+44-7897-074717Research - Journal of Research in International Business and Management ( 2024) Volume 11, Issue 5
, Manuscript No. 147787; , Pre QC No. 147787; , QC No. 147787; , Manuscript No. 147787; Published: 21-Oct-2024
Leadership is a very important element for effective service delivery. However, Madibeng Local Municipality is exposed to excessive corrupted related activities. Information gathered on the ground revealed that, projects are not completed due to political fighting on the group. There is no plans in-place to offer good services. Money is squandered. Top management including the mayor are involved in corrupt related activities. They are only concerned about their positions, power and money. Projects are not completely e.g. water treatment and reticulation plant that started in 2015 has not been completed. There is no monitoring of approved plans, any evaluation of employee’s performance. Plans are not revisited to ensure implementation. Madibeng leaders are not accountable, responsible and eager to improve service delivery. They are power hungry, concerned about their personal gain and positions. No projects or approved plans to improve the situation. Corruption, greed and bribery are at the centre of Madibeng. Madibeng municipality was put under administration twice recently but there’s no change/ improvement in service delivery. The mayor is failing the Madibeng community because of lack of effective leadership. Using a quantitative research approach, the study provides findings of the study that was done in the Madibeng Local Municipality.
Leadership, Madibeng local municipality, Political fighting, Monitoring, Evaluation.
South Africa is committed to a program of strengthening local governments for effective service delivery. Early observations showed a significant improvement in basic service delivery in the country. This is consistent with the 1994-started program for development and reconstruction. However, many homes still lack access to essential amenities like power, free health care, clean water, and sanitary (Asencio, 2016). The failure to provide these basic services led to the outbreak of numerous demonstrations by the citizens. The recurring difficulties experienced by the Madibeng Local Municipality in the North West of South Africa regarding principal service delivery include: “poor road connection between rural and town centres, lack of proper maintenance of water infrastructure, land development and reform, poor electricity connections and provision and road maintenance” (Bligh, 2017). Using a quantitative research assessment, the paper was able to provide results on which areas are in need of serious attention.
South Africa is having leadership challenges in local governments. According to Mbandlwa, Dorasamy and Fagbadebo, unethical leadership behaviour has contributed to the management problems in South African municipality systems. The progress made by the democratic government is overshadowed by the South Africa’s local governments. According to Sharma and Jain, leadership is the capability to motivate followers to develop teamwork and achieve organisational objectives”. Long-term survival and growth of all organisations is dependent efficient leadership (Boateng et al., 2018). The direction and coordination of work and the building of interpersonal relationships all depend on leadership. A leader’s potential to show their followers the need of achieving organisational results is critical to the leadership process (Creswell& Creswell, 2018). The effectiveness of leadership is measured by excellent results such as quality production and services (Cupin, 2022).
Authentic Leadership
This kind of leadership is about a leader's capacity to persuade subordinates to work toward a common aim (Fourie, 2018). Leaders can complete this process by putting their training, experience, and knowledge to use to develop people’s leadership skills (Khale & Worku, 2013). Leaders must also have particular personality traits, for example, vision, traits, and behaviour that have a vital role in creating values. Leaders should further be able to enhance people’s strengths and implement expertise to inspire others to attain the wanted objectives (Le Chen et al., 2014).
Trust in Leadership
The dynamic, interpersonal connection of trust has special working ramifications. According to Bligh, trust is the expectation that one person has of another regarding their words, deeds, and capacity to keep their word. Trust demonstrates its meaning in situations in which individuals rely on others. As a result, trust becomes important in maintaining relations between leaders and employees, with specific roles, and ranks of power and status (Lee et al., 2019). The bottom line of an effective and significant leadership is represented by trust that constitutes the building blocks of organisational relationships between leaders and other stakeholders (Makanyeza et al., 2013).
Employee trust in leaders and organisational performance
Employees trust can be multidimensional and represents a psychological readiness to deal with weakness based on constructive expectancies from the purposes or conduct of another. It has to do with how much faith one has in other people to act justly and respectably. In other terms, followers' trust in their leader's intentions and deeds is referred to as employee trust in leaders.
