Accounting for economic disparities in financing municipal infrastructure in South Africa: a case study using data from the Cape Winelands District Municipality

Josie, Mervyn Jayaprakash

Accounting for economic disparities in financing municipal infrastructure in South Africa: a case study using data from the Cape Winelands District Municipality

dc.contributor.advisor	Bardill, John
dc.contributor.advisor	Marysse, Stefaan
dc.contributor.author	Josie, Mervyn Jayaprakash
dc.date.accessioned	2014-06-24T09:17:24Z
dc.date.accessioned	2024-05-03T10:12:19Z
dc.date.available	2014-06-24T09:17:24Z
dc.date.available	2024-05-03T10:12:19Z
dc.date.issued	2011
dc.description	Philosophiae Doctor - PhD	en_US
dc.description.abstract	In this thesis I argue that by taking account of economic disparities and backlogs in intergovernmental infrastructure grants to municipalities in South Africa, government will effectively meet its constitutional obligation to equitably allocate infrastructure grants to local government according to the principles of parity, proportionality and priority (Young, 1994). Municipalities will thus be able to provide basic services to households in keeping with the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of South Africa (1996). Adapting the Petchey et al (2004) provincial capital expenditure grant model to the provision of municipal services using secondary data and information from local municipalities in the Cape Winelands District, I evaluate whether government’s existing municipal grants are allocated equitably and, whether they account for disparities that differentiate municipalities from each other. The findings from my analysis show that the current approach to financing municipal infrastructure does not sufficiently account for disparities and thus, undermines the requirement for equitability, adequacy and efficiency of intergovernmental allocations. Consequently, the right of citizens to basic municipal services is compromised and the macroeconomic structure is weakened. Furthermore the institutional arrangements for local government autonomy is undermined because municipalities cannot ensure stability, predictability, flexibility and economic efficiency of infrastructure budgets. As municipalities receive part of their finance from national government through infrastructure grants, I used data from five local municipalities to examine the extent to which there is equitability and efficiency in the way this finance is allocated. To this end I constructed and applied a composite disparity index for each municipality to my adapted municipal infrastructure grant model to analyze and observe the impact of economic disparities in grant allocations. The findings show that a grant model that accounts for economic disparities satisfies the constitutional, economic and institutional considerations that should inform municipal grant allocation decisions. I conclude the thesis by highlighting the limitations and possibilities of using a municipal infrastructure grant model that accounts for economic disparities and, I propose some recommendations for applying such a model in South Africa.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10566/12956
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.publisher	University of Western Cape	en_US
dc.rights.holder	University of Western Cape	en_US
dc.subject	Allocation	en_US
dc.subject	Backlogs	en_US
dc.subject	Basic municipal services	en_US
dc.subject	Capital stock	en_US
dc.subject	Cape Winelands District Municipality	en_US
dc.subject	Constitution	en_US
dc.subject	Economic disparity	en_US
dc.subject	Intergovernmental fiscal relations	en_US
dc.subject	Municipal infrastructure grants	en_US
dc.subject	South Africa	en_US
dc.title	Accounting for economic disparities in financing municipal infrastructure in South Africa: a case study using data from the Cape Winelands District Municipality	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US