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Payment for municipal services by residents in municipalities of the North West province is a challenging issue as consumer debt keeps on accumulating despite measures taken by the municipal role players to curb escalating accruals. The purpose of this study was to device a conceptual framework to disclose innovative measures municipalities can con...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... steps include identifying the characteristics of the present culture, postulating the line of actions to implement strategy, discussing with others to seek soluble measures, and lastly the management of culture through the introduction of laws. Figure 1 presents the solutions to resolve culture-strategy conflict. ...
Context 2
... is observable in Figure 1 that a strategic manager resolves the strategy-culture conflict by identifying the characteristics of the present culture that will enable the implementation of strategy while the cultural constraints that do not support the implementation of strategy are distinguished. The second step is to specify actions to implement strategy which involves the ability of managers to state precisely the actions and related behavior they would need to establish in the new culture. ...
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Payment for municipal services by residents in municipalities of the North West province is a challenging issue as consumer debt keeps on accumulating despite measures taken by the municipal role players to curb escalating accruals. The purpose of this study was to device a conceptual framework to disclose innovative measures municipalities can con...
Citations
... This is because there are differences between the district municipalities' available financial resources and the actual expenditure requirements (Chauke 2016;Chitiga-Mabugu & Monkam 2013;Glasser & Wright 2020;Maphalla 2015;Mhlanga 2019). Enwereji and Potgieter (2018) confirm that these differences within the funding model are expanding because the selfgenerated municipal revenue of some South African district municipalities has declined. District municipalities are mandated by the constitution to provide basic social goods required for the promotion of socio-economic and sustainable development in local communities. ...
Background: South African district municipalities supply, inter alia, basic social goods in order to realise socio-economic rights and promote sustainable development in their local communities. This requires adequate funding, which may be in the form of own generated revenue and intergovernmental transfers. However, despite legislated functions, many district municipalities are regarded as financially distressed and unable to deliver on their constitutional mandates.Aim: This study sought to develop a sustainable differentiated funding model for district municipalities that will enable them to deliver on their constitutional mandates.Methods: This empirical study followed a positivist paradigm and used questionnaires to solicit the views of selected municipal officials from all district municipalities on the efficacy of the current funding model against the key principles that underpin a successful funding framework for South African municipalities.Results: The results of this study indicated that the funding district municipalities receive and generate is not in line with their constitutional mandates, which in turn, negatively affects their financial condition. Thus, there is a necessity to reconstruct the current funding model.Conclusion: This study recommends a clear specification of C1 and C2 district municipal powers and functions, and that the current funding model change from applying a blanket approach and rather consider the different geographical areas and circumstances for C1 and C2 district municipalities.Contribution: This empirical study contributes to the broader body of scientific knowledge on the local government financial governance by addressing the funding model for South African district municipalities in a practical manner.
... Although the culture of non-payment has received considerable attention in the South African literature, most of the existing studies use qualitative methods, and report on people's views and perceptions on the phenomenon (van Schalkwyk, 2012; Enwereji & Potgieter, 2018;Day et al., 2021). Very few studies apply quantitative approaches to examine this phenomenon. ...
... Efforts to develop solutions that promote a culture of payment are noted in the literature. Enwereji and Potgieter (2018) devise a conceptual framework to disclose innovative measures municipalities can consider in order to establish a responsible payment culture. The proposed framework involves traditional leaders, influential persons or groups and municipal role-players, and the application of emerging innovations and communications to establish a favourable payment culture. ...
Non-payment for services continues to challenge sustainability in municipal service delivery across South Africa. Literature provides that the culture of non-payment stems from the apartheid era where mass civil disobedience manifested through boycotting the payment of rates. This study examines the impact of the non-payment culture on municipal financial performance in South Africa. Panel data for 28 municipalities for the years 2005–19 is used, and the random-effects model is employed to estimate the relationship between municipal financial performance and non-payment. Results confirm that non-payment has a negative impact on financial performance. For every R1000 increase in bad debts written off, financial performance is reduced by R291. Further, grants from the national government, the number of consumers, and the number of household units receiving free basic electricity positively affect financial performance. These revelations warrant the need for more innovative approaches that transform non-payment into a culture of payment.
