The Role of Leadership on Service Delivery in the South African Municipalities: A Case of Greater Giyani Local Municipality, Limpopo Province
Keywords:
Leadership; Local Municipality and Service Delivery
Abstract
Leadership in the municipalities is entrusted with the responsibility of providing services to the public. These leaders possess certain characteristics that if effectively applied, may effectively meet the needs of the people. The paper aims to look into the role of leadership in municipal service delivery. The paper is grounded on Servant Leadership theory in which leaders have a desire to serve the need of others. To achieve the objectives of this paper, mixed method research approach were adopted. The findings reveals that municipal leaders play a role in facilitating service delivery. However, difficulties such as insufficient trainings, lack of understanding, compliance and lack of adherence to work ethics have been identified as factors that impede services. Municipal leaders should adhere to work ethics and procurement processes. The paper recommends the need to develop policies and strategies to enhance the role of leadership on service delivery in the municipalities.
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Blanchard, K.H., Zigarmi, P. and Zigarmi, D. 2013 Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership. William Morrow, New York.
Bräutigam, D.A. & Knack, S. 2004. Foreign Aid, Institutions, and Governance in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 52(2), 255-285.
Brynard, P.A. & Hanekom T. 2006. Introduction to Research Management Related Fields. South Africa. Pretoria: VanSchaik Publisher.
Booysen, S. 2012. Sideshow or heart of the matter? Local politics and South Africa’s 2011 local government elections, in S. Booysen (ed.), Local elections in South Africa: Parties, people and politics, pp. 1–10, Sun Press, Bloemfontein.
Brookes, S.M. 2007. Leadership in the public sector: developing an approach to collective leadership. Paper presented at the University of Delaware 3rd Transantlatic Dialoque conference. Newark, Delaware, USA.
Burns, J.M. 1978. Leadership. New York: Harper an.
Cameron, R. 2003. Politics-administration interface: the case of the City of Cape Town. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 69(3):53-65.
Chikulo, B.C. 2003. Local Government and Climate Change. Retrieved April 20, 2019, from www.dpmf.org/images/south-africa-devt-policy-chikulo.html.
Cronshaw, D. 2002. Leadership, a new synthesis. Newbury Park: Sage Publication.
Dassah, M.O. 2012. ‘A critical analysis of factors underlying service delivery protests in South Africa’, Journal of African and Asian Local Government Studies 1(2), 1–28.
Davis, J. & Rylance, C. 2005. Addressing poverty through local economic and enterprise development: A review of conceptual approaches and practice. Natural Resource Institute: Enterprise Trade and Finance Group.
Druker, P. 2004. Changing the roles of the Executives. Leadership applications.
Dumisa, M.K.2010. Challenges of project management.Journal of public administration Vol 12 (2). Pretoria. Juta publishers.
Eversole, R. 2005. 'Challenging the creative class: innovation, 'creative' regions and community development', Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 353-362.
Gaines, L. K. 2012. Criminal justice in action: The core. (n.p): Cengage Learning.
Greenleaf, R.K. 1998. ‘Servant: Retrospect and Prospect.’ In: Spears, R.C. ed. The Power of Servant Leadership. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler. 17-60.
Institute of Security Services Africa. 2014. What does increasing political violence mean for the future of South Africa? Available (online) https://www.issafrica.org/isstoday/what-does-increasing-political-violence-mean-for-the-future-of-south-africasdemocracy (Accessed 17 March 2021).
Koma, S.B. 2016. Rationalisation of municipalities: A panacea for improved municipal governance in South Africa? African Journal of Public Affairs, 9(2):127–139.
Labuschagn, P. 2012. Local government service delivery in South Africa: An investigation into the defence of necessity. Administration Publication, 18(4):93-107.
Mashele, M. 2015. Building Social Capital: the role of Leadership. Journal of Socio-Economics. Vol. 30: 187-192.
Mawila, W. 2016. Leadership styles. Advances in Management, 7(2), 57-62.
Motaung, R. 2013. Leadership development for developmental local government. African Journal of Public Affairs, 5(3), 155-166.
Northouse, P.G. 2009. Leadership. Theory and Practice (3e). Thousand Oaks. Sage Publication.
Nyathi, W. 2018. The role of ethics and values in securing public accountability. Administratio Publica, 18(4):261-279.
Park, S.M. 2010. Toward the trusted public organisation: Untangling leadership, motivation, and trust relationship in U.S. federal agencies. The American review of public administration.
Peretomode, O. 2015. Situational and Contingency Theories of Leadership: Are They the Same? Journal of Business and Management, 4(3), pp.13-17, Nigeria.
Rakate, N.F. 2006. Transformation of the South African Public Service, Pretoria:.
Reddy, P.S., Sing, D. & Moodley, S. 2004. Local Government Financing and Development in Southern Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Santino, C. 2010. Good Governance and Aid Effectiveness: The World Bank and Conditionality: The Georgetown Public Policy Review, 7(1), pp 1-22.
Van der Berg, S. 2003. South African social security under apartheid and beyond. Development Southern Africa, 14(4), 481-503.
Wellington, J., Bathmaker, A. & Sikes, P. 2005. Succeeding with your Doctorate 7th Edition. London: Sage Publication Ltd.
Williams, E.A. 2012. Improving Political Oversight in Municipalities: Examining the Law and Practice Surrounding Oversight by the Council Over the Municipal Executive and the Municipal Administration. (Unpublished LLM Research Paper). University of the Western Cape.
Winston, B. & Patterson, K. 2010. An integrative Definition of Leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 1 (2), 66-76.
Wooldridge, D. 2008. Political systems and capacity issues, in Consolidating Developmental Local Government: Lessons from the South African Experience. UCT Press. Cape Town, South Africa.
World Bank. 2012. Conflicts & Instability in Africa. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/Africas-Pulse-brochur e.pdf (Accessed 12 March 2021).
Published
2023-07-06
How to Cite
N, M., & Chauke, K. (2023). The Role of Leadership on Service Delivery in the South African Municipalities: A Case of Greater Giyani Local Municipality, Limpopo Province. International Journal of Social Science Research and Review, 6(7), 349-362. https://doi.org/10.47814/ijssrr.v6i7.1497
Section
Main Articles
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