ENHANCING SERVICE DELIVERY: A REVIEW OF SOUTH AFRICA’S DUAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM

Abstract

The challenges of delivering services to communities at the local government level in South Africa are well-documented .There are a number of factors and reasons provided by scholars and politicians to explain the phenomenon. This article makes the argument that the multiple tiers of local government could also be a contributory factor. Having three categories of municipalities (Metropolitan, District and Local) in addition to provincial government, complicates and contributes towards service delivery inefficiencies. This is particularly the case with respect to district and local municipalities which operate in the same geographical area. The constitutional framework and the rationale for the current system of local government ought to be reviewed with the view of enhancing service delivery. More specifically, the relevance of district municipalities needs to be critically addressed with the view of reducing the number of tiers of local government. Consequently, the paper proposes an amalgamation of local municipalities in a district into much larger structures which hopefully will maximize economies of scale. Â

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