TITLE:
Maintenance of Municipality Infrastructure: A Case Study on Service Delivery in Limpopo Province at South Africa
AUTHORS:
Mogooe Malokane Emily, Goodwell Muyengwa
KEYWORDS:
Maintenance, Infrastructure, Service Delivery and Municipality
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Operations Research,
Vol.11 No.6,
November
3,
2021
ABSTRACT: Purpose: An element of poor service delivery concerns the
quality of management on the maintenance of services like water, electricity,
roads, schools and clinics. This is a relevant and topical issue for research
because of the current situation regarding
these provisions in South Africa. This research took place in a Municipality
situated in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is the responsibility of
municipalities to ensure that they fulfil their constitutional obligations in
the delivery of maintainable, operative and well-organised municipal
services through the maintenance of infrastructure. As this country has been
subjected to a large number of service delivery complaints, this has led to the
motivation of this study. The purpose of this study is to analyse maintenance
on municipal infrastructure and service delivery in a local municipality, in
particular focusing on the water supply. This research study is aimed at
analysing how local municipality conducts its maintenance of municipal
infrastructure, seeking to understand the challenge of maintenance on service
provided to the communities. Design/Methodology/Approach: To achieve the
success of this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods were
adopted. A survey questionnaire and structured interview questions were
conducted with communities and employees in a municipality in Limpopo Province. Findings: The results of the study revealed that residents are facing
water difficulties due to a lack of maintenance and absence of water supply.
People are fetching water from the rivers in the nearby community, water which
unfortunately is not purified. Furthermore, people have experienced this poor
maintenance and service delivery for years, negatively impacting on the
community’s standard of living. Originality/Value: The original
contribution of this work was to analyse the types of maintenance being used in
local municipalities and how it will benefit the communities. To the best of
the authors’ understanding, there are no studies that have been conducted in
South Africa regarding the impact of maintenance on municipal infrastructure,
and this paper aims to fill this gap.