Leadership and service delivery in Zululand District Municipality.

Abstract

Service delivery has been an issue of national, provincial and local government concern. South Africa has seen an increase in service delivery protests, many of which turn violent. At face value, the issue is non-delivery or slow delivery of services. However the question remains as to who is responsible for ensuring that services are delivered. In South Africa, local government is given the mandate to deliver basic services by the Constitution of the country. Both political and administrative leadership have the responsibility to ensure that services are delivered to the community they serve. It is against this background that the study undertook to investigate the role of leadership in service delivery, looking at the administrative leadership. The study used the qualitative approach using the Zululand District Municipality (ZDM) as its case study. The service delivery indicators highlighted that while there has been service delivery, the municipality functions below the provincial levels in service delivery. The study interrogated the available literature on leadership in order to establish a theoretical framework for the study resulting in the adoption of Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge: Challenging the Process as its theoretical framework. The research findings revealed that there is a need for change in the current form of service delivery methods; hence the study provided recommendations for change to the leadership in the ZDM and other district municipalities. Keywords: Administrative leadership, change, service delivery, the Leadership Challenge theory.