South Africa: Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust

Executive Director: Rhoda Kadalie
Senior Administrator: Yasmina Shabodien
Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust
P.O. Box 1739
Cape Town 8000
South Africa

Phone: (27 21) 461-7383
Fax: (27 21) 461-1340
E-mail: info@impumelelo.org.za
Web site: http://www.impumelelo.org.za/

In 2000, after South Africa held its first local government election, the arduous process of restructuring the country’s services began. The incorporation of black areas into white areas took its toll on service delivery, given that the white areas had excellent access to public resources while the black areas were poorly managed and funded. The constitution empowers local governments to provide potable water, sewage, and waste management, local and environmental health, and economic and social development. Expenditures of the nation’s 283 municipalities now account for 21% of total government expenditures.

In recent years, local government has been criticized for inefficiency, poor infrastructure, corruption, and weak financial management. This has been compounded by South Africa’s proportional representation electoral system, which holds parties responsible for service delivery rather than elected officials. Citizen participation remains arbitrary at best, and quality control is a major source of grievance among local communities.

Impumelelo seeks to encourage innovation and improvement in service delivery through a rigorous evaluation of applicants, assessing programs for their degree of citizen participation, political competition, institutionalized budgeting, partnerships with other government authorities, anti-corruption measures, and capacity for sustainability and replication.

Impumelelo’s case studies are used as training materials to reinforce the importance of efficient and effective service delivery. Education is a cornerstone of Impumelelo’s work: the program has held workshops in public works, housing, sanitation, waste management, environment and conservation, HIV/AIDS, and criminal.

Rhoda Kadalie is the executive director of the Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust. Prior to joining Impumelelo, she was a human rights commissioner for the Western Cape and Northern Cape. Ms. Kadalie is also an academic, and the founder of the Gender Equity Unit at the University of the Western Cape. She has traveled extensively, presenting lectures and papers on human rights and gender politics in South Africa at conferences across the world. In 1999, Ms. Kadalie received an honorary doctorate in liberal arts from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.