Abstract
The provision of basic infrastructure services to communities is mandated upon municipalities by the constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Chapter 7 of 1996. These services include (but are not limited to) the following: housing, water, sanitation, electricity, access roads and stormwater systems. This constitutional mandate is achieved through various municipal processes, such as the Integrated Development Plan; Service Delivery Budget Implementation Plan and in compliance with legislative mandates such as Public Finance Management Act, 1999; Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, 5 of 2000; Division of Revenue Act; etc.
Even though visible progress has been made in providing these basic services, data obtained from the Integrated Development Plan documents show that there is still a high demand of these services in all categories of municipalities across the country due to an increase in population growth and unemployment rate. This demand is evidently voiced out by various communities through continuous poor service delivery protests.
To respond to continuously increasing demands, the three spheres of government namely: National, Provincial and Municipalities, have tried to expedite the planning and implementation of projects by independently introducing programs such as the District Development Model that was initiated by the presidency through the department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in 2019; Operation Hlasela in Free State and Siyaqhuba in Ekurhuleni, that will address challenges faced by communities as quickly as possible.
However, according to the Auditor General’s consolidated report on local government indicated that between the year 2017 and 2021, municipalities have been struggling to provide sustainable services in terms of quantity and quality, due to the following challenges:
• Uncompetitive and unfair procurement processes.
• Irregular and wasteful expenditure.
• Lack of consequence management.
• Prolonged project durations.
• Inability to generate sustainable revenue.