The association of political will with performance of selected municipalities in South Africa.

Abstract

The study aimed to establish the association of political will with performance: a study of selected Municipalities in South Africa in the wake of continued service delivery lapses. The review of literature revealed that there is a paucity of substantial research on the relationship of political will and performance in Municipalities globally and in South Africa. This study sought to fill that knowledge gap. Post-apartheid South Africa faces a major challenge in ensuring that Municipalities provide optimal and professional services to citizens of diverse cultures. A comparative analysis of the four Southern African countries’ service delivery (including South Africa) seems to be a microcosm of a situation that pervades Africa, except for a few exceptions. To study the association of political will with performance: a study of selected Municipalities in South Africa, various qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed to collect data, namely, demographic data, opinions, intensity and salience of political will, Municipal performance issues, Municipal experts’ comments, integrated development programmes (IDPs), Annual Reports, Auditor Report (2014), legislative and policy documents and an integrated approach to service delivery at local government level. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data under the relevant themes presented an integrated as well as a holistic view of the study. The study’s empirical findings and results revealed that an association between political will and Municipal performance was found to be qualitatively and quantitatively significant, namely, that there is a connection (i.e. from a quantitative perspective) between political will and Municipal performance (56.5%) is a fair positive response that is supported by qualitative findings. In other words, Councillors and Municipal Managers, who are politicians, understood their political will and were accountable for Municipal performance. Among others, as improvement of Municipal performance in the local government matches the rise or increase of the level of political will amongst political leaders, therefore, further studies of cause and effect of these variables are recommended. As the study was limited to only two provinces in South Africa, it is recommended that, inter alia, that further broad studies, perhaps longitudinal, in all South African provinces are undertaken for validation of the findings and results as well as reproducibility of this study.