Service Delivery for Rural Communities

Service Delivery for Rural Communities

 

 

The evolving government in South Africa engages in local development and

 service delivery by way of a decentralized system with strong community

support. It concentrates on speed and delivery in dealing with the remnants of

apartheid, the struggle against which has also left a legacy of community-based

organizing and a significant civil society sector, where blacks and women play a

critical role.[1]

 

However, there is a disconnect  between community-based development and

community-driven development (CDD), where communities control the

identification of projects, due to the local government’s use of ward committees in

community involvement. These are not independent bodies and have no budgets

for their initiatives.[2]

 

Municipalities in South Africa are mandated to have policies and institutional

frameworks that support and sustain local development that is in line toward

achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and basic rights of the

people. Local government officials must promote good governance by performing

their duties with efficiency, transparency and accountability.[3]

 

Local governments must coordinate to realize several goals which include

eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, installing universal primary education,

practicing gender equality, decreasing child mortality and fighting human

immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS),

malaria and other diseases.[4]

 

Since 2004, people have gone to the streets to protest the political leadership’s

inadequate response to community issues on the incompetence and corruption

of local governments, which reflects the crisis of local democracy. However,

municipalities cannot deliver services due to fiscal distress, a weak revenue base

and a shortage of the required skills for the job at hand.[5]

 

The following are recommendations to address the challenges of delivering

service to rural communities in South Africa:[6]

The public should be consulted and enjoined to participate on vital governance

issues, policy formulation and implementation.

Municipalities must review and upgrade their internal control systems to check

maladministration, financial mismanagement, fraud and corruption.

Transparency, accountability and openness to public scrutiny must be promoted

in local governments.

Municipalities must integrate the needs of the community in their budget allocations

and development programs.

Prevailing tensions between politics and administration must be resolved and made

sure not to compromise the delivery of service.

Fiscal allocations must be made according to the economic capabilities of different

municipalities to ensure uniform development.

The capacities of municipal officials must be built to make them render services

more effectively.

 

Moral renewal is needed in the country where the rich get richer and the poor get

poorer and it is important for civil society to address the failure of  government

service. These organizations are committed to the values of a moral society and

receive the support of local and foreign donors and ordinary workers.[7]

 

 

[1] David Everatt, Lulu Gwagwa, “Community Driven Development in South Africa, 1990-2004”,

Africa Region, Working Paper Series No. 92, October 2005,

<http://www.worldbank.org/afr/wps/wp92.pdf> [accessed 20 April 2011]

[2] ibid

[3] Idasa, “The State of Local Government and Service Delivery in South Africa: Issues, Challenges

and Solutions”, 22 January 2010 <www.pmg.org.za/files/docs/100204idasa.doc > [accessed 21 April 2011]

[4] ibid

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] Shelagh Gastrow,“’Tis the Season of Promises”, service delivery, sa ngo net pulse,

<http://www.ngopulse.org/category/defined-tags/rural-development/service-delivery>

[accessed 21 April 2011]

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com