1,720,985 research outputs found
Examining the disaster mitigation efforts in eThekwini Municipality: the case of Umlazi Township in South Africa.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Disaster mitigation in South Africa is characterised by poor implementation of policies, thus there are few interventions that prevent the disaster impact or the reoccurrence of damages. Previous studies (Van Niekerk, 2014; Paton and Johnston, 2017; CoGTA, 2018) have established that stakeholders react to a disaster after it happens and a few measures are then put in place for disaster mitigation. Previous studies, as mentioned above have tended to focus on lack of funds as an impediment to proper disaster mitigation coordination rather than focusing on how implementation of policies or how specific stakeholders can be a weak link in the mitigation process. Using a qualitative research design that employed in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (n = 7) and three focus group discussions (n = 18), this study sought to identify the nature and the degree of disasters and to find out what mitigation strategies were employed by the Municipality and their effectiveness, according to different role players in Umlazi Township eThekwini Municipality. Analysis of data revealed that floods and fire are the most common disasters in Umlazi and the disasters affect everyone in society. Better and stronger infrastructure was a common mitigation strategy recommended by participants. Effectiveness, however, was viewed as being limited. Emerging from the findings is the suggestion that a multi-pronged approach involving cooperation between the communities, ward committees and Municipal disaster management could be the effective means of curbing disasters. This study, which attempted to contribute to the growing corpus of literature and theory on disaster management, points to a need for political will among policymakers to ensure that issues of disaster management are prioritised in budgets and in decision-making.Author's Keywords:disaster mitigation,nature and degree of mitigation, floods, fire, better and stronger infrastructure
Public participation in the development of one stop development centres : a case study of the Mboza one stop development centre in Umhlabuyalingana Local Municipality.
Full text linkMaster of Social Science in Public Policy. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2017.The study is an assessment of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government’s policy approach regarding the introduction of the Mboza One Stop Development Center (OSDC), an endeavor which is being spearheaded by the Provincial Department of Social Development (DSD). The focus of the study is on the Mboza OSDC, which is based at Mboza (in the uMhlabuyalingana Local Municipality). The study asked numerous questions on topics significant to the development of OSDCs with the aims of speeding up integrated service delivery and decentralizing essential services to poor communities. The study also explored the broad theoretical framework, public participation and policy implementation in context. Public participation is at the center of this enquiry. The study employed both, qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection including fieldwork, interviews and surveys. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and Microsoft Excel was used to create diagrams. The findings of the study in relation to the key issues investigated revealed the relevance of the OSDCs, mostly in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal. It was further found that stakeholders had a significant role to play during the development of the Mboza OSDC. The investigation of the levels of participation concentrated on the degree of citizen power exercised and the degree of tokenism. The communities with OSDCs, such as Mboza, enjoy the benefit of having services offered locally at minimal cost. Thus, public participation proved to be fruitful in the development of the Mboza OSDC
Examining financial management of local government in South Africa: a case study of Alfred Duma Local Municipality in KZN.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study sought to examine the factors affecting financial management in the Alfred Duma Local
Municipality (ADLM) in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa. The study focused on
four broad objectives that sought to determine the availability and use of oversight structures for
sound financial management, to assess the systems and processes for financial management, to
ascertain the level of skills and competencies among municipal officials, and to examine the
nature of the relationship between politicians and Municipal administrators with regard to
municipal financial management. The study draws on a pragmatic paradigm that was premised on
the use of a mixed-methods approach where questionnaire surveys, interviews and documents were
used to collect data. The findings of the study revealed that oversight structures that include
Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPAC) and Oversight Committees exist although their
role is ineffective in safeguarding municipal finances. The findings further acknowledged the
existence of processes such as Integrated Development Panning and participatory budgeting
towards sound municipal financial management. However, as reported in the findings. Alfred
Duma Municipality still needs to upgrade its skills base in the Finance Department to be able to
obtain clean audits. The conclusions drawn for this study are that, to achieve sound financial
management, the nature of the relationship between politicians and municipal administrators must
be well-managed, and skilled people must be hired towards improving community service
delivery. The study, therefore, recommends Alfred Duma Municipality to implement regular
financial audits through either internal or external auditing procedures. This should help to detect
fraud and corruption at an early stage. This can be realised through regular training and
development workshops to capacitate the municipal officials through the acquisition of
satisfactory financial expertise that should enhance their competencies in monitoring service
delivery
Community involvement in the implementation of the national policy on public-private partnership: a study of infrastructural development in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Full text linkDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Undoubtedly, public-private partnership (PPP) has emerged as a policy tool for infrastructural
financing, optimisation and maintenance through an appropriate policy framework. The policy
framework of PPP is expected to promote collaborative governance through democratic values in the
partnership agenda. These ideals have positively impacted on design and implementation of PPP
policy in the developed nations. Ironically, a series of resentments, public outbursts, complaints and
agitation that followed the implementation of the National Policy on PPP in Nigeria heightened the
need for this study. These unwholesome developments usually arise from the host communities over
claims to certain rights or due to their exclusion in certain critical decisions connected to the PPP
projects implementation agenda. Using Lagos State, Nigeria as a case study, the researcher draws
substantially from the themes of collaborative governance theories among others to examine how the
National Policy on PPP in Nigeria aligns with the state’s policy to accommodate the host
communities in the infrastructural policy implementation framework (PPP-IPIF).
The multi-theoretical approach adopted is premised on the researchers’ pragmatic philosophical
orientation to evaluate theories or beliefs in line with practical applications. Hence, data were
sourced, presented and analysed using different statistical tools. Conclusions were drawn based on
the combined strength of both qualitative and qualitative data using a triangulation/nested method.
The major finding of the study suggests that the existing PPP implementation framework has not
effectively incorporated the host communities by creating an institutionalised function for them.
Therefore, their involvement or non-involvement in project implementation was left to the discretions
of private project handlers. The study also established that, beyond compensation, the host
communities desired to take an active part in the PPP policy implementation framework. Before this
study, our knowledge of PPP infrastructural project governance was sketchy. It is against this
background that this study employs the theoretical viewpoints of collaborative governance and
participation theories, to advance the knowledge of host community stakeholding in PPP
implementation. The study analyses the framework upon which the projects were established and the
extent to which participatory values were institutionalised in the collaborative arrangement. The
study concluded that PPP is a collaborative governance model whose implementation is still at the
experimental stage in Nigeria; the researcher, therefore, develops a workable model as part of the
recommendation based on the study’s experiential findings
The role of public participation for the implementation of local economic development policy in urban municipalities: a case study of the Egodini Mall in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The parley of this study unfolds in conformity with the ascension that citizen participation in
policy and planning process within the local government is of importance. The rationale of this
dissertation is to examine the role of public participation in the implementation of local
economic development policies: a case study of the Egodini Mall in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Local Municipalities operating under the authority of the ministry of local government have
been awarded the sole responsibility to arrange roles, duties, and responsibilities with regards
to economic development. One of the objectives of introducing local government in Zimbabwe
is to foster citizen participation in policy and planning processes. Undertaking this study helped
expose the problem to the extent which the concept of public participation has an impact on
the overall local economic policy development initiatives within local municipalities.
This study made use of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. For the
gathering of data, the researcher used focus groups, documents analysis and semi-structured
interviews. The study was conducted in the local municipality of the City of Bulawayo in
Zimbabwe. Utilizing the researcher’s judgment, respondents were identified for responding
through focus group discussions, questionnaires, and in-depth interviews. For this desired
study, the sample size included twenty-nine (29) local community members, twenty-(20)
officials from the Bulawayo City Council, twenty (20) officials from the residency
associations, twenty(20) representatives from the local economic stakeholders in Bulawayo. In
total data was collected from eighty-nine (89) respondents who in total formed part of the study.
For the sampling of the participants, the researcher employed both probability and nonprobability
sampling techniques. Data collected was analysed using the SPSS (Statistical
Package for Social Sciences) data analysis package thereby fully analysing the data in both
thematic analysis and statistical analysis.
The study exposed that public participation is essential for LED policy formulation and
implementation. The study further revealed that the Bulawayo City Council ought to take
advantage of the different environmental measures and must ensure and make use of prevailing
environmental factors such as political, technological, social and population mobilizers to
ensure active citizenship participation. The study recommended that the Bulawayo City
Council shifts from the bottleneck form of governance that favours the centralisation of
decisions to a more beauracratic governance system that recognizes the importance of public
participation for LED policies that are community averse
Racial integration in post-apartheid South African desegregated high schools: a case study of multi-racial teacher perspectives at one high school in the Western Cape.