The effects of employee trust in leaders
Trust in leaders is thought to mediate the relationship between various leadership behaviours and employee attitudes, according to available empirical studies in private-sector contexts. When leaders are consistent about how they evaluate, penalize, and keep track of performance and underperformance, their subordinates grow to trust them. Leaders that exhibit transactional leadership behaviours are more likely to enjoy the trust of their followers. Employees that have confidence in their leaders consequently exhibit higher levels of performance (Maree & Pietersen, 2016).
Concept of Service delivery
“Service delivery” is used to describe the allocation of basic resources that people depend on like housing, sanitation, land, infrastructure, electricity and water (Masuku & Jili, 2019). For Rigii, service is the comprehensive presentation of the requirements for the client. According to the (Municipal Research and Service Centre 1993), supplying public services represents the act of offering basic needs that include trash disposal and street lighting (Mbandlwa et al., 2020).
Service delivery is associated with provision of tangible and no-tangible goods and services. Government institutions, non-profit organisations, individuals, private companies, and other organisations can also provide goods and services to communities.
In this study, "service delivery" denotes the allocation of basic amenities that people living in Madibeng Local Municipality (MLM) communities expect the government to supply, such as access to clean water, electricity, sanitary facilities, garbage collection, decent housing, and roads (Municipal Performance Management Framework 2009).
Boateng, Addai, Amoako, and Batola, assert that to act honestly, people must be aware of who they are and act accordingly. As a result, self-awareness and self-restraint are regarded as essential characteristics of real leadership.
Self-Knowledge
Several authors have made the case that developing self-knowledge is essential for the growth of authentic leadership. Leaders who are in-tune with who they are do not stray from their core beliefs. Leaders who know and understand themselves can create a significance system from which to think, feel and act genuinely. Genuine leaders can adhere to and act in accordance with their principles even when pressed by societal or environmental forces. To put it simply, to operate in a way that is regarded by their followers as authentic, leaders must be aware of their own values, principles, personal strengths, and shortcomings (Nandan, 2010)
Self-Consistency
Beyond simply knowing themselves, (Naher et al., 2020) contend that in order to be portrayed as efficient leaders; leaders must show "consistency when applying their values, beliefs, and actions." Self-consistency is a further indicator of true leadership, as a result. Authentic leaders who behave accordingly do not compromise their own values and principles, rather than relying solely on behavioural style to distinguish them from inauthentic leaders. "Authentic leaders are more efficient in leading others since these leaders are perceived as consistent with their true selves," Through their ideals, purpose, voice, and behaviours, they reveal their genuine selves. A leader is therefore viewed as having a high level of self-consistency. For leaders to engage in authentic leadership practices, several traits are essential. For instance, leader self-learning and self-consistency appeared to be predecessors for authentic leadership; the former is a gradual process necessitating leaders to understand their own powers and shortcomings and constancy when exercising their convictions, traits, and actions (Ndevu & Muller, 2017).
In this paper quantitative research approach was used to collect and analyse relevant data. Quantitative research is a process that uses numerical data obtained from a population from which a sample is derived (Rigii, 2017) the three most essential elements in this definition are objectivity, numerical data, and generalisation. Quantitative research further relies on numerical data to test the connection between the variables and to describe the trends between the related variables (Rolland, 2018).
Research Design
The research design is a broad approach of providing answers to the research questions. It guides the specific technique to be used to reach the research objectives. It is crucial that the study design demonstrates why it is considered suitable for a specific study (Sahin & Ergun, 2015).
Population and Sampling
A population represents a group of individuals, an event, or a condition to which they are exposed as defined by Creswell, and Creswell. According to Statistics South Africa (2021), there are 41 334 people living in Letlhabile. For this study, participants were selected from the working class in Letlhabile Ward 9. The working class constituted 36% of the total population of 8286 which equals 2983. The sample size is 317 participants.
Maree, asserts that having a sample frame that is complete and current is crucial when obtaining a simple random sample. The population elements must all be given sequential numbers so that they can be recognized individually. The actual drawing of a sample considers both random numbers and the extraction of the sample size.
