Enhancing Local Economic Development Through Effective Leadership and Service Delivery in South African Municipalities

Abstract

This paper focuses on how effective leadership and service delivery could be utilised to enhance Local Economic Development (LED) in municipalities. LED is considered as a panacea to the triple challenges (unemployment, poverty and inequality) in South African municipalities. As the primary purpose of LED is to build and strengthen the economic capacity of local communities in order to improve the economic future and the quality of life of all citizens. Municipalities are mandated to provide municipal services in order to create conducive environments for economic and social development of its citizens. A lack of effective leadership within municipalities has been a notable challenge for LED. However, this paper concludes that effective leadership of ward councillors and service delivery would be a key to the success of LED. This paper is exploratory and descriptive in design and relied on extensive literature review.