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The purpose of this paper is to discuss citizen participation in public service delivery protests in the Sedibeng district municipality of South Africa. The municipality consists of three local municipalities: Lesedi, Emfuleni and Midvaal.

A structured sample of 1,000 respondents was used in the study. The descriptive and inferential statistics approaches were applied to understand the root causes of the protests.

Overall, the average level of satisfaction with public service delivery is quite low. Service delivery protest participants opine that doing so is the only way of getting things done in the municipality. The overwhelming opinion of respondents is that the councillors are unresponsive.

Public service delivery in Sedibeng municipality must improve so that citizens' confidence in municipal governance can rise. Sedibeng municipality should urgently improve the socio‐economic conditions in the communities and should prioritise crime prevention, job creation and development for young people. Health care delivery is important to long‐term residents. Government should ensure that all allegations of corruption and maladministration are speedily and transparently dealt with, without fear or favour.

Studies that provide insight into citizen participation in public services delivery protests in Africa are very few and so this study makes an important contribution to our understanding of this important field.

Infrastructure development and management form the central part of the government's commitment and responsibility to deliver essential services to the communities. However, much focus has been placed on the development aspect, with very little focus on the management and maintenance aspects, causing service delivery problems. This study explores the causes of poor management of immovable municipal infrastructure in South Africa.

A qualitative approach was adopted; thus, a sample of 15 participants consisting of senior municipal workers, local organizations and forums in Ngqushwa Municipality in Eastern Cape were identified and interviewed. The interview data were analyzed using thematic content analysis to determine the common themes and the frequencies.

The study's findings indicate numerous causes of poor municipal infrastructure management, including lack of funding, lack of capacity, poor planning and oversight, lack of By-laws, grant dependency and corruption. The municipality's failure to address these issues has resulted in increased service protests, destruction of public property, interruption of services and loss of confidence in municipal administrations.

Although the study concentrated on one municipality, the findings may be applicable to other South African municipalities.

To provide efficient services for the inhabitants to curtail aggravated service delivery protests, there is an urgent need for the municipalities to institute effective measures to manage and maintain the infrastructure that serves the communities.

The study has identified the factors underpinning ineffective management of the municipalities' facilities and the resultant's effects. Thus, the findings will guide the government and the authorities on the infrastructural management strategies for effective service delivery.

Bureaucracy to a large extent entrenches orderliness and productive means of achieving goals in both public and private organisations across the world. However, bureaucracy is not suitable in the management of hospitals due to its peculiar nature of operations. This study investigates the conundrum of bureaucratic processes and health-care service delivery in government hospitals in Nigeria.

The study surveyed 600 outpatients and attendees visiting tertiary and government hospitals in Nigeria using descriptive design to obtained data from the respondents. A research instrument, questionnaire, was used to gather data. Out of the 600 outpatients visiting the 20 hospitals in government and tertiary hospitals, 494 responses were returned from the attendees. The study employed random sampling strategy to collect the information.

The findings of this study were that service delivery in government hospitals were in adverse position on all the four constructs of bureaucratic dimensions as against quality of service delivery in hospitals in Nigeria. It discovered that bureaucratic impersonality cannot impact on the quality of service delivery in government hospitals in Nigeria. Separation and division of labour among health workers have no significant effect on quality service delivery in government hospitals. Formal rules and regulations (administrative procedure, rules, and policies) prevent quality service delivery in government hospitals in Nigeria. Also, patient’s waiting time was not significant to the quality of service delivery in government hospitals.

The results are constrained with dimensions of bureaucratic processes. Thus, the implication of this study is that bureaucracy in the Nigerian public hospitals is an unnecessary marriage which should be carefully separated and de-emphasised for quality service delivery in the hospitals to thrive.

Largely, this study is practical essential as it unearths the irrelevant operations procedure that hinder progress in Nigerian hospitals.

The study accomplishes recognised importance to survey how bureaucracy impedes quality service delivery in government hospitals. This study has provided a vital clue to elements that will bring rapid attention to patients’outcome in Nigerian hospitals and health-care facilities which hitherto has not been emphasised. The study has contributed to the existing body of knowledge associated to healthcare service quality in developing country.