Data Collection
In the current study, a structured questionnaire was used to gather data. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the questionnaire was distributed to targeted participants using online platforms such as Survey monkey or Google form for participants who have access to email. Hard copies of the questionnaire were directly sent to the participants who had no email addresses. The questionnaire included an informed consent document that explained study's goals, data confidentiality, and the disclosure of the research findings to the participants. To emphasize the confidentiality of the data collection procedure, an information sheet with detailed instructions was made available.
Data Analysis
Sahin, asserts that organizing data to make it ready for analysis is the starting point in quantitative data analysis process. The data entry process consists of entering the information into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences also known as SPSS for data outputs generation. Factor analysis descriptive statistics, frequencies, correlation and regression analyses are among the statistical methods employed throughout the data analysis procedures for this study.
Infrastructural Development Services
Water Supply
Figure 1 depicts that: Most participants indicated that they did not have clean water pipes (64%), that they did not have clean water (100%), that they did not have a regular water supply (99%), that their water accounts were incorrect (91%) and that they had regular water breakages (86%). Most participants indicated that they had their own water meter at (68%).
Figure 1. Water Supply.
The water supplied by Madibeng is polluted, stinking, sometimes smells sewer and brown in colour. It is not good for consumption. Many residents took ill due to the water which is only good for washing and cleaning. Residents often buy purified water in the local supermarkets.
The water treatment plant was not well maintained because unskilled workers were deployed to tend to matters that they were not qualified for. There were regular water shortages, and the accounts were often incorrect and not provided for on a monthly basis. Water readings were not done regularly. Approximately 80% of the Letlhabile residents did not pay for services because of the poor services offered and polluted water supply. During personal campaigns some politicians influenced the residents to withhold payments resulting in these residents now being in debt. The Madibeng municipality has no mechanism of encouraging residents to pay for the services.
Electricity Supply
Figure 2 depicts that only 3% of participants indicated that they did not get their electricity supplied by the municipality. The same number also indicated that they did not have their own electricity meters. The electricity supply is interrupted regularly with 89% of the participants reporting not having regular electricity supply having a regular electricity supply.
Figure 2. Electricity Supply.
The electricity supplied by Madibeng is extremely expensive and it costly to all customers especially to the needy and pensioners. Most of the residents are not buying electricity. They have bridged their meter-boxes and steal electricity. Some houses do not have electricity meters.
Residential streets, Roads, Stormwater and Housing
Figure 3 depicts that: The roads in the area were reported to be in a poor condition as indicated by 100% of the participants. All the participants (100%) also agreed that damaged roads were not repaired quickly. There is only one tarred road in the area, therefore 90% of the participants responded ‘no’ to having tarred roads.
Figure 3. Residential streets, roads, stormwater, and housing.
The streets and houses also got flooded regularly and 88% of the participants agreed with the question, as shown in Figure 3.
Only one main road is tarred. Few streets where the councillors reside are paved because they only think of their own personal gain and comfort. Money/Budget which was allocated for paving 15 years back was stolen, squandered, and misused for personal gain. No one was held accountable even today. There is no proper budget for road maintenance. Tenders are offered to unskilled people; hence proper and quality service of fixing roads is not done. Streets and roads in the area are not maintained at all. Not even a greater is used to level the gravel roads. Potholes are a major problem. Some streets have turned into dongas and cars are unable to drive on. Roads and streets are not maintained. Roads have potholes. Customers’ streets are not managed/ attended to for the past 20 years. There is no good leadership and proper mechanism to deal with road infrastructure to the benefits of the customers. Municipality takes months before it can repair damaged roads. When it does repairs, the quality of work is poor, and the same problem recurs. Customers’ needs and safety are not prioritised and their lives are taken for granted. Madibeng municipality is unable to deal with storm water; they have no skilled workers. Town planning is not effective, and customer’s houses are always flooded. Storm water is a serious life- threatening situation; roads are flooded so is customers’ houses. Proper provision and maintenance of the storm water drainage has never been well constructed. Even continuous maintenance is not done to save customers lives.
Condition of residential streets, roads and storm water systems
Figure 4 depicts that the participants found the condition of residential streets inadequate to totally inadequate as reported by 31% and 68% of the participants respectively. Similar results were reported for the maintenance of the storm water drainage system with 1% saying it was good, 8% saying it was adequate, while 21% and 70% described it as inadequate and totally inadequate respectively.
