A fit-for-purpose public administration should be anchored in (i) an effective management praxis of systems and processes, as well as (ii) professional and resource capacity that fulfils local government’s mandate of contributing to transformative change in society. Universally this praxis of systems and processes is underpinned by activities of policymaking, organising, human resourcing, financing, work procedures, and control of the functions, structures, and capacities of the public sector. The effective management praxis of public administration systems and processes globally should be underscored by public service traits that are a composite of being professional, qualified, highly skilled, agile, responsive, goal-directed, innovative, and relevant. In South Africa, Section 195 of the Constitution provides the basic guiding principles and values governing the execution of the public administration praxis across the three government spheres.

The public administration praxis in South African municipalities is in distress given the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment in which it functions. Research shows that this distress is attributed to some municipalities’ inability to execute basic functions and service delivery, poor infrastructure planning and maintenance, financial and revenue-generation challenges, corruption, service-delivery protests, and staff turbulence. Partly, this distress is also symptomatic of challenges emanating from factors within internal and external municipal environments. Inherent to municipalities’ VUCA internal environment, these challenges relate to issues of governance, financial management, service delivery, and labour relations. Their recurring nature has also resulted in them being the focus of South African local government reforms over the past 25 years, including the 2009 Local Government Turnaround Strategy, as well as the 2013 Back-to-Basics campaign. Thus, from the 2022 Auditor-General of South Africa report regarding the Municipal Finance Management Act, it is clear that even the last reform has not yielded the desired impact and outcomes. In this regard, service-delivery challenges remain the Achilles heel of South Africa’s local government landscape. 

Institutionally, a lack of or poor service delivery is evident from factors such as insufficient revenue generation, the non-achievement of service-delivery priorities, and not addressing community needs through municipal integrated development plans. Over the past decade, we have seen these factors expose inefficiencies in the South African municipal praxis of systems and processes that underpin the execution of public administration. These inefficiencies are evidenced in the lack of responsiveness of some municipalities to deliver sustainable services and facilitate community participation through their service-delivery system. Consequently, from a service-delivery perspective, the quality and quantity of service outputs delivered to citizens and service recipients in its external environment are either compromised, inferior, or non-existent. From a community participation perspective, research suggests that a lack of community engagement by some South African municipalities affects their responsiveness to the service-delivery needs of citizens. Examples of this are where community engagement is merely embarked on for legislative compliance purposes, but not necessarily prioritised as part of the formal (policies, plans, strategies) and informal (culture) institutions of the organisation. Hence, community priorities are received but not included in municipalities' formal plans. Another example is where community priorities were planned for, but could not be achieved because of a lack of revenue or funding. Lastly, a lack of responsiveness has been reported as part of the contributory reasons for the service-delivery protests that have been at the doorstep of municipalities over the past two decades.

The state of local governance and service delivery in some South African municipalities paints a bleak picture. From this picture, it is apparent that the resilience of municipal service-delivery systems – whose functioning should be underpinned by effective public administration management – is under threat. It is also clear that such an effective management praxis of systems and processes underscoring a fit-for-purpose public administration operates at a deficit. This deficit, which is often the result of internal deficiencies, creates grave consequences for the optimal functioning of the municipal service-delivery system. While these systems are institutionally embedded and operated, their optimal functioning is not exclusively institutionally bound. Instead, their optimal functioning is equally grounded in citizen-centred local governance that informs the outputs of the service-delivery system, and through their participation keeps this system accountable. 

While this is the ideal, it is not always the case, and highlights that South African citizens should play a more constructive role in the local governance of municipal service delivery, to ensure its sustainability. Fortunately, we are seeing a social compact emerge where citizens are becoming more organised in challenging the status quo of local governance in municipalities, to preserve the citizen-centred foundations of our democracy. Similarly, we are seeing a citizenry and organised groups that are taking the initiative to collaborate with the public sector in general to address some of the societal challenges that confront our country. These collaborations and the challenging of the status quo are often grounded in principles of transformative social innovation that consider innovative approaches and solutions to address societal challenges. Apart from challenging the status quo, distributing social and economic resources to achieve social justice during service delivery is inherent to transformation. Innovation can occur through the introduction of a new service, product, or technology but its social aspects are underpinned by collaborations, networks, and partnerships that are formed to identify and implement such innovations.

Transformative social innovation’s usefulness as an approach to finding alternative municipal service-delivery solutions reminds us of the citizen-centredness on which the South African local government legislative framework positions our governance and service-delivery systems. Notably, such citizen-centredness relies on society’s broader capacity for social action, citizen agency, and participation. It promotes a more prominent role for citizens to co-create new knowledge and innovative solutions to address municipal challenges. Society’s broader capacity for social action and citizen agency will also be instrumental in shaping the future responsiveness of South African municipalities amidst the recurring challenges cited. Conversely, it is the same societal capacity and citizen agency that should continuously challenge South African municipalities to rethink how fit-for-purpose their public administration is for implementing responsive service-delivery systems.

In conclusion, given the ailing state of service delivery in some South African municipalities, and the concomitant resource and capacity challenges, the reality is that broader societal capacity and resources are needed to restore service delivery. Hence, the local governance of service delivery will require a mix of new modes, constellations, and approaches that upscale citizen agency through the values of sound public governance. This might necessitate public administration and management reforms that reassess the current size and shape of municipalities, with an eye on remaining responsive amidst growing populations, increasing citizen demands, as well as socioeconomic and global challenges.