... It is, however, a considered critical factor for municipal workers to understand the relationship between the provision of municipal service and payment for such service. Most residents ascribe their non-payment attitude towards the inability of municipalities to provide equitable service while municipalities attribute their lapses in service provision to the inability of residents to pay for the services consumed (Enwereji, 2018). The existing rifts between the residents and municipalities have resulted in service provision protests which have claimed so many lives, burning and looting of public properties. ...
... There is an agreement by both residents and municipal workers that lack of payment enforcement, lack of implementation of credit policies, poor service provision and decision making issues do contribute to payment default by residents. Lack of enforcement capacity and the inability to apply municipal credit policies is among the major causes of payment default, Powell et al. (2010) and Enwereji (2018) opines that most municipalities have failed to apply the prescripts of Constitution of South Africa (No. 108 of 1996), Municipal Property rates Act ( , and other Municipal service provision by-laws to enforce payment from residents. Poor service provision was also highlighted by participants of this study as a reason for payment default. ...
... The payment culture for municipal services could be enhanced if the strategy-culture dichotomies are resolved by the strategic leaders in the local municipal context. Consumer debts continue to intensify due to the inability of municipal workers to mobilise all debts from residents who consume such services (Enwereji and Portgeiter, 2018). Khale (2015) opines that payment default has been a worrisome issue in South African local municipalities, as some service consumers have imbibed the culture of nonpayment. ...
Local municipalities in South Africa have been struggling to enhance a payment culture for municipal services. Despite their endeavours to do so, consumer debts still intensify to an unbearable extent. This study investigated how to manage strategy-culture dichotomies to enhance a payment culture for municipal services. Secondary data were gathered from several sources, such as journal articles, books, blogs, magazines, and local municipal reports. A systematic literature review was done to examine the effective measures needed to manage the strategy-culture dichotomies in effect to change and handle peoples' culture and psychology in the payment for municipal services. The meaning of culture and its impact on the implementation of the organisational strategy were identified. Concerning the intensifying consumer debt accruals, the study upholds that strategic leaders should understand the cultural imperatives of the people before making and implementing strategies. The study further recommends that municipal employees identify characteristics of present culture and specify actions to implement a strategy. More so, strategic leaders should always scrutinise their workforce, analyse their systems, improve their communication options, and collaborate with stakeholders. This study asserts that the intensifying consumer debts amidst varying cultural imperatives could be stemmed by reconciling strategy-culture dichotomies.
Keywords: Local municipality; Organisational strategy; Culture; Payment culture; Service provision.
JEL Classification: H70
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.11662
... It is, however, a considered critical factor for municipal workers to understand the relationship between the provision of municipal service and payment for such service. Most residents ascribe their non-payment attitude towards the inability of municipalities to provide equitable service while municipalities attribute their lapses in service provision to the inability of residents to pay for the services consumed (Enwereji, 2018). The existing rifts between the residents and municipalities have resulted in service provision protests which have claimed so many lives, burning and looting of public properties. ...
... There is an agreement by both residents and municipal workers that lack of payment enforcement, lack of implementation of credit policies, poor service provision and decision making issues do contribute to payment default by residents. Lack of enforcement capacity and the inability to apply municipal credit policies is among the major causes of payment default, Powell et al. (2010) and Enwereji (2018) opines that most municipalities have failed to apply the prescripts of Constitution of South Africa (No. 108 of 1996), Municipal Property rates Act ( , and other Municipal service provision by-laws to enforce payment from residents. Poor service provision was also highlighted by participants of this study as a reason for payment default. ...
