Institutional challenges in managing misconduct in local government: case study of Amajuba District Municipality.

Abstract

The post-apartheid regime in South Africa confronted diverse challenges in a bid to ensure optimum service delivery, at the level of local government administration, to citizens with heterogeneous cultures. Successive governments over the last two decades formulated policies for national economic recovery and redistribution of national wealth. Such efforts also include enacting a legal framework for the Code of Conduct at the municipal arm of government. Such enactments are geared toward defining good governance, accountability, and transparency in public governance for the purpose of ensuring redistribution of wealth, exhibiting professionalism in delivery of service and increasing value for money, to satisfy the needs of South Africans. For instance, in the local municipal sector of the economy, the well-being of the citizens, particularly, the poor masses, are considered as significant to good governance. It is however disheartening that despite government efforts at ensuring good governance; the major impediment remains the issues of misconduct, maladministration and malpractices in the public service. This research among other things is positioned to determine the legislative and policy framework for official misconduct as well as determining the institutional challenges in managing misconduct in local government administration. Such knowledge could provide the municipal management with information on how to deal with workplace discipline in public service. Consequently, the study is conducted using Amajuba District Municipality as a case study. Amajuba District Municipality is located in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study explores the information obtained through primary and secondary sources to answer the research questions that are generated in the study. For instance, the primary source of data includes the use of a self-administered questionnaire to obtain quantitative data from one hundred and twenty three (123) staff members and three directors interviewed from Amajuba District Municipality. Similarly, the secondary sources of data are obtained from existing documentary evidence, legislation and laws. The study also engages the use of descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation, frequency, table or graph and Chi-square using SPSS (version, 24), to determine the ethical conduct mechanisms in the municipality and the significance for municipal service administration. The rationale is to explore acceptable ethics in practice and minimum standards that can regulate the conduct of municipal functionaries. The study is also aimed at determining the respondents’ experiences and perceptions regarding misconduct, especially exploring whether they are significantly different in their opinions. The research also determines the extent

vii by which the local government functionaries comply with the tenets of Code of Conduct as enshrined in the in 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Preliminary findings indicated that the respondents were significantly different in their opinions along demographic characteristics, like: gender, age, race, home language and educational qualifications of the staff.

The most important lesson learnt in this research is that, besides the Code of Conduct legislation and other legal frameworks guiding the operations of the local government, the issue of human behaviour, leadership by example and the application of appropriate disciplinary measures are significant to managing misconduct in South Africa. The results also indicated that, inadequate enforcement of the Code of Conduct among other factors as behind misconduct and maladministration in the local municipality. The results also indicated that individual staff members have in-depth knowledge of the responsibilities conferred on them in dealing with misconduct in the course of discharging their official duties. The findings also revealed that members of the management team showed a significant disposition towards attending to only less serious misconduct issues while the serious cases are referred to other statutory agencies of government for appropriate actions. The study therefore offers strict adherence to the tenets of Code of Conduct as the possible solutions to deal with workplace misconduct. In conclusion the study suggests recommendations which are: • Enforcement of ethics education in local government; • Encouragement of staff training and capacity building; • Consistent and equitable enforcement of the code of conduct; • Senior Management to lead by example in ensuring compliance with the code of conduct; • Implementation of appropriate sanction for the contravention of the code of conduct; • Consultation of staff members to ensure understanding of the applicable code of conduct and the corrective action in instances of contravention of the code of conduct; • Adequate recruitment and vetting of staff; • Adequate funding, access to data as well as monitoring and evaluation.