The character of administrative capacity on developmental local government in municipalities within Vhembe District Municipality

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate whether local government in South Africa has the administrative capacity congruent to developmental local governments’ mandate. The study outlined the characteristics of administration that qualify local government institutions to be categorized as local government that promulgate developmental mandate of governance. Municipalities within the Vhembe District served as case studies, and these were - Musina, Collins Chabane, Thulamela and Makhado - in Limpopo Province. The study was grounded in Henry Fayol’s Administrative Principles theory which describes management principles that lead to the success of an organization. The reason for choosing this theory is its deductive nature and potential to give room for changes in terms of new data. The principles in this theory make provision for general administrative perspective and serve as instructional tool for an organization. The research design adopted was normative and focused on the descriptive approach; it utilized a mixed-methods approach which integrated both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect, analyze and interpret data. The mechanisms utilized for gathering data were interviews and questionnaires, based on purposive sampling method. The population was comprised of officials and politicians from district and local municipalities as well as other municipal stakeholders within the Vhembe District. Data generated qualitatively and quantitatively from primary and secondary sources was analyzed by using thematic analysis and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), respectively. The findings show that developmental local government of South Africa lacks the potential to improve service delivery and of ensuring good governance. Therefore, the study recommends re-tooling of developmental local government administration. This process would improve the administrative capacity of local governments in South Africa by detailing the character or position that local government administration units must adopt for their mandate to be realized.