Monitoring and evaluation of solid waste management services to enhance service delivery in Municipalities : a case study of Gauteng Province in South Africa

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the contributions of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) on the service delivery of Solid Waste Management Services (SWMS) in four Gauteng Province municipalities, namely; the City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, Emfuleni Local Municipality and Mogale City Local Municipality. In 2006, the South African government adopted a Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWMES) framework as a tool to track and enhance service delivery in government and its institutions. The GWMES was subsequently cascaded to provincial governments forming Provincial Wide Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (PWMES). Finally, the Municipal Wide Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (MWMES) were to be developed based on the PWMES. This study, therefore, focusses on the MWMES and SWM service delivery in municipalities and its entities. Currently, municipalities are facing serious challenges which have become endemic and characteristic of the sector. The challenges that the sector experiences, among others include: lack of accountability of officials and Councillors; weak consequence management; lack of internal controls; weak financial management and financial discipline; weak governance principles; endemic corruption; poor service delivery; continuous unrest and protest action by communities; and patronage. The lack of service delivery is the common denominator that is cited by role players and stakeholders. It is against this background that the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of solid waste management (SWM) service delivery is interrogated in the study. The findings of the study show that the management of waste in the Gauteng municipalities differ according to essential resources such as finances, equipment, capacity and capability; and planning and design issues like legislation, information flow, population growth and migration. The differences tend to be more pronounced between the local municipalities and the metropolitan municipalities, wherein metropolitan municipalities tend to perform better than the local municipalities. One other important finding that emanated from the study is the lack of public participation in planning and implementation of waste management programmes. Engaging the public could be efficient and cost effective when compared to the current regime where the municipality only uses its limited resources to render the solid waste services to the public. The findings also indicated that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is understood and perceived differently across the different levels within the municipalities. Senior managers and middle managers have a better understanding of M&E even though its implementation is lacking. Lower management (supervisors) perceive M&E as an individual performance management system rather than an institutional management system. It appears that monitoring and evaluation, which was instituted in 2006, is still a new concept in the local government sphere and municipalities are still struggling to cascade it across all levels of the institutions. Therefore, it is recommended that municipalities use the Systemic Performance Analysis Model for SWM (SPAM for SWM) as a tool to enhance service delivery in SWM. This model will assist in: institutionalising M&E; provision of real-time data collection, collating and analysis; public participation; focussed resource allocation and usage; and long-range planning. Finally, M&E would be more like a standard operations procedure (SOPs) and would assist the municipalities and South Africa towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals targets. The study is significant to the key SWM stakeholders to enhance service delivery through improving on the current M&E mechanisms.