Perceptions of the financial sustainability of an indigent policy in a selected municipality in the western cape, South Africa

  • Received September 11, 2017;
    Accepted January 25, 2018;
    Published April 17, 2018
  • Author(s)
    Robert Schultz
    ORCID , Rozenda Hendrickse
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(2).2018.02
  • Article Info
    Volume 16 2018, Issue #2, pp. 12-22
  • TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ
  • Cited by
    1 articles
  • 1599 Views
  • 185 Downloads

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

The eradication of poverty is an important priority for the South African government. The Constitution makes provision for vulnerable households and, therefore, local government has to develop policies to address the needs of the poor. Municipalities developed and adopted Indigent Policies to ensure that the poor households have access to essential basic services. This led the researcher to investigate what challenges are related to the financial sustainability of the Indigent Policy in its implementation process at the City of Cape Town for the period from 2003 to 2016. This study followed a qualitative research approach. Data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews. The participants were selected, because they had access to the most recent information that relates to the Indigent Policy. The researcher respected the rights of participants by allowing them the freedom to withdraw at any stage of the research study, ensuring confidentiality, ensuring anonymity, ensuring fair treatment and protecting the participants from any harm and discomfort throughout the research study. The researcher is of the opinion that all of the respondents are confident that the Indigent Policy is sustainable. However, should it become too expensive for the City of Cape Town to maintain the Indigent Policy, it could result in the budget of some other services being reprioritized. It is recommended that the City of Cape Town develops a beneficiary system for qualified indigents to allow them to receive additional benefits from other City of Cape Town facilities such as libraries, swimming pools and the MyCiTi bus services.

view full abstract hide full abstract
    • Areyeetey, E., Devarajan, S., Kanbur, R., & Kasekende, L. (2012). The Oxford Companion to the economics of Africa. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
    • Bhorat, H., Oosthuizen, M., & van der Westhuizen, C. (2012). Estimating a poverty line: An application to free basic municipal services in South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 29(1), 77-96.
    • Black, P., Calitz, E., & Steenekamp, T. (2008). Public Economics. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd.
    • Black, P., Calitz, E., & Steenekamp, T. (2015). Public Economics. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd.
    • Brink, H.I., van Rensburg, G., van der Walt, C. (2012). Fundamentals of Research Methodology for Health Care Professionals (3rd ed.). Lansdowne: Juta & Co. Ltd.
    • Business Dictionary (2017). Data analysis.
    • Chron (2017). Importance of Training and Development in the Workplace.
    • City of Cape Town (2003). Indigent Policy: A Pro-Poor Income Strategy and Implementation Plan for the City of Cape Town. Pretoria: Government Printer.
    • City of Cape Town (2017). Apply for indigent rates relief.
    • Controller and Auditor-General (2013). Public sector financial sustainability.
    • Du Toit, D., Knipe, A., Van Niekerk, D., Van der Walt, G., & Doyle, M. (2002). Service excellence in governance. Sandown: Heinemann Publishers (Pty) Ltd.
    • Ehlers, T., & Lazenby, K. (2010). Strategic Management. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers.
    • Fink, A. (2014). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. California: SAGE Publications Inc.
    • Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011). Qualitative Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications Inc.
    • Kumar, R. (2007). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (2nd ed.). London: California.
    • Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2014). Practical Research. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.
    • Morse, J. M., & Richards, L. (2002). Readme First for a User’s Guide to Qualitative Methods. London: SAGE Publications Inc.
    • Salmons, J. (2015). Qualitative Online Interviews. California: SAGE Publications Inc.
    • Science Direct (2013). The Importance of Awareness and Education in Prevention and Control of RHD.
    • South Africa (1996). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996. Pretoria: Government Printer.
    • South Africa (2006). The Department of Provincial and Local Government. Municipal Indigent Policies. Pretoria: Government Printer.
    • South Africa (2013). The Presidency Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. The Role of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Public Service. Pretoria: Government Printer.
    • Study.com (2017). What is Data Analyses? – Definition & Overview.
    • SuccessStory.com (2017). 5 Benefits of Contingency Planning.
    • The South African Labor Guide (2017). Disclosure of information at interviews.
    • Thornton, P. (2015). Economics Demystified. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
    • Visser, C. B., & Erasmus, P. W. (2002). The Management of Public Finance. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Related Articles

