Leadership in the Delivery of Services at Kamhlushwa Township in the Nkomazi Municipality

The study on the role of leadership in the delivery of services to the community of KaMhlushwa Township in the Nkomazi Municipality has been triggered by the growing outcry by communities regarding government’s inability to provide basic services as promised in the Human Rights Charter of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The said outcry finds its expression through the escalating service delivery protests as reflected in the Service Delivery Protest Barometer, (2014), the Municipal IQ Index and many other statistical surveys, which have been recently conducted by professional bodies. While government reports reflects an upward mobility in the political landscape on the human development index, these surveys reflect that such a political transformation has not yet translated into economic growth to the people of the country. The black majority are still reflected to be living under heavy squalid conditions with their lives characterised by poverty, inequality and heavy unemployment levels, Mbeki, (2016).

The KaMhlushwa community is no exception to the picture painted above and will be used to establish the causal factors to the dearth of leadership in directing the delivery of services to communities. The study, after exploring a number of leadership approaches, went further to suggest a number of leadership strategies, which may be deployed to enhance the service delivery programme at a local level. It discusses at length the leadership trends from a global to a local level giving enough suggestions for future consideration on the same or similar topics to this one. The report concludes by drawing recommendations for further investigation by other researchers on the topic. There are also recommendations, which can be used as best practice for replicability by other sectors to ensure the promotion of a coherent and effective delivery of services in local communities.