A Review and Reformation of Municipal Indigent Policies Towards Sustainable Service Delivery in Selected Rural Municipalities in South Africa

• Published in: African renaissance 2024-03, Vol.21 (1), p.97-120
• Main Authors: Khoza, Hlengiwe Hlobisile, Mukonza, Ricky Munyaradzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Backlog; Basic services; Households; Implementation; Indigent care; Indigent household; Laws, regulations and rules; Literature reviews; municipal indigent policies; Poverty; Qualitative research; Research methodology; Rural municipalities; South Africa; Sustainability; Sustainable service delivery
• ISSN: 1744-2532; 2516-5305
• DOI: 10.31920/2516-5305/2024/21n1a5

The South African government has been focused on repealing unconstitutional laws, passing transformative policies, and building democratic and transparent policies responsive to the demands of the current generation and the public. This erected a need to have policy systems that largely resonate and address the problems upstretched in societies, intending to improve the quality of lives and advance communities. The National Framework for Municipal Indigent Policies issued a guiding document as a source of reference for the formulation and implementation of municipal indigent policies, with the intent of reducing poverty and eliminating service delivery backlogs in municipalities. The study seeks to examine and explore how indigent policies are implemented in rural municipalities to propose strategies to enhance the framework for sustainable service delivery. The objective of the study is to determine whether municipal indigent policies fulfil their dual purpose, which is to improve the lives of indigents and improve access to basic services. The study has established that indigent policies are deemed not sufficient to address the needs of indigents living in poverty and are reinforcing poverty rather than alleviating it. This has resulted in the dysfunction of municipal administration in terms of their indigent policies\' implementation, failing the policies to yield their intended objectives, and as a result, most rural municipalities ended up being characterised as poor in their service delivery. The study argues that indigent policies can be consistent and serve as appropriate tools to fulfil the needs of indigent households, given that they are effectively formulated and their implementation yields desired outcomes. The study employed a qualitative research methodology supplemented by scholarly review of existing literature and document analysis. The study significantly contributes to theory and practice, concludes by proposing possible ways in which the challenges confronting municipal indigent policies can be effectively dealt with, and recommends that further empirical research be conducted to draw conclusions from both primary and secondary data.