African Journal of Governance and Public Leadership

Public sector measurement and stakeholder involvement: An unending deficit for sound public management in Africa

2023-10-02T09:02:40+00:00

Editorial

Evaluating the performance of Public Service Delivery Organizations (PSDOs) in Uganda and Tanzania

2023-10-02T08:49:07+00:00

There is a plethora of academic literature on the nature of public sector organizations. Generally, all public sector institutions exist to deliver certain services to the population. An assessment of their performance thus serves a primary purpose of checking how these institutions stand on their legal mandates. Undeniably, the public service institutions have since 1980s been candidates for a myriad of reforms and these reforms have been intended to make the public service organizations work better. This paper is about such efforts in Uganda and Tanzania. In both countries, governments have implemented a myriad of public service reform programmes to increase effi ciency and eff ectiveness of the public sector. The extent to which these eff orts have yield substantive results is hardly examined. This paper through a comparative approach examines the performance of public service organizations in delivery of public services in both Uganda and Tanzania. Data for this assessment was obtained through an evaluation undertaking which relied on both secondary and primary sources. The fi ndings overall suggest that there are some areas where public service organisations have performed well due to the reforms. The evaluation points out of an unfinished business as there remains a number of public service areas where performance has been doubted.

The efficacy of government strategies to improve informal settlements in Rustenburg local municipality

2023-10-02T09:11:54+00:00

Various terminologies have been used to define informal settlements. Although definitions differ, they all have one thing in common, they are illegal and lack access to basic services. Nonetheless, the improvement of informal settlements has been a matter of discussion and critically important in recent years. It has been demonstrated that informal settlements are not a problem, but rather a solution to housing delivery shortages not only in South Africa, but worldwide. South African government has responded with a variety of strategies and policies, including Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and Breaking New Ground Initiative (BNG) to upgrade informal settlements. However, despite the existence of these strategies, informal settlements continue to grow and suffer from deplorable conditions. Qualitative approach was used in this article and semi-structured in-depth interviews to investigate the efficacy of government strategies to informal settlements in Rustenburg Local Municipality. Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen participants, including two municipal officials in Rustenburg Local Municipality. Findings indicate that the strategies implemented to improve informal settlements are ineffective; this was evident from the responses of participants who indicated that these settlements lack access to basic services. The lack of access to basic services in these settlements is a reflection of ineffective strategies. Hence, it is recommended that a review of the strategies that have been implemented will result in greater transformation.

Understanding the strategies street-level bureaucrats develop to deal with inclusive secondary education restraints in selected schools in Tanzania

2023-10-02T09:21:44+00:00

Currently there are voluminous public administration readings suggesting that a robust service delivery is the result of myriads of actors’ concerns, including policymakers, service recipients, and street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). However, this notion is likely to be contested because service delivery, particularly inclusive secondary education in Tanzania is still at a snail’s pace due to lack of mutual interface between aforementioned actors as the central government dominates decisions regarding service delivery. Normally such restraints have resulted in new means for street-level bureaucrats to execute their own de-facto policies. This stance is covered in street-level bureaucracy theory, which supposes that at the end of the policy chain, SLBs develop practices to deal with the status quo. Arguably, since the way SLBs respond to diverse contexts when faced with some hardships in executing service is diverse, unpacking the manner inclusive secondary education delivery restraints are dealt with is imperative to contribute to existing Tanzanian literature. In trying to close this gap, the paper analyzed inclusive secondary education delivery in selected schools in order to unveil the techniques SLBs create to unearth restraints and unveil whether such techniques comply with public policy implementation or not regarding the delivery of inclusive secondary education. To get relevant insights, this paper used an interpretative case study methodology covering in-depth interviews, documentary reviews and observation and analyzed data using content analysis. The fi ndings revealed that, SLBs face limitations in service delivery due to various reasons including a lack of cooperation between policy makers and implementers, SLBs use pre-teaching, creaming, additional hours, simplifi cations, routinizing and referral as coping strategies, SLBs have little discretion and authority over inclusive educational service delivery. Therefore, policy makers and SLBs need to work jointly for a successful delivery of inclusive secondary education services in Tanzania.

An evaluation of the practice of constitutional basic values and principles of public administration in the Zululand district, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2023-10-02T08:54:52+00:00

The fundamental values and principles of public administration—embodied in the Republic of South Africa Constitution (1996), stipulate a set of rules governing public administration in all spheres of government. The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether local municipalities in the Zululand District practice the democratic values and principles of public administration. The paper also examined how the practising of democratic values and principles of public administration stipulated in the South African Constitution can improve governance and service delivery in Zululand. A qualitative research method was adopted by this paper where purposive sampling was employed. Data was collected through virtual and physical interviews 45 municipal officials from the Zululand district were targeted. The findings of this paper revealed how Zululand incorporates the values and principles of public administration with local government objectives. Zululand Municipality emphasises the importance of these values and principles to all its employees, encouraging them to continue using them in executing their daily tasks. The paper revealed how fundamental values and principles of public administration produce good governance in Zululand, for example transparency, accountability, fairness, developmental oriented are some of the values and principles that promote effective governance in Zululand district municipality. In conclusion, it appears that Zululand district municipality (ZDM) significantly applies the code of ethics, the values, and the principles of public administration as they are stipulated in the Constitution although they are implemented not in full capacity, according to the participants.