and facilitates access to resources and opportunities for individuals and communities (odeyemi & skobba 2020:4). however, the low trust may also suggest that stakeholders do not offer the municipal council expert and professional discretion in planning and policy decisions. trust deficits affect the strategic choices made by public participation stakeholders on whether to collaborate, with whom to collaborate and to what level. trust will strengthen community satisfaction within public participation spaces, whereas unequal power relations can undermine and thwart it. hence, trust is essential for community social cohesion, political and linguistic relations and forms of social capital in local governance (stein & harper 2003:135–136). public participation as tokenistic for odeyemi and skobba (2020:4), decision-making power has to be redistributed to affected communities through a more citizen-centric, responsive, needs-led and efficient form of local governance. results suggested that public participation in municipal strategic development planning is at best tokenistic, as it is mostly performed for compliance purposes to fulfil legislative and regulatory requirements. a community stakeholder focus-group participant viewed public participation as just a talk show, implying that it was tokenistic. the community stakeholder participant stated: ‘you see, for me to participate i need to know what this thing [idp] is all about … unavailability of information is a problem. … idp outreach is just a talk show, and one is expected to participate?’ (community stakeholder) such public participation experiences are typically not transformational (carvalho, pinto-coelho & seixas 2016:3). as similarly observed by nthontho (2017:164), the collaboration, consensus and participatory rhetoric often contrast with the practice of reaching agreements behind closed doors, elite capture and complex power dynamics that exclude less powerful planning actors. powerful stakeholders thus remain in control over planning decision-making processes (dodge 2009:228). similarly, kock and steiner (2017:170) had established that in many cases, economically powerful and privileged families tend to be disproportionately involved in local politics and play critical roles in controlling local governance structures. political power was thus also closely interconnected with economic power (coelho et al. 2021:12). community knowledge in municipal strategic development planning public participation as ‘popular agency’ recognises ‘existing capacities of the public as active claims-making agents’ (mohan & hickey 2004:3). human development theory stresses empowerment as a means to social change (boni & gasper 2012:458). empowerment and transformation encapsulate popular agency. findings indicated that public participation in municipal strategic development planning was often undermined by low levels of literacy, a lack of a sense of agency, public apathy, access disincentives, time costs, disproportionately high respect for political authority, negative past experiences with public participation spaces, participation fatigue and communication gaps. this suggests that public participation is often tokenistic, especially in communities with high poverty levels, weak representative institutions, insufficient resources and other sociopolitical power relational constraints to developmental local government. the findings from focus-group participants provided evidence for this view. a ward councillor, for example, had this to say: ‘no, i am not satisfied with public participation in the idp in this metropolitan municipality. i feel that people’s opinions are not well informed about the idp. … people need to be more educated.’ (ward councillor) a ward committee member expressed frustration by pointing out: ‘the public is uneducated and excluded in strategic development planning.’ (ward committee member) these results point to frustrations with public participation spaces in the municipal strategic development planning processes. findings also indicate that residents often drifted away from the constitutional edicts of the south african local government, as enshrined in terms of part b of schedule 4 and part b of schedule 5 of the constitution (rsa 1996). section 156(5) of the constitution (rsa 1996) further provides that municipalities have the incidental right to exercise any power concerning a matter reasonably necessary for or incidental to the effective performance of their function to the extent set out in section 155(6)(a)(7) (rsa 1996). without being empowered with knowledge about municipal strategic development planning, deficits in capabilities and functionings may translate into social injustice and attendant reproduction of inequality and exclusion. as such, public participation power dynamics may continue to mediate municipal strategic development planning outcomes in ways that marginalise less powerful interests. therefore, this means that whilst on the surface public participation may appear inclusive of a range of stakeholders, powerful or elite interests (elite capture) shape development planning outcomes, with less powerful interests largely being marginalised or unheard altogether (culley & angelique 2011:422). also, whilst power relations ‘are not immutable in form or content’, they work to generate the ‘maintenance, cultivation and reproduction’ of existing power relations (flyvbjerg 1998:231). experiences of symbolic violence amongst public participation stakeholders manifest as feelings of being out of place, anxiousness, awkwardness and shame, as well as feeling stupid and powerless. in this regard, symbolic violence is structurally constructed (samuel 2013:402). representations versus marginalisation and powerlessness public participation in municipal strategic development planning can potentially be for manipulative purposes, through co-option and concealing means of maintaining power relations (cornwall & brock 2005:1046). leal (2007:539) ascribed the manipulation and co-option of public participation spaces to the interests of a neo-liberalist policy agenda. leal (2007:539) contended that public participation’s political decapitation is because of its dislocation from its radical freirean roots. examining the dynamics of power relations, the influence of structures on social action and the role of social capital in producing and reproducing inequality affords public administrators a potent analytical lens through which to view and comprehend the complex power dynamics of local governance-community relations. bourdieu (1989:16) insightfully explained that the ‘visible’ often masks and hides the ‘invisible’, which determines it, and as a result, the ‘truth’ is never fully revealed to the observer. concerning public participation power dynamics in municipal strategic development planning, findings from focus-group participants exhibited the views discussed here. a member of the idp representative forum indicated: ‘… public participation in the idp does not adequately involve the community as stakeholders. … they [municipal council] only report what they have already done, … the public is excluded and uninformed about participation in the idp, also the public is not educated enough. … a lot of people don’t attend these idp meeting because really, at the end of the day, their views are not considered … so why bother? … those who do come, don’t get [the] opportunity to speak.’ (idp representative forum member) this suggests that public participation in the metropolitan municipality is the result of social practices ordered across spaces, which can be ‘continually repeated or recursive, reproducing the conditions that make these activities possible’ (giddens 1984:2). knowledge enables ‘reflexive ordering and reordering of social relations, which impact actions and behaviour of individuals and groups’ (giddens 1984:16). the implication is that power as agency is a reflection of capability, not intentions, and it is the exertion of power that creates an effect and impact. a further implication is that structures in the local government system enable public participation stakeholders to reproduce social systems, which also function as a mode of control. platforms and spaces of public participation are thus centres of meaning, expressions of intentions and aspirations constructed by human experience, either at the micro space (personal) level or macro space (municipal) level. conversely, exclusion undercuts identity, belonging and self-worth (penderis 2012:10). institutionalised structures can thus be essentially ‘closed’ public sphere spaces. findings of this study consistently show that certain voices and perspectives appear too often to be excluded from development planning processes. as alluded to by sprain (2016:70), entitlements are conferred upon participants by those who already hold specific power or status. evidence from focus-group participants, for example, supports this view, where participants had this to say: ‘the municipality should put the people’s needs and value their views. the stakeholders should treat us as the same. … financial power gives advantage to those with money and i think culture as well … cultural because of my age [my] opinion may not count. … i don’t get listened to … and it is frustrating.’ (community stakeholder) similarly, mangai (2016:90) had established that individuals are likely to be marginalised and excluded based on their gender, age, values, socio-economic background and experiences. this was similarly reinforced by a community stakeholder who dejectedly pointed out: ‘because i don’t have much powers to be heard, maybe because of my age. … i think only certain people’s opinions matter. … not easy to participate where you are not recognised. … we don’t get the chance to talk, … no chance to speak.’ (community stakeholder) thus, in foucault’s theorisation of relational power and its inextricable link to knowledge, power dynamics shape participatory spaces (foucault 1978:93). certain powerful people maintain their influence by controlling who gets to the decision-making table and what is put on the agenda. these dynamics exclude and devalue the concerns and representation of less powerful groups (vaneklasen & miller 2006:39) by excluding some voices and issues from getting a fair hearing. public participation spaces interact dynamically, constantly opening and closing through struggles for legitimacy and resistance, co-option and confrontation and are thus never static or devoid of social relations. public participation platforms allow elected and appointed municipal public officials and residents to exercise democratic citizenship in the public sphere through collaboration, deliberation, co-production and co-creation. however, such spaces reflect particular contexts and traces of histories of governance, structuration and institutional cultures and practices, which shape relations and rules of engagement and limit opportunities for the enactment of citizenship (cornwall 2004:2). stakeholders lacking in resources, voice or legitimacy are often left out of participatory spaces (coelho et al. 2021:23). conclusion and implications for local governance whilst stakeholders could benefit from public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes, many stakeholders and communities remain powerless because of exclusionary power dynamics in local governance (odeyemi & skobba 2020:3). public participation is intimately associated with power, agency, empowerment and the need to include mainly the marginalised in decision-making processes. power thus impacts ‘community voice’. however, dealing with public participation power dynamics is a complex process that requires agency and critical consciousness. such consciousness is meant to empower communities and capacitate stakeholders. they become fully cognisant of how power structures emerge and how powerless stakeholders can be afforded meaningful public participation. this study’s results indicated mixed views regarding participants’ satisfaction with public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes in the case study of a metropolitan municipality. whilst public participation is generally perceived as the opening of the civic, political and co-governance structures and as a platform and space for providing access to policy agendas and responses, qualitative data in this article suggest that in reality these forms of empowerment might be more symbolic than meaningful. residents were often deficient in requisite knowledge on the strategic nature of municipal strategic development planning processes and, as such, lacked the essential capabilities, competences, freedoms and functionings for meaningfully exercising ‘community voice’ in public participation platforms and spaces. municipal residents were also often discouraged from participating in strategic development planning because of the size and incomprehensibility of the integrated development planning documents. this was compounded by inadequate knowledge, capacity and capability; resource constraints and language barriers, all of which further disempowered, marginalised and excluded residents from meaningfully participating and articulating community priorities and needs. furthermore, results indicated that some residents were excluded based on their political beliefs and affiliation. the researchers therefore generally conclude that public participation power dynamics shape municipal strategic development planning process review outcomes in the metropolitan municipality under study in multiple and complex ways that marginalise and exclude less powerful community voices. a systematic failing or neglect to include and empower stakeholders who are less interested in local