Contributions of community development workers towards service delivery in Polokwane Local Municipality, Limpopo Province

Abstract

The difficulty associated with full participation of communities in development has led to the universal adoption of proxies such as, community development workers as public entrepreneur agents. Community development is known to strengthen civil society by prioritizing the actions of communities and their perspectives in the development of social, economic and environmental policy. There are delegations within the concept that assist in achieving the desired goals of the community and they are identified to be Community Development Workers (CDWs). CDWs are community-based resource persons who collaborate with other civic activists to help communities obtain information and resources from service providers with the aim of learning how to progressively meet their needs, achieve goals, realize their aspirations and maintain their well-being. Service delivery is therefore the satisfaction of public needs, the attainment of which is influenced by public perceptions, political climate, policies of the government. However, how services are administered calls for intervention and strategies that will foster and require executive authorities and public administrators to perform tasks that embrace the responsibility, authority and accountability to drive such processes. The study aims to investigate the contributions made by CDWs towards service delivery by discoursing their purpose and responsibility in communities, also highlighting on the challenges they face; moreover, examining how services are governed. The study has incorporated both qualitative and quantitative approaches as it is described as being normative. The chosen research design is appropriate for the study because the subject of investigation is a real life, on-going social reality which cannot be controlled. That is, the study will evaluate the ongoing events, activities and processes relating to functions of the CDWs, governance of service delivery and contributions derived therefrom. Open-ended questions draws data from the targeted population through the use of semi structures questionnaires, with the hope of arriving at a conclusion that indeed CDWs play a significant role towards service delivery. The study required textual, opinionative and observable data. In order to prove the accuracy of data found through various information collection procedures such as literature review the use of fieldwork, questionnaires, interviews and observation where a confirmation to the literature found. From a qualitative research perspective, the study used thick descriptions and classification in order to analyze vi functions of CDWs, governance of service delivery and the contributions inherent therein. It was then when the study manipulated both qualitative and quantitative data into frequencies then graphs, charts and tables to represent the information gathered from sources. Therefore, it is in this regard that the study argues that CDWs play a significant role towards service delivery as they have become stewards in communities; however, they are undeniably faced with multiple challenges that hinder their full contribution towards service delivery and that stands in their way of fully performing the duties in which they are employed to perform. Recommendations of possible measures that could be employed in order to improve the contributions of community CDWs towards service delivery in Polokwane Local Municipality, Limpopo Province are then discussed, to assess the chances of improving and responding to the needs of the community.