The payment for municipal services by the residents in South Africa has been a much-deliberated issue as consumer debts in many municipalities continue to intensify due to payment default or non-payment. The main aim of this study was to investigate the development of non-payment culture for municipal services, the main causes of non-payment for municipal services, and the measures to improve the payment culture for municipal services. This study adopted a mixed-methods research approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. A convergent parallel mixed methods design was adopted which enhanced the richness of data by triangulating the findings from quantitative and qualitative datasets. Data was collected from the residents using questionnaires and online interviews with executive municipal employees. Findings obtained from the study indicate that the non-payment culture for municipal services has its origin from the anti-apartheid struggle. Furthermore, it was disclosed that the reasons for non-payment for municipal services are compounded as poverty, unemployment, the culture of entitlement, dissatisfaction with service provision, corruption of municipal workers, rise in the cost of municipal services, communication gap issues, and problems associated with the municipal decision-making process. The study recommends that the municipalities should provide adequate services to the residents and adequately engage in a wide outreach to residents through various electronic media or IDP programmes to educate them on the advantages of paying for the services consumed.
In South Africa, the growth in the amount owed to municipalities for municipal services rendered, is at an all-time high. The culture of non-payment of rates and taxes for the municipal services is not a new phenomenon. This study is undertaken to determine whether a selected municipality applies its credit management policy to manage the phenomenon of non-payment.
The study investigated the effectiveness of a municipal credit management policy, from the residents’ perspective, within a municipality in the Sedibeng district.
This article recommends that a municipality must enforce its credit management policy to generate responsiveness from residents. This can be done through introduction of debt recovery policies and offering discounts for timeous payment. In addition, the municipality needs to improve its service delivery.
El objetivo general de la presente investigación descriptiva, cuantitativa, no experimental (no probabilística, muestra dirigida) y transversal fue determinar el nivel de la gestión de la Municipalidad Provincial de Chota (MPCH). Se obtuvo como resultado que la MPCH presenta bajo nivel de eficiencia, eficacia, colaboración, transparencia y ética, por lo que se concluyó que analizar la administración municipal desde las dimensiones de la «Nueva gobernanza pública» y del «Planeamiento estratégico institucional» ofreció una metodología para diagnosticar la gestión de la MPCH, la misma que puede ser útil para otros gobiernos locales en esta materia.
The purpose of this study was to identify the strategic leadership qualities required of municipal role-players to cultivate a payment culture for municipal services in the North West Province in South Africa. A systematic review and comparative study were conducted to compare the strategic competencies of executives in Canada, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. These are considered leading countries in service provision. The study proposes that municipalities should be visionary and result-driven, and engage people, while collaborating with relevant stakeholders to achieve desired results. The study further recommends that municipal role players adopt strategic leadership to achieve change through a planning and development process that involves assessing future goals and mapping specific actions. Furthermore, municipalities should achieve their goals through a strategic process of analysis, formulation, implementation, and evaluation, all of which entail a number of constituent tasks.
As part of a larger study on establishing a payment culture for municipal services, this article examined the importance of engaging traditional leaders in facilitating a payment culture to enhance equitable service delivery. A qualitative approach and exploratory design were applied to find solutions to the problems of the study. Municipal employees were selected using a purposive sampling method and data were collected using online interviews. ATLAS.ti (version 8.2) was used to analyse the data collected from the participants. The results revealed that traditional leaders are revered by residents and could be engaged adequately by municipal employees to assist in municipal governance. Municipal employees further confirmed that traditional leaders facilitate social cohesion by representing the municipality at the local level and could sufficiently facilitate a payment culture for municipal services and service provision. All participants affirmed that municipal govern-ance could be enhanced by facilitating adequate collaboration between municipal employees and the traditional leaders who understand the fundamental problems and challenges that face residents. It was recommended that the local municipal management should strategically engage the traditional leaders and specify their tasks to enhance the service provision motive of the municipalities as stated in the Constitution of South Africa.
