Service delivery at the provincial sphere of government: a case study of Operation Sukuma Sakhe (oss) in Kwazulu-Natal.

Abstract

South Africa has been plagued by challenges of ineffective service delivery linked to poor coordination, competition and contestation of powers due to overlapping constitutional mandates, lack of cooperation and poor alignment of state entities despite the provision for improved intergovernmental relations and cooperative government in Chapter 3 of the Constitution of RSA (Act 108 of 1996). This has resulted in rising public discontent, declining public confidence and protests. In response, the Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS) model was introduced by the Province of KwaZulu-Natal in 2009, to improve service delivery, eradicate structural poverty, inequality and its manifestations. This study investigates the role of OSS as a framework for advancing coordination and cooperation to achieve effective service delivery in KwaZulu-Natal. As the objective, the study sought to examine the challenges in service delivery, analyse the context and philosophy behind the adoption of the OSS, evaluate the role of districts in integration of services and how the war room entrenches participatory democracy and obtain lessons for district based planning and budgeting. Guided by the interpretivist paradigm, this study was designed as applied research of a qualitative nature, utilising semistructured interviews. The focus of data collection and analysis involved multiple sources of information and purposive sampling of 24 information-rich participants, representing Ethekwini, Harry Gwala, Umkhanyakude and Ugu municipalities, KwaZulu-Natal and national government and external stakeholders. The main findings of the study indicate that transformation in South Africa has been characterised by advent of new concepts in intergovernmental relations from unitary and hierarchical powers to concurrent competences which created the necessity for cooperative government. This complexity reflects the global trend in liberal democratic models in which governance is a partnership between state and civil society stakeholders. Using the governance theories by Pierre and Peters and the Systems Theory, it is argued that complex, multi-level governance systems (due to concurrent competences) require institutional policy implementation mechanisms that can deal with the political, economic and social dynamics that affect service delivery. This is critical in South Africa where the impact of government service delivery programmes is sensitive to the maintenance of governability, which is affected by issues of authority and legitimacy of the State, public confidence, the efficient use of limited ii resources, and prevention of mismanagement and corruption. The dissertation argues that OSS enabled effective service delivery through simultaneous implementation of five convergent principles: i) cooperative government, ii) intergovernmental relations, iii) good governance, iv) community participation and, v) integration of services. The convergence of these principles within OSS meant that the OSS operated as a coordinating institutional mechanism which is critical in multi-level governance and OSS further creates the necessary ‘spirit of cooperation’ akin to the German concept of Bundestrue. The study concludes that lessons obtained from the OSS in KwaZulu-Natal should be applied nationally for district-based planning and budgeting model to successfully emerge.