The Management Competency of Senior Local Government Managers in the Western Cape, South Africa

<p dir="ltr">The local government sphere in South Africa has opted to professionalise senior positions by adopting a core set of competencies for staff. The minimum standard was decided on regulated and introduced as a process of mandatory training contained in National Treasury Regulation number 493, (RSA, Government Gazette 29967, 2007) promulgated in terms of Sections 83, 107 and 119 of the Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) 56 of 2003 and the Municipal Regulations on Minimum Competency Levels (2013). The system introduced was to set compulsory competency requirements called the Municipal Minimum Competency Framework for the occupation of senior management positions. The implementation of the regulation took effect in 2007 with the intention of being applicable to municipal accounting officers, chief financial officers, senior managers, other financial officials, heads of supply chain management and supply chain management officials. This study explored the relevance and impact of the competency framework on specific categories of employees in the local government sphere and whether these competencies facilitated delivery of fair and equitable services to communities. A mixed methods approach was adopted, which included the following methods: integrating qualitative and quantitative research techniques, documents review, focus groups discussion, semi-structured interviews, and an open-ended questionnaire survey. The research found that despite the training intervention called Municipal Minimum Competency Training, which had been linked to professionalisation, it cannot be regarded as having achieved its objective in practice. No clear link could be established between senior managers receiving this training and improved audit performance. Training and development should assume an individualistic approach to bring about superior performance in local government. It is recommended that the MMC training should be linked to the occupational category of chief financial managers and supply chain officers to strengthen municipal accounting and finance to with a view to implementing financial reforms prescribed in the Municipal Financial Management Act. It is further recommended that a new system of updating and ensuring that all senior managers stay abreast with professional standards be introduced having them belong to an appropriate professional body leading the practice on all new developments and providing training as required specifically to local government. While occupational fields will always form part of the professional requirement, a point system for training needs to be implemented to meet practice developments. This would emphasise training to support occupational categories to improve individuals’ needs for superior performance in the respective categories of appointment with the necessary qualifications, years of experience and correct attitude.</p>