Towards strengthening collaboration between district and local municipalities in South Africa: Insights from Ehlanzeni District Municipality

Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Towards strengthening collaboration between district and local municipalities in South Africa: Insights from Ehlanzeni District Municipality
 
Creator Magagula, Douglas N. Mukonza, Ricky M. Manyaka, Rasodi K. Moeti, Kabelo B.
 
Subject Public Management collaboration; district municipality; local municipality; intergovernmental relations; local government.
Description This article examines the state of collaboration between a district municipality and its local municipalities using Ehlanzeni District Municipality as a case study. This is important because in terms of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998, district municipalities are established to coordinate and support their local municipalities to enable them to deliver services to the communities that they serve. In spite of this, literature on local government shows that there is ambiguity regarding the roles of district and local municipalities within the sphere of local government. The study was essentially qualitative in design with the use of a semi-structured interview as a data collection instrument. The findings of the study reveal that local municipalities have an executive and legislative authority, which limits the district municipality towards holding them accountable for failure to execute their constitutional obligations. The study further affirms that there is ambiguity in legislation regarding the discharge in roles and responsibilities between a district and a local municipality. Thus, it is suggested that for the district municipalities to strengthen their roles of coordinating, intergovernmental forums between a district and local municipality should be used as a starting point. The article concludes that there is a need to review legislation regarding the extent to which a local municipality should account to a district municipality, as well as clarity regarding the discharge in roles and responsibilities between a district and a local municipality.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Tshwane University of Technology
Date 2019-11-25
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interviews
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/td.v15i1.673
 
Source The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa; Vol 15, No 1 (2019); 10 pages 2415-2005 1817-4434
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/673/1125 https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/673/1124 https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/673/1126 https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/673/1123
 
Coverage Ehlanzeni District Post-apartheid South Africa varied; males and females; varied
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Douglas N. Magagula, Ricky M. Mukonza, Rasodi K. Manyaka, Kabelo B. Moeti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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