Abstract
The problem of poor service delivery in South Africa essentially rests with the local
government. The purpose of this study was to explore the current factors
contributing to the decelerated service delivery in the South African local
government sphere, considering the City of Johannesburg as the unit of analysis.
Based on the dynamism of the local government institutions, a focus is only drawn
to the current factors within ten years (2012-2022). Fundamentally, two critical
questions were to be asked: what are the major contributing factors to poor public
service delivery in the CoJ metropolitan municipality. Secondly, which engineering
management strategies can best accelerate poor public service delivery in the CoJ
metropolitan municipality? The literature review pointed to a number of contributing
factors. The quantitative study revealed that, amongst others, poor public office
ethics, lack of adequate resource capacity, lack of strategic awareness by key
personnel, lack of staff training and development, undue political interference, lack
of digital transformation, the lack of accountability and transparency were the topranked
contributing factors towards decelerated public service delivery raised
within the CoJ. In the main body of work, the study made findings towards poor
public service delivery and in applying the domain guidelines from the Engineering
Management Body of Knowledge, thereby recommending possible management
strategies to accelerate public service delivery towards the CoJ. In the end, it is
expected that this research will contribute to and inspire a constructive argument
to debate possible management strategies for the identified problems confronting
the local government. Finally, it is further hoped that the findings and
recommendations of this study shall assist the CoJ metropolitan municipality and
offer a paradigm shift in the local government sphere in South Africa as far as the
accelerated public service delivery is concerned.
Keywords:
Service Delivery, Local Government, South Africa, City of Johannesburg, and
Exploring Factors.