Impediments to the spending of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant in South Africa: The Case of Ba - Phalaborwa Municipality.
Rangwato, Tsepo Ernest
Rangwato, Tsepo Ernest
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Abstract
In South Africa, the democratic government which came into being after the 1994 general elections recognise, through its devolved three–sphered system, the need to fund sub –governments for the fulfilment of the specific and legislated service delivery mandates. In the local sphere of government, the Municipal Infrastructure Grant hereafter denoted as MIG, is one of the funding programmes initiated in 2003 to fund municipalities for the development of infrastructure in local areas (National Treasury, 2012). This was meant to give meaning to the notions of local development and local governance by developing through the building of new infrastructure in the previously underdeveloped and underprivileged areas where the majority of black people reside. Notably, the introduction of MIG seeks to address the inherited apartheid skewed system that largely negated the majority citizens which are black and Africans in particular in favour of the few minority white communities in the service delivery provision. With MIG, municipalities have the opportunity to build infrastructure for basic services in the communities they serve, and Ba – Phalaborwa Municipality is also a beneficiary of the same Programme. A key challenge relating to this otherwise good programme is that municipalities are unable to fully spend the funds allocated to them (National Treasury, 2012). This study aimed to identify impediments to unspent Municipal Infrastructure Grant funds within South Africa’s Ba - Phalaborwa Local Municipality. The study adopted a qualitative case–study approach whereby data collected from documents and key participants were used to better understand the studied phenomenon. Purposive sampling was employed to select participants in the municipality. The study found that some of the salient impediments to the spending of MIG funds in Ba–Phalaborwa Municipality are: the lack of forward planning relating to allocations, and supply chain management processes. Community unrest and political instability were also found to be part of the ramifications. Major recommendations were that the municipality needs to avoid late or haphazard planning as it generally affects the Supply Chain Management (SCM) process of appointing service providers on time and causes unnecessary delays as a result of irregulars. Political changes need to be managed properly as they stall progress made in so far as the spending of MIG funds is concerned.
Description
This dissertation report is submitted for the partial fulfilment of the qualification, Master of Public Affairs in the Department of Public Management, Faculty of Humanities at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2022-05-25
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Infrastructure, Municipality, Spending, Grant, Ba-Phalaborwa