No full textMaster’s Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The literature reveals the deleterious role of race and racism and its impact on society, particularly at post-apartheid desegregated schools, including the concomitant racial integration challenges. It also suggests that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is among the most apt approaches to effect social change and social justice at these beleaguered schools. Data/research from several studies highlights that racism and racist incidents have plagued post-apartheid desegregated schools since the advent of democracy. Most recently, media reports have again highlighted newer cases of racism and racist incidents taking place at post-apartheid desegregated schools. The field of research interest focusing on teachers in relation to the challenges of reintegration in post-apartheid schools has not been totally exhausted. The research to date has tended to focus more on teacher reactions and responses but rarely propound teacher-led initiatives and interventions. This research study sought to explore how teacher-led initiatives and interventions relate to their directly addressing the challenges of racial integration in post-apartheid desegregated schools, especially the schools in which they actually teach. This research project was a mono-method interpretivist qualitative study. It employed one qualitative data collection method and a corresponding qualitative analysis procedure. Purposeful or judgmental sampling was the sampling procedure used to select the research participants. Data was collected through interviews from four multi-racial teachers who were based at President High School in the Western Cape. The computer-aided qualitative analysis of the data gathered through thematic analysis compared the responses of the four teachers. It indicated that there was significant variation in their responses based on race. This was beneficial due to their intimate knowledge of the racial integration challenges faced at post-apartheid desegregated schools. This related to a disjuncture between policy and practice; teachers lacked formal conflict management skills which were needed to teach in racially diverse classrooms. This Political Science study highlights that the national and provincial departments of education need to be cognisant of the research inputs and outputs of teachers as political actors. This is informed by their interventions and recommendations in addressing the current educational crises of racism and racist incidents taking place at schools
Exploring the effects of public sector outsourcing on support service workers: the cases of two outsourced companies in KwaZulu-Natal.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Evidence found in the literature suggests that New Public Management is among the most important approaches to effect reform in the public sector by promoting reliance on the private sector for the delivery of services. Data from several studies suggest that the public sector has engaged private companies by outsourcing the non-core services for improving service delivery, lowering government expenditure and creating opportunities for employment. Recently, the public sector has been encountering labour unrest by contract workers, protesting against the outsourcing of support services. The research to date has tended to focus more on outsourcing to improve efficiency rather than its impact on all parties involved. This research sought to explore how the employees and contract companies perceive outsourcing and how outsourcing has affected them.
Using a concurrent mixed method approach, this study collected data from two private contract companies that are providing cleaning services to various government departments in KwaZulu-Natal. The study conducted three in-depth interviews with managers, held two focus group discussions and undertook 51 surveys with workers from the two companies. While some participants in this study were conveniently selected, others were purposefully selected. The analysis showed that outsourced workers perceive outsourcing as a government initiative to create job opportunities and to reduce its costs, but it has somehow resulted in their exploitation. In as much as workers appreciate that they receive their wages and benefits in accordance with the employment agreement, they expressed their dissatisfaction with their monthly wages, which cannot meet most of their basic needs. Another reported problem was the lack of meaningful benefits. A three-year contract of employment, may imply that their future is uncertain. They may also be working in an unhealthy environment. The statistical analysis of the data gathered in this study compared the responses of workers from the two companies and there was insignificant variation that was evident between the two sets of responses.
The upshot of this study is that government departments and policymakers need to understand the experiences of the outsourced workers with regard to how outsourcing has affected them socially and economically. A key ethical implication of this study is that outsourcing may be benefitting the contract companies with little benefits to outsourced workers. Instead, it might have led to unethical as well as unintended exploitation of these workers by their employers. An implication of this is that the conditions of employment of contracted workers should be revisited by policymakers. Practitioners in both the private sector and the government should seriously consider the plight of such workers in the planning and implementation of outsourcing. Although this study was limited in terms of scope and in the number of cases studied, hopefully, it provides valuable theoretical and practical insights that future studies on outsourcing can draw on
Stakeholder engagement of Swiss local economic development programme at ILembe District in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Evidence established in the body of knowledge suggests that New Public Governance (NPG) is considered the most significant tool to effectively reform governance and to ensure effective stakeholder engagement by promoting and advocating for a developmental government. Academic work from various studies suggests that NPG stresses the dispersion of power where relevant stakeholders are permitted to participate and this participation in the matters of government is observed, and they are afforded the right to partake in resolving public challenges.
Recently, the public sector has encountered service-delivery protests and protests against resource constraints and widespread corruption. Recent research has placed more focus on government developing socio-economic challenges and improving the lives of the citizens in isolation rather than on the impact this has on stakeholders affected by the challenges. This research sought to: explore the degree of stakeholder engagement in Local Economic Development (LED) policy; ascertain the actors that influence and affect LED policy development and implementation; establish what factors are influencing collaborative governance; and examine the degree of Public Private Partnership in stakeholder engagement. Utilising the mixed method research design, the study gathered data from two government institutions, two private sector institutions and five community-based institutions that are involved in Swiss ILembe Local Economic Development Programme in KwaZulu-Natal. The study conducted four in-depth interviews of government managers and one in-depth interview with the manager in the private sector. The study also conducted five in-depth interviews with community leaders. Furthermore, the study held five focus group discussions and undertook fifty-four surveys with stakeholders from the five selected divisions. The study participants were purposefully selected as the researcher targeted the Swiss ILembe Local Economic Development Programme stakeholders.
