Exploring the Mechanisms and Structures to Promote Water Service Delivery and Sanitation in South African Local Municipalities

Description

Page: 156-159

Hlatshwayo Oupa (Department of Public Administration, University of Limpopo, South Africa)

The purpose of this article is to investigate the mechanisms and structures to promote water service delivery in South African local municipalities. It is a phenomenon that most of the municipalities in South Africa are underperforming and delivering poor service delivery and sanitation to the citizens due to corruption, cadre deployment and nepotism. Water service delivery and sanitation are found essential to people’s lives on a daily basis and it is one of the basic needs that the local municipalities are tasked to provide to the citizens. The study will employ a qualitative approach to analyse data. The findings of the study expose that the provision of poor water service delivery and sanitation is derived from corruption acts, promoting the cadre deployment system, appointing unskilled and unqualified staff in the municipalities’ water service delivery technical offices, and practicing nepotism. The study recommended that: South African municipalities should present appropriate mechanisms and structures in place that will enhance municipalities’ integrated development planning (IDP), introduce a system to combat corruption acts from the public offices, appointing skilled workers and as well as avoiding to practicing the cadre deployment system.