  • Impact on poverty and income inequality in Malaysia’s economic growth

    Rabiul IslamORCID Researcher ID, Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani , Irwanshah Zainal Abidin , Jeya Malar Rayaiappan doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(1).2017.05
    Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 15, 2017         Issue #1         pp. 55-62 Views: 11844 Downloads: 5652 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    Poverty and income inequality are extreme issues that still exist in Malaysia. Any rise in poverty and income inequality definitely affect economic growth. There are many great efforts taken by the government of Malaysia to eradicate poverty and to reduce the gap of income inequality which occurs since 1970’s. The incidence of poverty and income inequality is higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. This paper is mainly to study the level of poverty and income inequality in Malaysia together with government intervention to develop Malaysia’s economic growth. The research is focused among the working people at Ipoh, Perak. In this paper, questionnaire forms are being distributed to get information regarding the issue of poverty and income inequality. It also looks into the strategies taken by the government of Malaysia to eradicate poverty and income inequality. Few recommendations are given in terms of education policy, financial aid and assistance from government and non-government organization (NGO) to upgrade the standard and quality of living among the poor and lower-income group of people.

  • Management of enterprise’s financial sustainability and improvement of its methods

    Galyna AzarenkovaORCID Researcher ID, Olena GolovkoORCID , Kateryna Abrosimova doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/afc.02(1).2018.01
    Accounting and Financial Control Volume 2, 2018-2019         Issue #1         pp. 1-14 Views: 5295 Downloads: 750 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    The article is dedicated to the solution of the relevant issue, concerning management of enterprise`s financial sustainability. Financial sustainability assessment is one of the most important principles of enterprise`s activity, which provides information about financial capabilities of the company at the time of its evaluation and for the future. It is a requirement for the enterprise activity, which provides a high level of competitiveness, efficiency and intensity. Thus, the restoration and strengthening of financial sustainability is a priority task for the enterprise, a basic precondition for its effective functioning. The purpose of the research is to analyze financial sustainability and to improve the methods and approaches of its evaluation. The following methods were used in this research: financial and economic analysis, economic and mathematical modeling, analysis and synthesis, comparison. The main results of the study are following: the theoretical and essential characteristics of enterprise financial sustainability has been determined; the financial status of PJSC “Turboatom” has been analyzed; the taxonomic index of financial sustainability has been calculated and the forecast of its significance has been made, the approaches to increase enterprise financial sustainability have been proposed.

  • The nexus between foreign direct investment and environmental sustainability in North Africa

    Marwa Lazreg , Ezzeddine Zouari doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ee.09(1).2018.05
    Environmental Economics Volume 9, 2018         Issue #1         pp. 57-68 Views: 2265 Downloads: 455 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯ

    This paper provides a study of the relationship between sustainable development and foreign direct investment (FDI) from an empirical point of view in the case of the North African countries during the period from 1985 to 2005. We use the cointegration test, the FMOLS (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares) model and the Granger causality test to examine this relationship. According to the empirical results, we confirm the existence of a cointegration relationship between the different series studied in this paper. Based on the cointegration test we can use the error correction model. Also, to test the effect of FDI on sustainable development in the North African countries, we make an estimate by FMOLS method. We found that the foreign direct investment has a positive impact on CO2 emissions. Also, the Granger Causality test confirms the presence of a bidirectional relationship between FDI and CO2 emissions (Carbon dioxide). That is to say, the FDI can cause CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions can cause FDI based on the Granger causality.

Download Preview
Close
Problems and Perspectives in Management
Problems and Perspectives in Management