The analyses showed that the programme stakeholders were not invited to participate in the programme‘s initial stages and, in their view, the stakeholder framework needs to be redesigned. In as much as there are communication links, they expressed the view that they feel as if only a few selected stakeholders are allowed to participate and be involved in the programme. Another reported challenge is that of the government‘s viewing partnership as being beneficial to the private sector only. The study outcome indicates that government must ensure that all stakeholders are invited to participate in government matters as this will permit all stakeholders to take ownership of the failure or success of government in a collective way. The key implication of this study is that it will help policy-makers and government to understand where and what causes community dissatisfaction; distrust and service delivery protests. Furthermore, these findings can assist local government to revisit how they develop and engage stakeholders in their Integrated Development Plans. Although the study had limitations in terms of the number of cases studied and their scope, it is hoped that it will provide valued practical and theoretical insight from which forthcoming studies on stakeholder engagement can draw.Author's Key words: stakeholder engagement, LED policy implementation, collaborative governance, stakeholder participation and involvement
Public participation and collaborative governance in Zimbabwean flea markets: a case study of the City of Harare.
Full text linkDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Public participation can play an important role in addressing developmental, governance and administrative challenges being faced by local authorities. Studies have shown that a highly participatory and engaged public determines the county’s level of development and this enhances participatory democracy. Drawing upon Sherry Arnstein’s typology of the ladder of participation and Mathew A. Crenson’s democratic model of public participation, the study explored public participation in the City of Harare. It also looked at Harare’s public participation framework and the role of stakeholders in the governance of the informal sector. It argues that participation is far from being achieved due to a multiplicity of factors. The study employed a mixed-methods approach which involved documentary analysis, in-depth interviews (32), and survey methods (165 questionnaires). By employing qualitative and quantitative methods of enquiry, I attempted to illuminate how Zimbabwean local government policymakers utilise public participation legislation within the context of collaborative governance. Furthermore, through the use of mixed methods design, the study sought to provide evidence for the validity of the hypothesis and find solutions to the inherent weaknesses that currently exist in Zimbabwe’s local government sphere when it comes to public participation. The results indicate that despite the introduction of a progressive constitution and the existence of various participatory mechanisms, various challenges continue to inhibit public participation in Harare. These include lack of funding, continued central government intervention, re-centralisation of governance due to loss of political power by the ruling party, political polarization, resistance by administrators to co-opt the public in decision-making processes and failure to adapt to change. The findings will be of interest to local government practitioners and scholars alike as they have a number of practical implications. The results of this study indicate that there is a need to put in place a robust legislative framework that promotes citizenry involvement and de-link party politics with development and governance of local authorities. A key policy priority should, therefore, be to inculcate a culture of inclusivity, tolerance, and de-centralisation of power and governance. Overall, this study strengthens the idea that public participation is sacrosanct and vital for political and economic development
Exploring the implementation of the monitoring and evaluation system in local government: a case study of eThekwini Municipality.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) can play an important role in addressing issues of non-performance in Local Government and assist municipalities to strengthen good governance by ensuring effective accountability and responsibility of officials. There is a growing body of literature that recognises M&E as an effective tool to improve the quality of programmes and project planning. It also serves as an early warning indicator for management. Researchers have not used M&E much for Local Government studies possibly because there has been a struggle with Local Government to implement the M&E system. Although all government departments have included M&E in their processes, there is still a challenge of ensuring effectiveness of the M&E system. The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation of M&E in Local Government, with the specific objective of determining the efficacy of the system in place. Information for this research was gathered using the mixed method approach. Both the qualitative and the quantitative methods of data collection were used in this investigation. This involved the use of a survey questionnaire, in-depth interviews and document reviews in order to obtain the views of the eThekwini Municipal employees on the application of the M&E system and its effectiveness. The study found that after analysis of the results of the survey questionnaire and interviews, there were gaps in the implementation of the M&E system, whilst document reviews established that policies in place are not reviewed and are mostly implemented as drafts. Opinions differed as to whether the M&E system of eThekwini Municipality was effective or not. This view was of concern to respondents judging from the number of service delivery protest at eThekwini and the clean Audit reports the Municipality keeps receiving. There was no proof that the existing M&E at eThekwini Municipality has an influence on the performance of the Municipality. Overall, this study strengthens the idea that the existing monitoring system at eThekwini should be enhanced. Ethekwini Municipality needs to establish an evaluation system that is in compliance with the Government–wide Monitoring and Evaluation (GWM&E) system This dissertation will attempt to provide a deeper insight into the implementation of the evaluation system using the Theory of Change (ToC) and the Logical framework. There are significant alterations to be made to Local Government practise before a full M&E system according to the GWM&E framework can be put in place
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