The new South Africa came into being in 1994. The new government inherited the national public service and those of a variety of former provinces and homelands that had to be amalgamated to form a national unified public service. Although this task was accomplished rapidly, the resulting public service was very large, and exhibited many features of traditional bureaucracy, including hierarchical structures, limited automation and IT applications, low levels of training, a poor work culture, language and cultural barriers, and an overall orientation towards inputs and processes rather than service delivery and results. Within the first three years of the new order, substantial effort was devoted to reforming the bureaucracy. New public service legislation and regulations were introduced, new and powerful central personnel agencies were created, English became the language of administration, and substantial authority was devolved to departments and provinces. Despite these reforms, progress in improving results in terms of service delivery, especially to previously disadvantaged communities, was mixed. Towards the end of the 1990s increased attention was paid to means of improving service delivery. Three important initiatives in this regard were Batho Pele (1997), the adoption of eight nationwide principles for better service delivery; a public private partnerships initiative (2000) and the promotion of alternative service delivery. While alternative service delivery initiatives are largely at pilot stage, they offer a promising alternative both to traditional bureaucracy (with its cost and poor service delivery focus) and to a narrow version of privatisation (which could involve heavy social costs, job losses, and regressive redistribution of wealth). This paper reviews these developments and outlines some promising alternative service delivery pilot projects.

The purpose of this study is to explore the variables most often associated with customer dissatisfaction and to discern which variables result in customer defection. Identification of these variables can aid managers as they develop strategies to prevent their occurrence.

This exploratory study examined customer service dissatisfaction from a respondent group of customer service representatives employed by a call center. These employees deal with customers as their exclusive job function and are trained to correct customer concerns. The customer service respondents were surveyed and asked to list their top service complaints. From this list they were also asked to indicate the top ranked poor service issue that would cause them, as customers, to defect and select a competitor to provide a substitute product or service.

Results of the study parallel those in other customer dissatisfaction research and indicate interesting characteristics of customer dissatisfaction arising from service failure. Interestingly, the top four categories (rude employees/poor attitudes; overall poor service; employees socializing and not paying attention to customers; and slow service) were noted most often as service problems by respondents and also ranked as the top reasons for defection. Areas for future research are also considered.

By understanding and anticipating poor service delivery, managers can regard these complaint categories as critical market research information. In addition, such information may help managers anticipate customer needs. They can re‐structure service experiences and train employees to avoid problem behaviors and actions.

While past research has focused on end‐user customers and their dissatisfaction, this research considers the opinions of consumers who are trained in, and work in, customer service.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze citizen satisfaction with public service delivery in the Sedibeng district municipality of South Africa. The municipality consists of three local municipalities, Lesedi, Emfuleni and Midvaal.

The sampling procedure was carefully designed, taking into account the spatial distribution of the population in the Sedibeng district municipality and the three local municipalities. A structured sample of 1,000 respondents was used for the study and descriptive and inferential statistics approaches were used. The focus was on citizen satisfaction with public service delivery in health care, housing, water, electricity, solid waste removal, community services or overall physical appearance of the community, cutting crimes and job creation.

Respondents are most dissatisfied with roads maintenance, government efforts to create jobs and reduce crime. Respondents from Emfuleni local municipality hold more positive feelings about public service delivery in the area of water, electricity, and solid waste. Their most negative feeling is in the area of job creation, roads and the municipality's efforts in cutting down on crime. On balance, respondents from Lesedi hold positive feelings about public service delivery only in the area of water and electricity supplies. Similarly, their most negative feelings are in the area of job creation, roads, and the municipality's efforts in cutting crime. Respondents from Midvaal do not hold positive feelings about public service delivery in their local municipality. Similar to other two local municipalities, their most negative feelings are in the area of job creation, roads, and the municipality's efforts in cutting crime. Overall, the most negative sentiment about public service delivery has been expressed by respondents from Midvaal, followed by Emfuleni and Lesedi.

It is important for public service delivery in Sedibeng municipality to improve so that citizens' public confidence can rise.

Throughout Africa, governments have been entrusted to finance and provide basic services such as health, education, telecommunications, safe water and modern sanitation. Adequate access to these services enhances development. Public services are a key determinant of quality of life that is not measured in per capita income. They are also an important element of any poverty reduction strategy. Thus, improving public service delivery is one of the biggest challenges in the continent.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the major long‐term role that hands‐on entrepreneurship training could play in poverty alleviation and job creation in one of the poorest regions of South Africa – the Eastern Free State (EFS). This is done against a background of frequently occurring violent protests against the inadequacy of the government's hand‐out poverty alleviation strategy of social grants, free houses and free social services.

