Abstract
The local government in South Africa has an indispensable role in the provision of adequate basic services that promote people’s well-being and to ensure that their expectations are met. However, municipal officials, in their efforts to provide these services, have been hindered by the failure to adopt current technology into the Performance Management System (PMS) to improve the supply of such services. This has led to the delivery of inadequate services that fail to meet people’s expectations and needs. The rising and frequent service delivery protests by unsatisfied citizens is an indication that performance by municipalities, as gauged by citizens’ satisfaction, remains deficient. Hence, the study assessed the roles and benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in enhancing PMS to promote the delivery of adequate services in South Africa’s local municipalities. This is because, even with legislative and regulatory frameworks in place, the application of PMS in local government service delivery is lacking.
The study found that using ICTs in PMS increases efficiency in the services delivery framework and improves the quality and swiftness of available information and refining services to employees. ICTs used in PMS were found to have the ability and capacity to ensure quality performance, development of improved working methods, and sustainable and competitive personnel policy that enable the delivery of adequate services, services that meet people’s expectations in South Africa’s local governance. However, the study found that South Africa’s local governance is not ready to adopt ICTs in PMS because local municipalities suffer from financial constraints and are thus unable to procure an ICT system. They are also unable to establish an ICT infrastructure to strengthen human capacity to implement ICT-enabled PMS. The study also found that there is a big gap between the rich and poor, which has widened the digital divide in local municipalities, thus preventing the realisation of the ICTs in PMS to promote the delivery of adequate services. The study recommended that the national government should allocate more finances towards investing in ICTs, enabling training in ICTs for both municipal officials and citizens. The government should also endeavour to bridge the digital gap that exists in local municipalities through public education mechanisms and address the poverty issue. A qualitative research methodology together with an embedded case study approach that involved the City
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of Johannesburg, and the City of Tshwane was used to achieve the findings of this study.
Keywords: ICTs; Performance management; Performance management systems; innovation; local government; service delivery.