Figure 4. Condition of residential streets, roads, and storm water systems.
Provision of low-cost houses
Figure 5 depicts that the participants reported the provision of low-cost houses as low at 83% or as average at 13%. A low 3% reported it to be medium while 1% indicated that it was high. The results can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Provision of low-cost houses.
Corruption and bribery are the course of low housing provision. Irrelevant and unskilled constructors are offered tenders and they do not offer quality work. Corruption of the leaders and incapability of councillors to ensure quality leads to low-cost provision of houses. Political influence and corruption in offering tenders accordingly or correctly, greed and bribery, is the reason for provision of low-cost housing. Projects/houses which could have been offered to the needy are left incomplete and most of the houses have fallen down due to cheap building materials used. No one is held accountable.
Refuse removal
Figure 6 depicts that a more positive picture was obtained by 100% of participants indicating that the refuse was removed. On the other hand, 95% indicated that it was sometimes not removed for weeks. The results are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Refuse.
There is serious of lack physical amenities. It’s untrustworthy, unreliable and inconsistent. Collection of refuse is not consistent. Refuse sometimes is piled up for weeks without any notice. Dumping is a serious challenge and causes environmental pollution that causes health hazard. Sometimes refuse is not collected due to their truck breakdown. Standard of service delivery at Letlhabile is not satisfactory at all because refuse is not collected timeously. There’s a slight difference/improvement compared to last year. At least they collect refuse on scheduled days (Saunders, 2009).
Complaint regarding a community service
Figure 7 depicts that 86% of the participants responded yes to complaining regarding the community services. The remaining 14% indicated that they did not complain about the community services.
Figure 7. Complaint regarding a community service.
Many times, the community complaint to the municipality about poor service delivery. Protest marches have been held; petitions written but the condition of poor service delivery do not change for the better. The local clinic is flooded by neighbouring villages’ people and there is shortage of staff members to deal with many patients effectively. Many complaints were made to the municipality in community and Ward meetings to the councillors but there no change at all. Madibeng municipality has no leadership that has the interest of the customers at heart. They have not addressed the complaint satisfactorily. Madibeng municipality is ineffective and incapable in dealing with customers’ basic needs and complaints.
Management and response to complaints
Figure 8 depicts that the participants perceived the municipal workers as incapable and very unprofessional to manage and respond to complaints at 81% and 76% respectively. A low 18% thought they we adequately capable to manage complaints while 23% indicated that they were adequately capable of responding to complaints. These results can be seen in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Management and response to complaints.
Some or most workers are incapable because they are not trained, supervised, monitored and evaluated on their performance. Madibeng employees need strict mangers who will monitor evaluate their performance. Employees need continuous training to deal with customer’s needs. Madibeng workers need serious internal continuous development training to assist them to improve their performance for the better. Workers dealing with people lives should be pro-active, eager, willing and dedicated to assist customers.
In overall, figure 9 depicts that: The participants were extremely dissatisfied with the water services at 95%. They were somewhat more positive with the electricity service with 44% indicating they were satisfied but there was room for improvement and 39% were still extremely dissatisfied. The conditions of the streets, roads, and bridges and the maintenance of the storm water drainage system had similar results with most participants indicating that it was poor with room for improvement followed by extremely dissatisfied. The refuse removal service was somewhat more acceptable with 42% indicating satisfaction with room for improvement. 12% were extremely satisfied and not experiencing any problems, while 15% chose poor with room for improvement and 28% were extremely dissatisfied (Sharma & Jain, 2013).
Figure 9. Infrastructural development services.
Poor service delivery is a factor in service supply protests following the above data analysis. Communities protest in retaliation because the municipality is unable to deliver necessary services. There is a connection between providing effective and high-quality services, employee abilities, effective leadership, accountability, responding to customer needs, dedication to their jobs, and services for infrastructure development. Good leadership is key for efficient service delivery. Corrupt activities should be punishable by law because corruption destroy socio economic development and social cohesion. Madibeng Local Municipality requires an overhaul of its governance system through strong audit to see how to save it from where it is now. A strong Management information system is needed and those in office should be held responsible for decision taken.
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