Abstract:
One of the major challenges faced by municipalities in South Africa is quality
service delivery and lack of accountability. Public accountability is an important
component of local governance as it promotes community involvement and
participation. Local government is viewed as the vehicle for service delivery given
the notion of wall-to-wall local government. All programmes and projects such as,
interalia, housing, water supply, sanitation and roads require accountable municipal
functionaries, so that they gain the confi dence and trust of local communities
who will then take ownership of it thereby ensuring that it is successful and in the
final analysis sustainable. The continued success of a municipality is determined
to a large extent, on the accountability of all key role players and stakeholders
in the local governance process. Public accountability is a tool for participatory
local democracy. The Government has introduced legislation to ensure that all the
key local role players and stakeholders discharge their respective obligations and
responsibilities to facilitate the delivery of quality municipal services. Despite these
measures and initiatives, public accountability remains a buzzword and is certainly
not taken seriously by particularly the municipal functionaries. The recent marches
by the local citizenry in protest against poor service delivery countrywide bear
ample testimony to this. This article critically reviews public accountability in the
local sphere highlighting some of the key challenges that has to be addressed to
ensure good local governance.
