Implementation of the District Development Model in South Africa

Poor service delivery has become a major challenge for the South African government, with the majority of municipalities failing to deliver basic services to their communities. A key reason for this is the tendency of government - at national, provincial and local levels - to operate in silos. The effects of this are felt most acutely in the local sphere of government. For example, different governance functions are not being integrated and key stakeholders are not being consulted about or included in decisions taken by politicians and government officials. Against this background, a new model of governance, the District Development Model (DDM), was introduced and adopted by the Cabinet on 21 August 2019 to improve cooperative governance and enhance service delivery. Based on an extensive governance literature review in South Africa, a review of district development approaches in various countries in Africa and beyond, and a survey of and interviews with stakeholders involved in the implementation of the DDM in three pilot districts in South Africa: the Waterberg, Limpopo, eThekwini, KwaZuluNatal, O.R. Tambo, and the Eastern Cape. This policy brief advocates for a thorough evaluation of the implementation of the model to date escalated to all 44 districts and eight metropolitan areas (52 spaces) in the country.