The paper uses desk research and quantitative analysis of survey data collected from the Phuthaditjhaba area of Qwaqwa in the EFS.

The poverty indicators confirm the accepted view of the Free State as one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, which makes Qwaqwa, the poorest part of the Free State, a real human plight. While government hand‐out poverty alleviation measures, with their unintended consequences of violent protests and demonstrations, may only help some of the poor in the short term, training in entrepreneurship and provision of other facilities could give poor owners of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) opportunities to grow their businesses and get themselves and other out of poverty. Furthermore, as a result of a huge communication gap, MSE operators in Phuthaditjhaba, the commercial hub of Qwaqwa, do not even know of government agencies charged with the responsible of assisting small business operators in the area. Though they lack the finance and other endowments required to grow their businesses, the experience has given MSE operators some ideas about the kind of assistance that may help in this regard and even make it possible for them to provide employment for others – finance, government support, infrastructure and premises, training, etc.

As shown by the findings of a study sponsored by the Maluti‐A‐Phofung local municipality, there is potential for growth of small businesses in many areas of the EFS economy. Training of survivalist entrepreneurs and other poor persons with potential could open their eyes to opportunities around them which they could take advantage of to improve their economic situation and that of other poor persons in the area through job creation.

In addition to highlighting the shortcomings of the current poverty alleviation strategy of the South African Government, this is the first study that brings entrepreneurship training to the fore in the fight against poverty in the EFS.

Key components of the logistics mix are described in an effort to create an understanding of the total logistics concept. Chapters include an introduction to logistics; the strategic role of logistics, customer service levels, channel relationships, facilities location, transport, inventory management, materials handling, interface with production, purchasing and materials management, estimating demand, order processing, systems performance, leadership and team building, business resource management.

A strategic plan is a document used to communicate an organisation’s goals and the actions needed to achieve those goals. Strategic planning in public organisations promotes timely decisions, enhances the management of limited resources in a more rational manner, improves service delivery and induces greater satisfaction of customers. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to critically examine the strategic planning challenges facing the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS), and how these impact organisational performance; second, to identify strategies that can be implemented to enhance strategic planning and performance management in the DTPS.

This paper used a qualitative case study design with the aid of document analysis to provide insight into the research questions.

The paper concludes that public institutions such as the DTPS face a plethora of challenges that militate against successful strategic planning and implementation. A major challenge is resistance to change arising from a desire to maintain the status quo. This paper argues that it is important to promote strategic planning, and aligning organisational objectives with performance in public institutions.

This study is based on documentary research and therefore its findings may lack current findings that would have emerged from direct interviews.

This research contributes towards efforts being made to make strategic planning and implementation effective and credible in public institutions especially in sub Saharan Africa.

In many South African public institutions, strategic planning is viewed as the work of top management, a misconception which compromises service delivery. In addition, strategic planning has been implemented as a direct attempt to inhibit poor budgetary planning and corruption in procurement systems, and in order to effectively manage public resources. There is a need for the department to conduct regular skills development programmes, uproot top-level bureaucracy, and increase innovation, monitoring and evaluation of organisational activities.

This study anchoring on the theory of conservation of resources examines the relationship between family incivility, negative rumination and service delivery. This study also analyses the mediating role of negative rumination in the relationship between family incivility and service delivery. This study also examines psychological capital and perceived organisational support (POS) as boundary conditions influencing the relationships postulated in the study.

To test the relationships among the variables, responses were drawn from 419 frontline hotel employees at two-time points and the hypothesised relationships were tested using structural equation modelling.

The structural equation modelling analysis proved that family incivility is negatively related to service delivery. It was also found that family incivility is positively associated with negative rumination and an inverse relationship between negative rumination and service delivery. This study also found support for the mediating role of negative rumination and the moderating roles of psychological capital and perceived organisational support.

This study findings extend the theory and provide guidelines for managers to mitigate the adverse effect of family incivility on employees and their service delivery. Employees and managers can use psychological capital and POS as strategies to prevent the spill-over effect of family incivility on service delivery.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior studies have examined the effect of family incivility on service delivery. By establishing the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions, this study adds value to the theory and practice.