Land service delivery and economic development: Opportunities and challenges in the municipality of Otjiwarongo
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Date
2013
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Abstract
The study is set out to investigate municipal service delivery at the town of Otjiwarongo more specifically with land service delivery and how it links to economic development with specific reference the nature and level of community participation, Staff, Councillors and stakeholders’ understanding of their functions, roles and responsibilities as well as capacity required by the municipality to delivers quality services based on its mandate. Over the past years, there has been an outcry from residents and potential investors for the municipality to provide land for residential and development purposes. This has put a strain on the local authority to keep up with the high demand for land given also an increased inflow of customers to the town. Land as a service delivered by Council also necessitates other services such as roads, refuse removal, market areas, sewerage and water amongst others in the new established townships. All indications therefore are that service delivery in general is a phenomenon that needs to be explored to provide understand of the deep rooted problem areas affecting municipalities. The expectation is that a municipality is mandated to deliver basic services such as land, water, sewerage reticulation and roads to mention just a few but there is no clarity as to how these services contribute to local economic development. This is exacerbated by the fact that those directly tasked to perform the functions of service delivery such as municipality officials do not have a clear link of their functions to local economic development. Following an extensive literature review, the study analyzed the facets of service delivery with a major focus on land delivery as well as local economic development at local authority level and this was supported by the research design and methodology deployed that followed a qualitative approach utilizing a sample of 30. The questions used in the interview were guided but unstructured using the approach of an empirical survey and normative model construction to ensure effective evaluation of alternative responses as well as ensure that respondents gave own opinions on what was happening. Guided by a field study that involved extensive interviews with municipal officials and stakeholders, the findings were coded and interpreted into explainable outcomes, with the findings concluding that land delivery is a strong and major catalyst of local economic development alongside other municipal basic services.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration.
Keywords
Local economic development, Otjiwarongo municipality, Land service delivery, Stakeholders, Local government