Abstract:
The success of municipal development projects is critical in developing countries, in order
to promote socio-economic development. South Africa has a relatively new democratic
order, which promotes upliftment of communities, through projects which should be
aligned with the municipalities’ Integrated Development Plans. However, municipalities
are continuing to perform poorly, and communities are becoming increasingly unhappy
with the poor quality of services that are provided to them. As such, this article
proposes a business approach, in order to realise the goals of integrated development
planning, which facilitates socio-economic development. The conceptual framework
is based on the theoretical underpinning of the balanced scorecard perspective. The
framework integrates the various tiers of government, namely national, provincial
and local government, in order to align national initiatives and directives with local
government implementation. Moreover, various forms of performance measurement
are indicated in the framework, in order to create a genuine commitment from leaders
in local government. The relationship between various performance dimensions is also
presented in the framework. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications
of the conceptual framework for local government and theory.
