The effectiveness of Section 139 interventions in strengthening municipal accountability in South Africa

Journal of Local Government Research and Innovation

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The effectiveness of Section 139 interventions in strengthening municipal accountability in South Africa
 
Creator Khaile, Thabo
 
Subject — municipality; provincial intervention; Section 139; audit outcomes; financial accountability
Description Background: Section 139 interventions invoked against failing municipalities in South Africa are becoming prevalent and causing considerable apprehension among stakeholders in local government. Though previous studies have highlighted that Section 139 interventions have generally failed to address governance challenges in municipalities, their effectiveness in strengthening municipal financial accountability has not been examined.Aim: This article investigates the effectiveness of Section 139 interventions in strengthening municipal financial accountability architecture.Methods: This article utilised qualitative document analysis to assess the effectiveness of a Section 139 intervention in strengthening municipal financial accountability. Furthermore, the study utilised audit outcomes as qualitative proxy indicators to assess the effectiveness of Section 139 interventions to strengthen municipal financial accountability. The study focussed on municipalities from Limpopo, North West, and the Free State that have been placed under Section 139 intervention.Results: The findings from the analysis of data showed that a year after interventions, municipalities from Limpopo achieved a notable improvement in their audit outcomes, while municipalities from North West and the Free State did not improve. Though there was a notable improvement from municipalities in Limpopo, the improvement did not result in clean audit outcomes.Conclusion: The poor audit outcomes are indicators that Section 139 interventions are ineffective in strengthening municipal financial accountability.Contribution: This article contributes towards the debates and potential measures to strengthen Section 139 interventions to address the accountability challenges in South African municipalities.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-11-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jolgri.v4i0.146
 
Source Journal of Local Government Research and Innovation; Vol 4 (2023); 10 pages 2788-919X 2709-7412
 
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://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/article/view/146/300 https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/article/view/146/301 https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/article/view/146/302 https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/article/view/146/303
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Thabo Khaile https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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