governance, less civically active and more cynical of participatory governance may further aggravate the tokenistic nature of public participation, consequently undermining the legitimacy and democratic values of public participation spaces. based on a synthesis of extant available related literature and study findings, this article thus proposes a local governance framework for enhancing community voice during public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes (figure 1). figure 1: a local governance framework for enhancing community voice in public participation platforms and spaces. in figure 1, a local governance framework is proposed for enhancing community voice in public participation platforms and spaces in municipal strategic development planning processes in local government. municipalities could enhance community voice during public participation by empowering, capacitating and conscientising stakeholders. the vehicle for such empowerment, capacitation and conscientisation include workshops, educational seminars, mayoral roadshows, public surveys, public hearings, residents associations, advisory boards, focus groups, imbizos, interactive social media (facebook, whatsapp) and m-government. to exercise voice, communities will need to be empowered through resources, organisational capacity (ward committees) and ‘community wiring’ (connectedness, inclusiveness and social cohesion). community empowerment may help develop skills and confidence (for community self-help). communities become strong when individuals have a free and fair say in decisions that affect them. community empowerment may be built from community organiser initiatives, where communities are trained and supported to listen to concerns, to build relationships and networks and to help people take community action on local issues that matter to them, thereby reducing bureaucracy and devolving power to communities. with a focus on changing public sector culture towards a more participative ethos, municipalities should leverage interactive social media (facebook, whatsapp) and m-government to empower residents through participatory democracy and co-creation of municipal strategic plan outputs and outcomes responsive to community needs. these strategies must be guided and buttressed by the interrelated dimensions of human development: process freedoms (agency) – public value principles, critical consciousness, developmental local government vision – opportunity freedoms and sustainability mobilising. this, in essence, could directly lead to and result in the expansion of public participation capabilities – catalysing social networks, social capital and partnerships through learning (consciousness, including evaluative activities and social change) – contextual adaptation, mutual collaboration, co-creation and accountability. participatory governance spaces should more robustly encapsulate human rights and freedoms and access opportunities and enhance capabilities and functionings in the community. strong communities need capital resources, social capital and human capabilities in the form of skilled, knowledgeable, confident conscientised community members embodying human agency. a rights-based approach to developmental local government must focus on conscientising communities on political issues such as inequality, constitutional rights, exclusion, power imbalances, accountability and relationships inherent in structures of society and local governance systems. it also goes without saying that resource availability has overarching implications for community development, empowerment and agency. in conclusion, it is argued that public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality under study is at best ‘decorative and tokenistic’. it might simply serve the purpose of fulfilling legislative and regulatory requirements for purposes of compliance. furthermore, public participation in the metropolitan municipality remains mostly tokenistic, constituting mere ‘window dressing’, co-option and ‘pretence’ of inclusion of the marginalised in public participation platforms and spaces. the researchers infer that such tokenism amounts to little more than a cosmetic smokescreen to gain approval of pre-designed plans from passive beneficiaries, with power mainly remaining in the hands of the municipal council and elected and appointed public officials. this suggests that on the surface, public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality appears inclusive of a range of stakeholders who claim a stake in municipal planning. however, at best, powerful or elite interests primarily shape strategic development planning outcomes. this study had some limitations that prevent the generalisation of the findings. the conclusions of this study were purely based on inferences made from available data. in addition, the qualitative research method used in this study could shed some light on critical findings, but it cannot represent the whole population. the findings may, however, be transferable to similar contexts in south africa and elsewhere. this study was limited to 34 participants who participated in four focus-group discussions. for this reason, the findings may not fully represent the beliefs, perceptions or views of the whole population of people who participate in the idp process. in future studies, the scope of sampling should be extended to include the opinions of municipal authorities (both elected and appointed public officials) in directorates that closely relate to public participation in the idp review process, especially those from the idp/budget/performance management system (pms) unit and the idp organisational performance management portfolio committee. given that the idp is a multisectoral/multidimensional planning document requiring input from various stakeholders during its development process, future research could also sample key sector departments. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.m.s. conceptualised the study, compiled the literature review, collected the data and performed the write-up for this article. l.l. assisted with conceptualising the study, provided commentary, assisted with the research problem and analysing the data. this article was partly extracted from m.m.s’s phd thesis, which was completed under the supervision of l.l. ethical considerations approval for this study was sought from the university of the free state and all applicable ethical protocols were followed under the supervision of the co-author prof. liezel lues. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alkire, s., 2010, human development: definitions, critiques, and related concepts, human development research paper 2010/01, united nations development programme (undp), new york, ny. arnstein, s., 1969, ‘a ladder of participation’, journal of 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