- Title
- Management of finances by small to medium rural municipalities in South Africa: A case study of Enoch Mgijima local municipality
- Creator
- Xoseka, Andile Lincoln
- Subject
- Financial Management -- South Africa
- Subject
- Supply Chain Management -- Enoch Mgijima
- Subject
- Cost Containment
- Date Issued
- 2023-04
- Date
- 2023-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/63185
- Identifier
- vital:73193
- Description
- Management of finances plays a crucial role in facilitating the attainment of the service delivery objectives of municipalities in South Africa. Notably, the mismanagement of funds has been associated with rural and other remotely located municipalities. Political interference has had dire and severe consequences on the sustainable development of local municipalities in South Africa. Against this background, the main objective of this study was to identify challenges in the managing of finances in local municipalities and to make recommendations on how to address these challenges. The literature explored in this study covers the main components of financial management, the existing legislation framework guiding the management of funds in municipalities, and the rationale for improving municipal administration. Several cost containment measures emerged from the literature analysis, including minimising social events, resorting to virtual meetings and reforming expenditure management policies. The study employed a qualitative approach guided by the interpretivist paradigm to achieve the outlined research objectives. The exploratory research design was employed, utilising interviews as a data collection method. Analysis of the collected data was guided by the principles of thematic analysis. The main findings revealed five themes, namely: (i) South African municipal financial management features, (ii) transparency and accountability, (iii) factors inhibiting municipal financial accountability, (iv) human resource-related strategies for cost containment, and (v) municipal policies and processes for enhancing financial accountability. Recommendations for the management of finances encompass four categories: (i)compliance enforcement, (ii) cost containment, (iii) staff development training, and (iv)policy reforms. Processes and techniques applied by the public sector were identified as redundant and inefficient in the management of municipalities. Remedying the financial management situation at the Enoch Mgijima municipality required process-oriented reforms and radical changes to the employment policy and appointment of senior officials.
- Description
- Thesis (Ma) -- aculty of Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, 2023
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xii, 107 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | XOSEKA, A.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |