F1000Research F1000Research 2046-1402 F1000 Research Limited London, UK 10.12688/f1000research.170338.1 Research Article Articles The Impact of Government Transparency and Accountability on Community Trust: Evidence from Local municipalities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

[version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]

 Lungani Rudolph Makhathini Conceptualization Data Curation Formal Analysis Investigation Methodology Project Administration https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2272-1923 a 1 Aliamutu Kansilembo Resources Software Supervision Validation Visualization Writing – Original Draft Preparation Writing – Review & Editing https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3870-7549 1 2 Accounting and Law, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Jacobs, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Department of Auditing, College of Accounting Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa lunganim@mut.ac.za

No competing interests were disclosed.

 7 4 2026 2026 15 486 12 3 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Lungani Rudolph M and Aliamutu K 2026 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Trust in local government is central to effective public governance, yet many South African municipalities continue to face challenges related to poor accountability, limited transparency and inadequate administrative capacity. These issues have contributed to declining community confidence. This study explored how competency, organisational commitment, accountability and transparency influence community trust in selected local municipalities within KwaZulu-Natal. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted four municipalities representing different developmental context. Respondents included municipal administers and members of consultative councils. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire measuring competency, organisational commitment, accountability, transparency, and community trust. Partial least squares analysis was employed due to the small sample size and the exploratory nature of the relationships explored. Validity and reliability tests were performed prior to hypothesis testing. Competency and organisational commitment were both positively associated with accountability between municipal personnel. However, organisational commitment did not show a significantly linked to transparency. Transparency emerged as the strongest and only significant predictor of community trust. Descriptive result revealed relatively low levels of staff competency despite widespread training initiatives, while transparency practices scored higher, influenced in part by regular pressures. The findings indicate that although improved competency and organisational commitment can enhance accountability in local municipalities, transparency play a much more decisive role in shaping community trust. Efforts to strengthen trust should therefore prioritise clear, accessible, and proactive disclosure of municipal activities, budgets and performance results. At the same time, targeted capacity-building initiatives remain essential to improve accountability mechanisms. Future research should consider larger, multi-provincial samples and longitudinal designs to better understand the causal pathways between governance practices and public trust.

 Local municipality accountability transparency community trust None None The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. 1. Introduction

Trust remains a central tenet of effective governance, as it enables citizens to have confidence in the institutions and leaders that serve them ( Zindi, 2024). Kraai et al. (2023) and Zindi (2024 highlight transparency and accountability in public governance as foundational to developing trust amongst stakeholders, especially citizens. Regrettably, the pervasiveness and persistence of corruption and financial mismanagement amongst government officials has eroded the trust of citizens in many developing nations, impacting the stability and legitimacy of many governments ( Krah and Mertens, 2023). When corruption predominates, institutions become opaque and accountability systems are weakened or even captured, allowing corruption to flourish to the disdain of citizens. This often leads to many citizens losing their faith in their leaders and institutions, creating an environment of widespread disillusionment and skepticism with political process and government, and social unrest. Many studies have since been conducted to explore practices and principles that need to be applied to restore the public’s trust in government. Kraai et al. (2023) and Zindi (2024) have specifically highlighted governmental transparency and accountability respectively, as key to restoring the trust of communities in government institutions and its leaders.

The apartheid government in South Africa was largely unaccountable and lacked transparency; hence, in the country’s transition to democracy, many institutional reforms and laws were tabled to establish a more decentralised system of government, to promote participation, accountability, equity and effective service delivery ( Krah and Mertens, 2023). A key framework that was enacted in the project of decentalisation was the three-tier governance system, namely, national, provincial and local level ( Abioro, 2021). In this framework, local level (municipalities) serves as the key touchpoint of citizens and government, providing most of the essential services that citizens need. Thus, they essentially act as the ‘face’ of government in the eyes of the people, as this is the level of government most citizens interact with. Legal frameworks include the Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000) and the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) (No. 56 of 2003), which have allowed municipalities to operate more autonomously, so as to respond to community demands more promptly and efficiently ( Zindi, 2024). These measures, at least in theory, enable local governments to manage local resources, uphold financial discipline, and foster openness and accountability in theory.

Municipalities that satisfy governance and financial compliance standards are categorised into several classifications, namely, category A, B, and C, which dictate their functions and eligibility for fair share distributions and conditional payments from the national government ( Berliner and Wehner, 2022). Although the budgets designated for municipalities may seem small in comparison to other countries, they are often sufficient for maintaining infrastructure development, service provision, and increasing local employment ( Msenge and Nzewi, 2021). The National Treasury reports that allocations to local government have consistently risen, increasing from R87.3 billion in 2015/16 to over R133 billion by 2019/20, representing almost 9% of total national budget spending.

Notwithstanding these positive initiatives and reforms, debate has emerged over the effectiveness of decentralisation, with detractors contending that enhanced autonomy has, in certain instances, resulted in heightened occurrences of maladministration and corruption ( Arkorful et al., 2021). Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) reports have shown persistent irregular, pointless, and wasteful spending in several municipalities, resulting in significant financial losses and diminishing public trust ( Abioro, 2021). In the 2018/19 audit cycle, just 8% of municipalities received clean audits, revealing financial mismanagement and inadequate accountability. Such reports are touted to have had devastating impacts of both investor confidence and citizens trust, which are elements that are both pivotal meeting the developmental objectives of municipalities and the successful execution of Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and service delivery programs ( Berliner and Wehner, 2022).

A cooperative partnership between municipal administrations and local communities promotes more transparency, improves public involvement, and expedites inclusive local economic growth. Pratolo et al. (2022) assert that enhancing community trust at all governmental levels is essential for the efficient implementation of policies and programs. Consequently, effective governance processes must be instituted even at the local municipality level. Moreover, governance controls are crucial in ensuring that the considerable amount of local municipality money allocated will be effectively handled and may yield additional value, both for the growth of local municipalities particularly and for the state overall ( Kanyane et al., 2022). Regrettably, numerous reports indicate that assets within local municipality administrations, particularly human, organisational, and technology resources, remain underdeveloped and are constrained by several limits ( Brás and Dowley, 2021). Moreover, there is an element of environmental ambiguity arising from disputes between particular restrictions, including the new local municipality law and the rules enacted by the Minister of Home Affairs regarding local municipality governance, exacerbating the confusion among local municipality personnel in implementing effective governance practices, particularly concerning accountability ( Ríos et al., 2024). Another challenge is the difficulties encountered by local municipalities in creating financial reports that are responsible to their sources of financing, specifically the federal, regional, and district governments, each of which has distinct regulations and templates for their respective reports. The swift technological transformation mandated by the new local municipality legislation poses a significant challenge for local municipality administrations to implement.

In light of the identified issues, it is imperative to do research on effective governance practices in local municipality administrations throughout the new local municipality law era, with a specific focus on accountability and transparency. Accountability as well as transparency are the primary components of effective governance that may mitigate financial mismanagement. Implementing robust accountability and transparency policies is anticipated to enhance community trust in local municipality administrations ( Mnguni and Subban, 2022). Regrettably, governance processes in local municipality administrations have garnered minimal research interest. Research investigating the effects of accountability and transparency strategies on community trust is similarly scarce ( Mensah et al., 2023).

While there are a litany of studies examining governance and trust at national or even state (provincial) levels, relatively few studies focus on local municipalities as a unit of analysis. Even fewer studies have examined the combined effect of transparency, accountability and related organisational factors such as expertise and organisational commitment on citizen trust. This is a significant gap as local municipalities are the most direct point of contact between citizens and government; hence, their performance largely shapes the perception of citizens about government as a whole.

This study seeks to address the aforementioned gap by analysing the roles of accountability, transparency and related internal institutional factors in building trust among communities in local municipalities. By providing empirical evidence at a local level, the research study aims to contribute to both the academic understanding and practical policymaking on creating governance climates that promote practices that build and sustain citizen trust.

 2. Literature review 2.1 Local municipality governance in south africa

Local are catalyst of community development and economic growth when they are accountable and transparent in their operations. Regrettably, Benito et al. (2021) notes that local municipalities in South Africa generally demonstrate poor transparency and accountability in the governance, especially with regards to finance, which is key to service delivery. Some of the troubling accounts Benito et al. (2021) mentions include a case where local municipality finances were exclusively administered by the local municipality leader and thirty-three representatives of the local municipality consultation council, without allowing for citizen engagement in the administration process. Moreover, the local municipality member vote was executed in a non-democratic manner, according to centralised (inherited) principles. Such cases would undoubtedly jeopardise local municipality governance, potentially leading to loses of revenue and financial mismanagement. Naraidoo and Sobhee (2021) made similar reports, asserting that local municipality administrations are often not transparent in how they handle the local municipality budget and growth program, resulting in the community’s ignorance regarding the budget quantity and its utilisation. Masuku et al. (2022) discovered that the monitoring mechanism operated by a specific local municipality advisory council, intended to supervise the local municipality administration, was highly ineffective, and that community engagement was absent, suggesting that the local populace is hardly included in the formulation of municipal policies. Furthermore, regarding accountability, the local municipality ‘s accounting process was conducted solely to fulfil formal legal obligations rather than to ensure authentic accountability to the small community.

Ngqobe et al. (2021) states that skills capacity is also often an issue in local municipality workforces, including local municipality heads, which is a significant impediment to the effective implementation of policy and the formulation of strategic initiatives. This, in turn, contributes to inadequate oversight and transparency in local municipality reporting of finances. Masiya et al. (2021) made a similar observation, stating that the prevalence of financial mismanagement was largely due to the inadequate expertise of staff. Thusi et al. (2023) similarly identified this problem when examining local accountability in several local municipality administrations in East Java.

Maleka and Moeti (2021) stated that the primary constraints hindering the execution of effective governance in local municipality administration is the proficiency of human resources and the organisational dedication of the local municipality head and personnel. These factors were used as predictors of transparency and accountability in this governance: competency and organisational commitment of local municipality personnel.

Furthermore, we investigated the influence of accountability and transparency on trust in the community, as proposed by Mohammed et al. (2024) in their research. Sethunya and Mlambo (2022) discovered that principles of accountability and transparency fostered community trust in the local municipality administration, which in turn motivated people to actively engage in the local municipality ‘s growth strategy. The partnership involving the local municipality and the community has resulted in certain local municipality being designated as exemplary and serving as standards for another local municipality in South Africa.

 2.2 Organisational commitment, accountability, and transparency

According to Mojapelo and Ngoepe (2021), organisational commitment is characterised as a personal stake in a company’s success. In the public sector context, governmental institutions are fundamentally dedicated to implementing effective governance, necessitating organisational commitment for success. A substantial amount of research reveals that organisational commitment; encompassing performance, responsibility, and transparency is a crucial determinant of an organisation’s ability to attain its objectives. Boboyeva (2025) discovered a favourable correlation between relational governance and oganisational commitment in privately owned firms. Hofisi and Chigova (2023) assert that accountability and transparency in local municipalities in particular are significantly improved when senior management demonstrates complete commitment. In such contexts, both government officials and the community often collaborate towards the shared aim of fulfilling the local municipality’s programming and governance objectives.

The subsequent hypothesis was proposed based on these findings:

A positive association exists between organisational commitment and responsibility.

Transparency is positively correlated with organisational commitment.

2.3 Exhibiting trustworthiness, transparency, and accountability

According to Boufounou et al. (2024), government organisations are held responsible for providing information regarding their operations, programs, and performance, encompassing both financial and non-financial elements. The local municipality administration must prepare financial and performance reports with accuracy and integrity to mitigate information asymmetry about financial management. The local municipality serves its communities through open processes if accountability is established, and robust accountability and transparency are anticipated to enhance the community’s trust. Local municipality administration is perceived to have fulfilled its commitments if it met the expectations of the residents as well as the federal, provincial, and regency governments that provided funding.

Communities will exhibit greater trust in the local government when its websites, announcements, and information boards proficiently communicate accountability to the public. According to McKenzie and Marx (2024), accountability enhances the transparency of local administrations. Jung (2022) observed that public stakeholders’ trust in local government is enhanced by the openness and accountability of regional financial management.

Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed:

Transparency is positively correlated with accountability. Confidence in one’s community correlates favourably with responsibility.

Xin et al. (2023) assert that equitable access to information between the government and the community will result in diminished opportunistic conduct by the government and reduced community confidence in governmental trustworthiness. The preparation of high-quality financial reports with enhanced openness signifies successful corporate governance procedures in public companies. The public’s trust in the government is seen to increase with greater transparency. Research by Tshuma et al. (2024) indicates that governmental transparency is a crucial determinant of community trust. Individuals trust government institutions more when they exhibit transparency and integrity, since they perceive these entities to be less prone to unethical conduct. Maramura and Shava (2021) discovered that individuals’ faith in local governments augmented when they felt heightened transparency, accountability, and responsiveness.

In light of these data, the subsequent hypothesis appears to be a plausible option:

A robust correlation exists between transparency and trust within the community.

To clarify, accountability and transparency are only standard exogenous variables, despite their appearance as intervening factors inside the conceptual framework. The lack of substantial references and support hindered the formulation of the interim hypothesis. Only the arrows are necessary to discern the sequence in which the variables are interconnected.

 2.4 Conceptual framework

The theoretical framework for this research was developed using “new” institutional theory, particularly concerning institutional isomorphism and stakeholder theory. Isomorphism denotes the tendency of organisations to act uniformly due to their acceptance of particular policies, which in this context is local municipality governance policies. This process of convergence can be categorised into three mechanisms: coercive, mimetic, and accepted, which delineate how policies are adopted and the responses elicited by these policies within companies ( Hutete and Sibanda, 2022). Coercive isomorphism refers to pressures imposed by external entities, whereas mimetic isomorphism involves organisations adopting policies by emulating other organisations perceived as effective. Normative isomorphism transpires when organisations endeavour to apply certain policies in attempts to improve organisational performance due to demand from professionals or academics within the entity ( Thusi and Selepe, 2023). Consequently, normative isomorphism arises from two fundamental elements: formal education and professionalism, both linked to competence.

From an institutional standpoint, the local municipality administration, as a subordinate body of the central government, inherently faces pressure in the institutionalisation of governance procedures as stipulated by several statutes. Nonetheless, institutionalising of effective governance practices, particularly accountability and transparency, would not enhance organisational value if the isomorphic process ceases at the stage of compulsion ( Mohangi and Nyika, 2023). Therefore, normative isomorphism in public institutions is essential for ensuring that the measures taken, result in the desired qualities. Literature suggests that challenges of good governance in local municipality administration are intricately linked to human resource matters, particularly ability and loyalty, which might be correlated with normative isomorphism concerns. Consequently, this particular form of isomorphism is the central focus of our research. Mamokhere (2022) discovered that managerial commitment contributes is an element of competence and is positively correlated with ethical isomorphism, which relates to the formulation of novel public administration policies, namely performance assessment systems in local government.

Furthermore, Mamokhere and Kgobe (2023) found that the acceptance of new policies for adopting performance assessment systems in local government in South Africa was influenced by employee competency linked to normative isomorphism. In a different research context, Chiwawa and Wissink (2024) discovered that the intensity of the company’s dedication to partnership exhibited a stronger correlation with normative isomorphism, manifested through managers’ professional engagement and the extent of collaboration with proximate “flagship” news organisations and rivals.

Stakeholder theory underlies the connection between accountability, transparency (publication), and trust among community members. Stakeholder theory is a prominent framework in accounting and transparency research introduced by Gasela (2022). In the discipline of accounting studies, stakeholder theory is intricately linked to the role of transparency as a mechanism for signalling legitimacy to stakeholders.

Disclosing social activities in the firm’s finance and annual reports is a vital tactic to demonstrate the company’s dedication to ethical business conduct. According to stakeholder theory, organisations are inextricably linked to their social contexts. Organisations must uphold stakeholder legitimacy and integrate stakeholders into the policy and decision-making framework to facilitate the attainment of corporate objectives, including financial viability with assurances of continuity ( Gasela, 2022). While stakeholder theory originates from a private sector perspective, several researchers extend its application to the public sector. Public-sector administrators undertake their responsibilities for many motivations, such as the greater good, in contrast to their private-sector colleagues, who are primarily driven by the company’s continued existence or profit. Nonetheless, their decisions possess are equally significant in influencing people or groups striving to achieve their companies’ goals. Similarly, citizens may influence public managers and governmental companies, as they do in the business community.

Stakeholder scenarios in the public sector are analogous to those in the private sector from both instrumental and normative viewpoints ( Grawe et al., 2023). During an election, the communities may select a new leader based on the administration’s transparency about both financial and non-financial performance metrics. Maintaining community trust is essential for the incumbent local municipality head’s legitimacy and electoral viability in the forthcoming election. Consequently, instruments employed in the private sector may be adapted for application in the public sector, especially in domains such as transparency and accountability. Accountability and Competence (2.4) institutional policy, especially on transparency and accountability, is founded on knowledge acquired via formal education and extensive professional experience.

According to Nkgapele (2024) and Nyalungu et al. (2025), the financial accountability of government institutions is positively influenced by proficient employees. This aligns with Nyalungu et al. (2025) assertion that organisations may enhance their preparedness to meet accountability demands by acquiring competencies through HRD programs. Consequently, the subsequent theory is justifiable to propose: Accountability is positively correlated with individual competence. The conceptual framework below shows that: Competency → Accountability (H1 – Supported): The skills and capabilities of municipal personnel enhance their accountability in service delivery.

Organisational Commitment → Accountability (H2 – Supported): Employees exhibiting commitment to their organisation are more inclined to demonstrate accountability in their positions.

Organisational Commitment → Transparency (H3 – Not Supported): Despite being hypothesised, no significant direct correlation was found between commitment and transparency.

Accountability does not inherently result in transparency, as indicated by the study’s findings.

Accountability → Community Trust (H5 – Not Supported): Accountability, in isolation, did not markedly enhance community trust in this research. Transparency fosters community trust; when municipal activities are clear, residents are more inclined to trust the government. As shown in Figure 1 , the study’s conceptual framework links competency and organisational commitment to accountability and transparency, which in turn influence community trust.

Conceptual framework.

Source: Self-generated.

 3. Methodology 3.1 Data, Population and Sample

The population in this study consisted of municipal officials from various local municipalities from the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa. The South African Statistics Centre reports that the province of KwaZulu natal comprises 44 local municipalities. The optimal sample size is 28, as per the methodology established by Pasipamire and Muroyiwa (2024) for selecting sample sizes. The municipalities selected included Mtubatuba, Umdoni, Ndwedwe, and Mandeni, largely influenced by geographical factors. The local municipalities were also categorised by their developmental status as advanced, middle, or disadvantaged, based on the infrastructure and revenue.

Respondents were ordered into two groups, based on their roles and responsibilities within municipal governance structures. The first group comprised local municipality head, secretary, treasurer, and unit head were among the authorities who received the initial survey, which encompassed elements such as responsibility, proficiency, and commitment to the organisation. These respondents were selected because of their expert knowledge on governance processes. The second group consisted of members of the local municipality consultative councils who completed a survey on trust, transparency, and accountability. These respondents were chosen for their neutrality, as their independence would have been compromised if local official had been surveyed on both sets of constructs.

 3.2 Data collection process

This study was framed under the positivist paradigm and employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design with hypothesis testing. This design was deemed appropriate because it enabled the collection of perception-based data from multiple participants groups at a single point in time, with correlational analysis done for constructs such as organisational commitment, trust, transparency, and accountability.

The survey data was collected over a period five months, from September 2023 to January 2024. 150 questionnaires were sent to members of local municipality consultative councils and 150 to local government officials throughout 150 localities. The selected respondents were approached at their workplaces, so assuring a high response rate. Upon the elimination of incomplete surveys, we retained a viable sample of 120 couples, constituting 65.65% of the population, sourced from 32 municipalities administrations.

A sample size of 128 was deemed enough for this investigation. The research instruments were derived from three sources: Fourie and Van der Waldt (2021) for organisational commitment, Al-Naser and Hamdan (2021) for municipal government personnel competency, and Paranata (2022) for transparency, accountability, and community trust. All components were included in the research questionnaire. The initial segment of the study examined demographic data and responder attributes concerning the educational qualifications and training of all municipality’s council and administration workers.

To ensure validity and reliability, we followed a rigours multi-stage. First, the survey instruments were reviewed by five senior survey researchers, whose feedback informed revisions to the wording, sequence, and structure of questions. Secondly, the questionnaire underwent a pilot test including 27 municipalities administrations in Mtubatuba municipalities to confirm clarity and content validity. We requested the pilot responders to complete the survey and provide their feedback. After data collection, we enhanced the questionnaire by modifying the phrasing, organisation, and sequence of questions according to their complexity.

Thirdly, the psychometric soundness of the final questionnaire was tested statistically, ensuring construct validity and internal reliability prior to hypothesis testing. Each survey item was converted into a sequence of statements. This enabled the utilisation of a five-point Likert scale, with 1 signifying strong disagreement and 5 indicating strong agreement, to assess all parameters. Gatekeeper permission were obtained from municipal authorities prior to data collection. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for the purpose of procedures and voluntary participation in the study. Anonymity was ensured with all data securely stored and reported in aggregate from only.

 3.3 Analysis technique

The analysis utilised Partial Least Squares (PLS), an appropriate method for this study owing to its minimal sample size requirements, low data assumptions and flexibility for research without robust theoretical foundations ( Fosu and Hlungulu-Feketshane, 2025). Finally, ethical consideration was strictly observed. A minimum sample size of ten times the highest number of inner or outer model links aimed at any latent variable inside the model is necessary for partial least squares (PLS) analysis, as stated by Abbasov (2025). Due to organisational commitment being a latent variable with up to ten potential manifestations, Cifuentes-Faura et al. (2023) advises a minimum sample size of one hundred (10 x 10).

The indicators of the research variables were the emphasis of the questions in the latter section of the questionnaire. In accordance with the recommendations of Fosu and Hlungulu-Feketshane (2025), we sought the insights of five expert survey researchers prior to executing the field survey. We solicited their feedback on potential enhancements to the questionnaires. We amended the instructions, terminology, syntax, quantity of questions, and the length of each question in response to their input, so enhancing the questionnaire.

 4. Result and discussion 4.1 Sample characteristics

Table 1 presents the demographics of the sample and respondents, categorising each group based on their role, educational attainment, and participation in structured training. Table 1 presents the proportions of local municipality officials with bachelor’s degrees 581 (29.35%) and master’s degrees 33 (1.67%). Individuals possessing master’s and bachelor’s degrees are seeking employment inside the local municipality. Although these figures constitute a little fraction of the workforce, 999 individuals (50.48%) have attained merely a high school education, reflecting an enhancement compared to the conditions of the previous local municipality law period ( Grawe et al., 2023). The demand for more educated and proficient local municipality personnel emerged due to modifications in legislation regarding local autonomy and governance.

Demographics of the respondents.
No Attribute Mtubatuba Umdoni Ndwedwe Mandeni Total %
1 Respondent Positions within Local Government (Population Count)
Community leader 1 3 5 11 20 16.66
Community administrator 5 6 14 9 34 28.33
Financial Officer 1 2 1 1 5 4.16
Department leader 10 9 10 9 38 31.66
Not specified 7 9 3 4 23 19,16
Total 27 29 33 34 120 100.00
2 Educational Attainment of Community Personnel (Number of Individuals)
Primary education 1 5 3 2 11 0.55
Junior high school 8 29 38 45 120 6.06
senior high school 245 259 197 298 999 50.48
Diploma 48 59 49 57 213 10.76
Bachelor’s degree 125 189 99 168 581 29.35
Master’s degree 19 7 5 2 33 1.67
Not specified 9 9 3 1 22 1.11
Total 455 528 394 458 1979 100.00
3 Learning (local municipality Numbers)
local municipality Management 15 13 20 34 82 100.00
Financial administration 15 13 20 34 82 100.00
Financial reporting 15 13 20 34 82 100.00
Technological information Others: 15 13 20 34 82 100.00
local municipality Strategic Management 2
Taxation 2
internal community rules creation 2 1
Resource administration 2 2 1
Prevention of catastrophes 2 2 2
Health local municipality 1 2
Ethical local municipality 1
Training for employees 2 2
Training for enhancement of employee efficiency 1
Total local municipality Administration as a Case Study 15 (11.56%) 13 (9,68%) 20 (15,21%) 34 (43,55%) 82 100.00

To meet policy mandates regarding qualifications, local municipality administrations have employed recent college graduates and facilitated further education for current personnel at various institutions. The quantity of necessary training opportunities for local municipality personnel attained a flawless score of 100%. The choices encompassed subjects like information technology, budget management, financial reporting, and local municipality administration. Additionally, in various locations, one may encounter other supplementary classes. These findings indicate that initiatives are underway to enhance the administration and governance of the local municipality by elevating the competencies of its personnel ( Gasela, 2022).

 4.2 Descriptive statistics

This study employed descriptive statistics to illustrate the present condition of managing the five aspects: competence, organisational commitment, accountability, transparency, and community trust. The data may have been influenced by common method variance (CMV) due to its self-reported nature. To ascertain the magnitude of this phenomenon, the Harmanone-factor test was conducted. According to Ismail et al. (2022), if a single latent variable accounts for over 50% of the explained variation, common method bias emerges as an issue. The first component represented just 18.15% of the variance, as indicated by the findings of the CMV test and the un-rotated component analysis. Consequently, the current investigation did not substantially concern itself with prevalent procedural bias. Notwithstanding assertions that this does not undermine the conclusions, other studies have indicated CMV rates ranging from 23 to 26%.

Moreover, Table 2 reveals that the mean values of the five variables demonstrate a good level, as they approximate a scale value of 4. The clarity variable has the greatest value of 3.79. It indicates that nearly all local municipalities in KwaZulu natal disseminate details regarding their duties, money, and accomplishments using diverse media, such as local municipalities websites, advertisements, and verbal communication at community gatherings.

Descriptive statistics.
Construct Minimum Maximum Mean Std. deviation
Competency 1.72 4.00 2.73 0.27
Community trust 1.58 4.00 2.86 0.39
Accountability 1.45 4.00 3.52 0.26
Organisational Responsibility 2.18 4.00 3.68 0.24
Clarity 1.27 4.00 3.79 0.52

Note: N = 82 local municipalities

The competency variable has a low average value, barely surpassing four on the rating system. We discovered that, in the present period, several individuals had undergraduate and graduate degrees in local municipality governance, either through official education or efforts to recruit. Notwithstanding extensive training, the average competency score of local municipality workers is just 2.73. The limited education of most local municipality officials, mostly at the senior and junior high school levels, suggests that the training programs have not effectively improved the competency of local municipality personnel.

These results should be an important priority for local municipality, lawmakers, and legislators in their efforts to improve the proficiency of local government personnel ( Mamokhere et al., 2022). The research intends to investigate the stated theories. We evaluated the data with PLS. Despite the survey being piloted to guarantee robust outcomes, we reassessed the validity and reliability of the instrument prior to hypothesis testing. It sought to enhance the trust in the validity and reliability of the measures.

 4.3 Validity testing

4.3.1 Construct validity

Construct validation seeks to evaluate the extent to which the outcomes derived from the measurement align with the theoretical frameworks for which the test was developed. Consequently, we examined the loading and the cross-loading scores, employing 0.5 as a heuristic standard. In the initial assessment, we discovered that many concept scores did not conform to the established guideline. Consequently, we eliminated the following: Comp1, Comp3, Comp4, Orgcom1, Orgcom2, Orgcom3, Orgcom4, Orgcom5, Acc1, Acc2, Acc5, Acc6, and Trust3. Subsequent to their removal, we re-evaluated the data. Table 3 indicates that all the other items associated with a specific construct had strong loadings for that construct and lower loadings for alternative constructs, hence affirming construct validity.

Loaded and cross-loaded scores.
Metric Accountability Competence Organisational commitment Clarity Community trust
Acc3 0.813 0.410 0.515 0.002 0.071
Acc4 0.778 0.401 0.425 0.025 0.211
Comp2 0.318 0.642 0.442 0.125 0.052
Comp5 0.421 0.751 0.401 0.054 −0.025
Comp6 0.311 0.705 0.575 0.000 0.112
Orgcom7 0.356 0.352 0.654 −0.013 0.024
Orgcom8 0.376 0.254 0.715 −0.012 0.245
Orgcom9 0.457 0.425 0.705 0.045 0.062
Trans1 0.124 0.458 0.034 0.056 0.254
Trans2 −0.004 0.425 −0.006 0.654 0.210
Trans3 −0.022 0.012 −0.025 0.352 0.754
Trust1 0.071 −0.041 0.100 0.247 0.798
Trust2 0.025 −0.003 0.057 0.234 0.574
Trust4 0.079 0.023 0.123 0.245 0.625
Trust5 0.012 0.013 −0.042 0.231 0.426

Note: Values are the loadings for goods that exceed the suggested threshold of 0.5.

4.2.2 Convergent validity

Subsequently, we assessed convergent validity, which refers to the extent to which many items intended for assessing the same construct are in concordance. According to Hair et al. (2010), we employed factor loading and average variance extracted (AVE) for testing. According to Table 4, the load values for every component are above the suggested threshold of 0.5. Every single item had an AVE score that conformed to the established criterion of exceeding 0.5 ( Fosu and Hlungulu-Feketshane, 2025).

Results of the evaluation model.
Construct Code Loaded Goods AVE
Competency Comp2 0.646 Technological skill 0.521
Comp5 0.741 Ability to complete task
Comp6 0.734 capacity for self-development
Organisational commitment Orgcom6 0.524 satisfaction in belonging to a community 0.425
Orgcom7 0.654 awareness over the issues encountered by the community
Orgcom8 0.726 Determination in attaining local municipality performance goals to deliver optimal outcomes for the local municipality and community.
Accountability Acc3 0.725 Comprehensive accounting documents 0.745
Acc4 0.824 prompt financial statements
Clarity Cla1 0.754 clarity in the administration of local municipality finances (expenses) 0.522
Cla2 0.652 Clarity over local municipality achievements
Cla3 0.655
Community trust Trust1 0.754 Trust in society 0.513
Trust2 0.654 Society confidence
Trust4 0.524 Society contentment
Trust5 0.452 society adherence

Note: AVE average variance Extracted

4.2.3 Discriminatory validity

The discriminant validity of the measurements, defined as the extent to which elements distinguish across constructs or evaluate distinct notions, was evaluated by analysing the correlations among the metrics, which is of possibly overlapped constructs. According to Table 5, the correlation value of the construct with itself is superior than that of other constructs; thus, this criteria is also satisfied ( Molina Rodríguez-Navas et al., 2021).

Discriminant validity.
Construct Acc Comp Orgcom Cla Trus
Accountability 0.786
Competency 0.451 0.718
Organisational commitment 0.521 0.513 0.652
Clarity 0.016 0.075 0.000 0.721
Community trust 0.100 0.024 0.082 0.371 0.681

Note: Diagonals denote the root of average variance extracted (AVE), whilst the remaining columns signify the squared correlations.

 4.4 Reliability testing

To evaluate the variability between each of our measuring items, we employed Cronbach’s alpha and combined reliability ratings. As observed in Table 6, all alpha scores above 0.6 as stipulated. Furthermore, the combined reliability values varied from 0.720 to 0.750. A combined reliability score of 0.70 or above is deemed satisfactory. Consequently, it was determined that the measurements provided were dependable.

Cronbach’s alpha test results.
Construct Evaluation goods Cronbach’s alpha Composite reliability Loaded range No of goods *
Competency Comp2,comp5, comp6 0.645 0.747 0.648–0.799 3(6)
Accountability Acc3, acc4 0.645 0.764 0.778–0.813 2(6)
Organisational commitment Orgcom6,Orgcom7, Orgcom8,Orgcom9 0.646 0.725 0.574–0.735 4(10)
Clarity Cla1, Cla2,Cla3 0.633 0.733 0.645–754 3 (3)
Community trust Trust1, Trust2,Trust4, Trust5 0.687 0.752 0.698–0.760 4 (5)

Note:

Finalised numbering of items (initial numbers)

 4.5 Hypothesis testing

Table 7 offers the results of the hypothesis testing. It can be observed that three hypotheses, specifically H1, H2, and H6, have been confirmed with same degrees of significance.

Results of hypothesis test.
Hypotheses Hypo Coef. P-values Accepted
Competency – Accountability H1 0.167 0.000 * Yes
Organisational commitment – accountability H2 0.361 0.000 * Yes
Organisational accountability H3 −0.014 0.246 No
Accountability- Clarity H4 0.257 No
Accountability- community trust H5 0.024 0.124 No
Clarity- community trust H6 0.241 0.000 * Yes

Note:

statistically significant at alpha level 0.01 (very significant)

 5. Discussion

This study indicates that the proficiency of local municipality personnel is a crucial factor that must be assessed when improving accountability. This outcome aligns with the perspective that educational and training initiatives aimed at raising the proficiency of local municipality personnel are crucial for improving accountability procedures, despite the fact that, on average, the competence of these staff members remains suboptimal. Most of local municipality officials possess education only up to the senior high school level, rather than holding degrees. This is consistent with the findings of Abioro (2021), who revealed that administrators in numerous communes in Vietnam, including those in mountainous and remote areas traditionally perceived as lacking capacity, can formulate sound plans and budget projections given adequate guidance and instruction.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, both central and local municipalities endeavour to enhance the proficiency of local municipality personnel by employing graduates ( Abioro, 2021). This strategy seeks to enhance the number of personnel possessing the skills to administer communities efficiently. Furthermore, Table 1 reveals a positive trend of more individuals possessing bachelor’s and master’s degrees who are employed in local municipality administration. The results underscore the significance of recognising the competency of local municipality workers as essential. Since the implementation of independence for local municipalities in 2014, local municipalities are required to formulate plans for strategy, five-year midterm plans for growth, annual short-term work growth plans, programs, activities, tactics, and to uphold good governance practices, particularly concerning accountability and transparency ( Mamokhere et al., 2022). The competency level of local municipality personnel must be enhanced to accomplish all these responsibilities.

This study affirms that staff organisational commitment is crucial for enhancing responsibility, corroborating the findings of Mamokhere et al. (2022). The substantial allocation of finance from the national government serves as an incentive for local municipality administrations. The central government mandates effective accountability in the use and disclosure of local finances to secure regular annual funding of local municipalities. These objectives motivate personnel dedicated to fulfilling the standards of local municipality fund accountability ( Abioro, 2021). Nonetheless, the results of this research do not corroborate H 3; specifically, the organisational commitment of staff is not linked to transparency, despite the fact that the transparency of local municipality exhibits the highest average value among the assessed characteristics ( Table 2). The results suggest that variables other than the commitment of local municipality personnel exert more effect on transparency procedures throughout the community.

As previously stated, this study employed “new” institutional theory, specifically about the process of isomorphic behaviour in governance policy; to elucidate its conclusions. From the perspective of isomorphism, local municipalities endeavour to enhance employee competency by implementing various training and educational programs, as well as establishing dedicated personnel to activate normative isomorphism mechanisms ( Mamokhere et al., 2022). The policy’s fundamental direction will be attained, which is advantageous. This accomplishment is underpinned by accountability, which is influenced by the proficiency and the commitment of local municipality personnel. This may also indicate why the majority of local municipality administrations in the KwaZulu Natal Province exhibit strong accountability ( Table 2). Consequently, it may be inferred that normative isomorphism procedures have effectively facilitated the formalisation of accountability within local municipality administrations.

This study further revealed that responsibility was not correlated with transparency (H 4). This finding contrasts with Abioro (2021), which indicated that the separation afforded to Tanzanian local municipalities, specifically regarding the collecting of natural taxes, has enhanced transparency in public finances by mandating that local municipalities record their income and expenditures for the benefit of residents (accountability). This study indicates that the transparency level of local municipality administration was substantial, with an average score of 4.35 ( Table 2). We contend that transparency in South African local municipality may be influenced by factors other than staff commitment and accountability, such as the significant pressure exerted by rules and external entities, including the local municipality community and higher-level governmental bodies, such as central or the region governments. Numerous previous research has revealed that the adoption of novel public administration strategies by lower-level governments is influenced by influence from higher-level government bodies.

This assumption signifies the necessity for more investigation. This study indicated that accountability was not correlated with community trust (H 5). This outcome contradicts Krah and Mertens (2023), who discovered that leader responsibility within the framework of local municipality self-governance in China might enhance community support and confidence. This discrepancy with several prior studies constitutes a research gap warranting exploration in future investigations. The present analysis validates that transparency is favourably correlated with community trust (H 6). This discovery reinforces the significance of using stakeholder theory inside the public sector. This aligns with the findings of Sofyani et al. (2022), who identified openness as a means to foster community trust. Kraai et al. (2023) identified a pronounced emphasis on enhancing transparency within the public sector at the institutional level as a strategy to bolster public confidence.

Consequently, they contend that improving transparency is a means to bolster trust between citizens and the public sector. Transparency in local municipality administrations is established via the provision of organised and precise financial information, schemes, operations, and performance, while actively engaging the local population in all local municipality initiatives. Zindi (2024) assert that notable instances of public confidence augmentation via transparency include the extensive implementation of freedom of information statutes and publicly accessible metrics and rankings concerning the functioning of public entities. It is important to recognise that complete openness may not always be advantageous in some situations. Msenge and Nzewi (2021) discovered in their experimental research that transparency may lead to suboptimal decision-making or undermine the confidence in institutions when the making of public choices is perceived as irrational or when decisions appear not to adhere to universally applicable principles. Total transparency may compromise the efficacy of actions, particularly when a choice results in increased property prices to address market price volatility, such as the clearance of land for a particular construction project. Consequently, the degree of openness in local municipality administrations warrants consideration, and this matter may provide a basis for further studies.

 6. Conclusion

This study demonstrates that the competency and the organisational commitment of local municipality workers correlate with responsibility. Nonetheless, organisational commitment is not correlated with transparency. This study found that local municipality community trust is positively correlated with clarity, but not with accountability. Given the sparse research and literature on local municipality, our study findings provide insights specifically about critical aspects that enhance accountability practices and community trust. These data show a significant impact. To enhance accountability, the local municipality administration must continuously engage personnel who are really proficient and dedicated to accountability. This method may be executed by adequately educating personnel and facilitating their pursuit of higher education at the university level. Local municipalities are advised to uphold optimal openness by granting access to crucial information concerning programs, budgeting, and local municipality efficiency, hence enhancing community confidence.

This work theoretically advances the discourse on “new” institutional theory, particularly with institutional isomorphic behaviour in governance processes within local municipalities. This study clearly revealed that competency and commitment, as measures of normative isomorphic relationships are positively correlated with local municipality accountability. The study further elaborates on stakeholder theory in the public sector, particularly elucidating the connection between transparency and community trust. Notwithstanding these significant achievements, this study possesses a drawback. The study was only carried out in the local municipality administrations of a single province in South Africa, specifically the KwaZulu natal province.

The finding of this study shows that while accountability is strengthened by organisational competence and commitment, it is transparency that most strongly predicts public trust in local government.

Based on this, it is recommended that municipalities prioritise building transparent systems of communication and disclosure, alongside targeted capacity-building programs to strengthen accountability. These recommendations are directly informed by the observed relationships between variables in the current study. However, several limitations should be acknowledged. The study is observational and cross-sectional in nature, which restricts to ability to make causal inferences. Furthermore, reliance on self-reported data raises the possibility of response bias, despite measures taken to minimise common method variance. The geographic scope, being limited to municipalities within KwaZulu, may also limit generalisability to other regions. Future research should therefore adapt longitudinal, and intervention designs to assess the long-term and causal impacts of transparency and accountability initiatives on trust. Expanding studies to long-term and causal impacts of transparency and accountability initiatives on trust. Expanding studies to other provinces and comparative contexts would also strengthen external validity and deepen insights into how government practice shape community trust diverse contexts.

 Ethics and consent statement

The study was conducted in adherence to the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for research on secondary data. Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from Mangosuthu University of Technology, Institutional Ethical Committee on January 19, 2025, with Reference number REF: MSci/02/2025. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant, ensuring their understanding and voluntary agreement to partake in the research.

 Data availability Underlying data

The static version of the dataset is deposited in Zenodo “The Impact of Government Transparency and Accountability on Community Trust: Evidence from Local municipalities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa” and accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18936037. Makhathini, L. R. (2026).

This project contains the following data:

Raw Data (1).xlsx

Extended data

Zenodo “The Impact of Government Transparency and Accountability on Community Trust: Evidence from Local municipalities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa” and accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18936037. Makhathini, L. R. (2026).

This project contains the following data:

Interview Guide.docx

Participant Consent Form.docx

Participant Information Sheet.docx

Questionnaire (1) (1).docx

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).

 References Abbasov R : The Role of Participatory Budgeting in Enhancing Citizen Engagement: A Comprehensive Analysis. 2025. 10.17632/ph2xy7nhmc.1 Abioro TA : Public procurement corruption and service delivery in Nigeria and South Africa. Public procurement, corruption and the crisis of governance in Africa. Springer;2021. 10.1007/978-3-030-63857-3 AL-Naser M Hamdan A : The impact of public governance on economic growth: Evidence from gulf cooperation council countries. Econ. Soc. 2021;14:85–110. 10.14254/2071-789X.2021/14-2/5 Arkorful VE Lugu BK Hammond A : Decentralization and citizens’ participation in local governance: Does trust and transparency matter?–An empirical study. Forum Dev. Stud. 2021;48:199–223. 10.1080/08039410.2021.1872698 Benito B Guillamón M-D Ríos A-M : Transparency and efficient management in local governments. Cities. 2021;115:103234. 10.1016/j.cities.2021.103234 Berliner D Wehner J : Audits for accountability: Evidence from municipal by-elections in South Africa. J. Polit. 2022;84:1581–1594. 10.1086/716951 Boboyeva S : OPTIMIZING PLANNING AND MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR LOCAL BUDGETS: A MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE. Journal of Applied Science and Social Science. 2025;1:795–800. 10.1086/716951 Boufounou P Eriotis N Kounadeas T : Enhancing internal control mechanisms in local government organizations: a crucial step towards mitigating corruption and ensuring economic development. Economies. 2024;12:78. 10.3390/economies12040078 Brás GR Dowley KM : Impact of demographic, political and financial factors on municipal transparency: a dynamic panel approach. Int. J. Public Sect. Manag. 2021;34:101–117. 10.1108/IJPSM-11-2019-0289 Chiwawa N Wissink H : Effective strategy execution for enhanced service delivery in south african municipalities. Africa’s Public Service Delivery and Performance Review. 2024;12:741. Cifuentes-Faura J Benito B Guillamón M-D : Relationship between transparency and efficiency in municipal governments: Several nonparametric approaches. Public Perform. Manag. Rev. 2023;46:193–224. 10.1080/15309576.2022.2123007 Fosu A Hlungulu-Feketshane N : Local Municipalities and Youth Unemployment: Examination of Measures Employed by Mbhashe Local Municipality of South Africa. African Journal of Public Administration and Environmental Studies. 2025;4(2):143–162. 10.31920/2753-3182/2025/v4n2a7 Fourie DJ Waldt G van der : Participative integrated development planning praxis in local government: The case of selected South African municipalities. 2021. 10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.43 Gasela MM : The impact of material irregularity provisions of the Public Audit Act on accountability, oversight and governance in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Afr Public Serv Deliv Perform Rev. 2022;10:601. Reference Source Grawe MN Nkoala S Makwambeni B : The use of social media for internal communication within South African local government. Acad J Interdiscip Stud. 2023;12:203–213. 10.36941/ajis-2023-0106 Hair JF Sarstedt M Ringle CM Mena JA : An Assessment of the Use of Partial least Sqaures equation Model in Marketing Research. 2010. 10.1007/s11747-011-0261-6 Hofisi C Chigova LE : Rethinking the Role of Local Government in Service Delivery in South Africa: Towards Digital Transformation. E-Journal of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences. 2023;64–76. 10.38159/ehass.20234147 Hutete C Sibanda MM : Water service provision and social equity in a South African rural district municipality. Afr Public Serv Deliv Perform Rev. 2022;10:641. 10.4102/apsdpr.v10i1.641 Reference Source Ismail M Morden E Hussey H : Evaluation of a public COVID-19 dashboard in the Western Cape, South Africa: a tool for communication, trust, and transparency. BMC Public Health. 2022;22:2453. 10.1186/s12889-022-14657-w Jung S-M : Participatory budgeting and government efficiency: evidence from municipal governments in South Korea. Int. Rev. Adm. Sci. 2022;88:1105–1123. 10.1177/0020852321991208 Kanyane M Mutema EP Zikhali T : Social accountability in local government: lessons from Vuwani (South Africa) and Gweru (Zimbabwe). J. Public Aff. 2022;22:e2581. 10.1002/pa.2581 Kraai S Ndevu Z Matsiliza N : Participatory budgeting to foster inclusivity, transparency, and accountability in local government: A case study of the City of Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality of South Africa. Afr J Public Aff. 2023;14:63–88. Reference Source Krah R Mertens G : Financial transparency, trust and willingness to pay in local governments of sub-Saharan Africa. J. Public Budg. Account. Financ. Manag. 2023;35:100–120. 10.1108/JPBAFM-06-2022-0110 Maleka MC Moeti K : E-participation in local government: A case of the City of Tshwane Municipality. Aust. J. Public Adm. 2021;56:1018–1029. Reference Source Makhathini LR : The Impact of Government Transparency and Accountability on Community Trust: Evidence from Local municipalities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.[Data set]. Zenodo. 2026. N/A. 10.5281/zenodo.18936037 Mamokhere J : Pragmatic implementation and promotion of good governance principles in realizing Sustainable Development Goal Six (6) in South Africa. International Journal of Research in Business & Social Science. 2022;11(6):20–32. (2147- 4478). 10.20525/ijrbs.v11i6.1921 Mamokhere J Kgobe FKL : One district, one approach, one budget, one plan: understanding district development model as an initiative for improving service delivery and socio-economic development in South Africa. IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review. 2023;11:362–370. Reference Source Mamokhere J Mabeba SJ Kgobe FKL : The contemporary challenges municipalities face in effectively implementing municipal service partnerships. EUREKA: Social and Humanities. 2022;58–69. 10.21303/2504-5571.2022.002303 Maramura TC Shava E : Ethics and accountability in municipal supply chain management in Zimbabwe. Int. J. Manag. Pract. 2021;14:621–635. 10.1504/IJMP.2021.117287 Masiya T Davids YD Mangai MS : Factors affecting the performance of South African municipal officials: Stakeholders' perspectives. Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance. 2021;97–115. 10.5130/cjlg.vi25.7701 Reference Source Masuku MM Mlambo VH Ndlovu C : Service delivery, governance and citizen satisfaction: reflections from South Africa. J. Glob. Policy Gov. 2022;11:96–116. 10.14666/2194-7759-11-1-6 Mckenzie M Marx B : Turnaround for municipal distress resolution: An audit outcomes approach. S. Afr. J. Account. Res. 2024;38:174–208. 10.1080/10291954.2023.2294536 Mensah IK Adams S Luo C : The moderating effect of perceived transparency and accountability on the adoption of mobile government services. Int. J. Mob. Commun. 2023;21:54–73. 10.1504/IJMC.2023.127373 Mnguni S Subban M : Audit outcome challenges in local government: The case of three metropolitan municipalities in South Africa. Afr J Public Aff. 2022;13:144–172. Reference Source Mohammed AS Tuokuu FX Bokuma A : Decentralization and local government performance: empirical evidence from Ghana. J. Asian Afr. Stud. 2024;60:00219096241228777. 10.1177/00219096241228777 Mohangi P Nyika F : Performance management implementation in local government: Lessons from recent international literature. Jurnal Administrasi Publik (Public Administration Journal). 2023;13:75–86. 10.31289/jap.v13i1.9520 Mojapelo M Ngoepe M : Contribution of Auditor-General South Africa to records management in the public sector in South Africa. New Rev. Inf. Netw. 2021;26:33–49. 10.1080/13614576.2019.1608573 Molina Rodríguez-Navas P Medranda Morales N Muñoz Lalinde J : Transparency for participation through the communication approach. ISPRS Int. J. Geo Inf. 2021;10:586. 10.3390/ijgi10090586 Msenge P Nzewi O : A proposed citizen participation–public trust model in the context of service delivery protests in South African local government. Journal of Local Government Research and Innovation. 2021;2:26. 10.4102/jolgri.v2i0.26 Reference Source Naraidoo S Sobhee SK : Citizens’ perceptions of local government services and their trust in local authorities: Implications for local government in Mauritius. Margin J. Appl. Econ. Res. 2021;15:353–386. 10.1177/09738010211010515 Reference Source Ngqobe F Fourie DJ Tshiyoyo M : Performance management and accountability practices in South African municipalities. Administr Publica. 2021;29:108–128. 10.36615/w2sjk817 Nkgapele SM : The usability of e-government as a mechanism to enhance public service delivery in the South African government: Lessons from practices. Digital Policy Studies. 2024;3:116–132. Reference Source Nyalungu J Mbona S Ogunsola S : Advancing Local Economy through Good Governance. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica. 2025;21:187–206. Reference Source Paranata A : The miracle of anti-corruption efforts and regional fiscal independence in plugging budget leakage: evidence from western and eastern Indonesia. Heliyon. 2022;8:e11153. 36311362 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11153 PMC9614825 Pasipamire N Muroyiwa A : Navigating algorithm bias in AI: ensuring fairness and trust in Africa. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. 2024;9:1486600. 39512269 10.3389/frma.2024.1486600 PMC11540688 Pratolo S Sofyani H Maulidini RW : The roles of accountability and transparency on public trust in the village governments: The intervening role of COVID-19 handling services quality. Cogent Bus. Manag. 2022;9:2110648. 10.1080/23311975.2022.2110648 Ríos A-M Guillamón M-D Benito B : The influence of local government transparency on the implementation of the sustainable development goals in municipalities. J. Public Budg. Account. Financ. Manag. 2024;36:417–444. 10.1108/JPBAFM-12-2023-0229 Sethunya B Mlambo DN : Examining the factors that lead to poor service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa: Insight (s) from Modimolle-Mookgophong Local Municipality, Limpopo Province. Afr Renaissance. 2022;19:33–55. Reference Source Sofyani H Pratolo S Saleh Z : Do accountability and transparency promote community trust? Evidence from village government in Indonesia. J. Account. Organ. Chang. 2022;18:397–418. 10.1108/JAOC-06-2020-0070 Thusi X Matyana M Jili N : Lack of political will: a barrier to public service delivery in South Africa and a high cost for citizens. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (JSSSH) E-Issn. 2023;9:137–147. 10.2979/africatoday.60.3.119 Thusi X Selepe MM : The impact of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure on service delivery: A case of South African local government. Int. J. Dev. Sustain. 2023;12:523–536. Reference Source Tshuma N Elakpa DN Moyo C : The transformative impact of community-led monitoring in the South African health system: a comprehensive analysis. Int. J. Public Health. 2024;69:1606591. 10.3389/ijph.2024.1606591 Xin G Esembe EE Chen J : The mixed effects of e-participation on the dynamic of trust in government: Evidence from Cameroon. Aust. J. Public Adm. 2023;82:69–95. 10.1111/1467-8500.12569 Zindi B : The Role of Blockchain in Enhancing Public Trust and Accountability in South African Municipalities. Mank. Q. 2024;65:92–110. 10.46469/mq.2024.65.1.9 Reference Source 10.5256/f1000research.187782.r478896 Reviewer response for version 1 Raimi Morufu Olalekan 1 Referee https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5042-6729 Niger Delta Institute for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Disases, Federal University Otuoke, Otuoke, Bayelsa, Nigeria

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

 3 6 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Raimi MO 2026 This is an open access peer review report distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. recommendation approve-with-reservations

Manuscript Number: F1000Research-170338

Title: The Impact of Government Transparency and Accountability on Community Trust: Evidence from Local Municipalities in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Recommendation: Approved with reservation 

Reviewer: Dr. Morufu Olalekan Raimi, PhD

Review Date: 2026-05-29

Reviewer Comments

Dear Authors,

Thank you for submitting this manuscript examining the relationships between competency, organisational commitment, accountability, transparency, and community trust in South African local municipalities. The topic is important and timely, given persistent governance challenges and declining public trust in South African municipalities. The use of a quantitative, cross-sectional design with primary data from multiple respondent groups is a reasonable approach. However, the manuscript in its current form has fundamental flaws that preclude acceptance. These flaws span conceptual coherence, methodological transparency, statistical reporting, theoretical grounding, and data availability.

The manuscript cannot be accepted in its current form. The authors may consider a fundamental revision addressing all issues below and resubmit as a new manuscript. Given the extent of required changes, a simple revision of this version is not feasible.

Major Concerns (Fatal Flaws)

1. Unit of analysis confusion and inappropriate aggregation

The manuscript reports data from “120 couples” (paired responses) sourced from “32 municipalities” (page 8, Section 3.2). However, the analysis treats each of the 120 responses as independent observations, ignoring the nesting of respondents within municipalities. This violates the assumption of independence in ordinary least squares / PLS regression. Moreover, the manuscript does not specify how municipal-level constructs (e.g., “transparency of the municipality”) were aggregated from individual council member responses. The descriptive statistics in Table 2 (n=82 local municipalities) further confuse the unit of analysis.

Required action (for any resubmission):

Clearly specify the unit of analysis (individual respondent, municipal average, or paired dyad).

If individuals are the unit, justify why municipal-level constructs can be measured from individual perceptions without aggregation checks (e.g., intraclass correlation, within-group agreement).

If municipalities are the unit, provide aggregated scores and conduct analysis at the municipal level (n=32, which is too small for PLS with five latent variables).

Acknowledge that the current design cannot disentangle individual-level from municipal-level effects.

 2. Hypotheses do not match the conceptual framework

The conceptual framework (Figure 1) shows paths from Competency → Accountability, Organisational Commitment → Accountability, Organisational Commitment → Transparency, Accountability → Transparency, Accountability → Community Trust, and Transparency → Community Trust. However, the hypothesis tests (Table 7) report:

H1: Competency → Accountability (supported)

H2: Organisational Commitment → Accountability (supported)

H3: Organisational Commitment → Transparency (not supported)

H4: Accountability → Transparency (not supported – but this is labelled “Accountability – Clarity” in Table 7, inconsistent)

H5: Accountability → Community Trust (not supported)

H6: Transparency → Community Trust (supported)

 The manuscript does not justify why the path from Accountability → Transparency is tested (H4) but the path from Competency → Transparency is omitted. Moreover, the literature review section (2.3) proposes H2, H3, H4, H5 but the numbering is inconsistent. Section 2.2 proposes H1 and H2 (but H1 there is “organisational commitment and responsibility” – which variable is “responsibility”?).

Required action:

Completely restructure the hypothesis development section. Clearly state each hypothesis in a consistent numbered format, link each to the relevant literature, and ensure all paths in Figure 1 are hypothesised.

Do not introduce hypotheses in the results section (Table 7) that were not developed in the literature review.

 3. Statistical analysis is insufficiently reported and cannot be verified

The manuscript states that PLS was used, but provides almost no details on the PLS model specification:

Which software was used (SmartPLS? WarpPLS?)? Version?

What was the inner model specification (reflective vs formative)?

How were missing data handled?

What were the model fit indices (SRMR, NFI, RMS_theta)? None reported.

The path coefficients in Table 7 are reported without standard errors or t-statistics – only p-values.

The R² values for endogenous constructs (accountability, transparency, community trust) are not reported.

 Furthermore, the data file deposited in Zenodo (“Raw Data (1).xlsx”) does not contain raw individual responses. It contains aggregated summaries (e.g., counts of respondents by education level). This violates F1000Research’s data availability policy, which requires underlying data to be fully available to allow replication.

Required action:

Provide the full raw dataset (anonymised individual responses) as a CSV or Excel file, with variable names corresponding to the questionnaire.

Report complete PLS results, including: factor loadings (already partially in Table 3, but with missing items), AVE (Table 4), composite reliability (Table 6), discriminant validity (Table 5, but the Fornell-Larcker criterion shown is incomplete – the square root of AVE should be compared with correlations, not squared correlations as shown).

Report model fit statistics and R² values.

 4. Common method bias testing is inadequately reported and interpreted

The manuscript reports a Harman one-factor test showing the first component explained 18.15% of variance, concluding that common method bias is not a concern. However, the Harman test is a weak diagnostic (it does not rule out common method bias, only a single factor accounting for most variance). Moreover, the manuscript does not specify whether this test was conducted on the final set of retained items (after deleting Comp1, Comp3, Comp4, etc.) or on the original set.

Required action:

Conduct a more rigorous common method bias test, such as the marker variable technique or common latent factor method.

If using Harman’s test, report the number of factors extracted and the variance explained by the first factor before and after rotation.

 5. Sample size justification is incorrect and contradictory

The manuscript states (Section 3.1) that “the optimal sample size is 28, as per the methodology established by Pasipamire and Muroyiwa (2024) for selecting sample sizes.” This is nonsensical – 28 municipalities selected out of 44, but then the analysis uses 120 individual responses. The PLS minimum sample size rule cited (10 times the highest number of inner or outer model links) is misapplied. With 10 indicators for organisational commitment (as stated), the required minimum would be 10 × 10 = 100 – but the final number of items after deletion was 4 (Orgcom6–9). The sample size of 120 is adequate for PLS with 4–5 indicators per construct, but the justification is muddled.

Required action:

Delete the incorrect statement about Pasipamire and Muroyiwa.

Provide a correct sample size justification based on the final measurement model (e.g., “with four to six indicators per construct and five latent variables, a sample of 120 exceeds the recommended minimum of 50–100 for PLS”).

 6. Theoretical framework is not integrated with hypothesis development

The manuscript invokes “new” institutional theory (specifically isomorphism) and stakeholder theory but does not derive any hypotheses from these theories. The discussion of coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphism (Section 2.4) is disconnected from the hypotheses. For example, how does competency relate to normative isomorphism? How does stakeholder theory predict that transparency (not accountability) drives trust? The manuscript asserts rather than argues.

Required action:

For each hypothesis, explicitly state how it follows from either institutional theory or stakeholder theory.

Alternatively, drop the theoretical framing and present the study as empirically driven with a conceptual model derived from the literature (which is acceptable for an applied governance study).

 Minor Revisions (if resubmitting)

Abstract

Line 10-12: “Transparency emerged as the strongest and only significant predictor of community trust” – this is a key finding, but the abstract does not report the path coefficient or effect size. Add: “(β = 0.24, p < 0.001).”

Line 15: “transparency play a much more decisive role” – change “play” to “plays.”

 Introduction

Line 30-35: The claim that “relatively few studies focus on local municipalities as a unit of analysis” – this needs qualification. Cite existing studies on South African local municipalities (e.g., work by Fourie, van der Waldt, or AGSA reports) to show what is already known and where the gap remains.

Line 40-45: Add an explicit research question, e.g., “This study asks: (1) To what extent do competency and organisational commitment predict accountability and transparency in local municipalities? (2) Do accountability and transparency, in turn, predict community trust?”

 Literature Review

Section 2.1: The discussion of local municipality governance in South Africa is well referenced but over-reliant on sources from 2021-2022. Add more recent references (2024-2026) where available.

Section 2.2: The heading “Exhibiting trustworthiness, transparency, and accountability” is unclear. Rename to “Accountability, Transparency, and Community Trust.”

 Methods

Section 3.2 (data collection): The pilot test was conducted in “Mtubatuba municipalities” – but Mtubatuba is one of the four study municipalities. Using the same municipality for pilot testing and main data collection risks contamination. Acknowledge this as a limitation.

Section 3.2: The response rate calculation is unclear. “150 questionnaires sent … 120 couples retained, constituting 65.65% of the population” – 120/300 = 40%, not 65%. Clarify.

Section 3.3 (analysis technique): PLS is appropriate for small samples, but the manuscript should justify why covariance-based SEM (e.g., AMOS) was not used.

 Results

Table 1: The title is “Demographics of the respondents” but the first panel shows “Population Count” and the third panel shows “Learning (local municipality Numbers).” This is confusing. Split into separate tables: (a) respondent positions, (b) educational attainment, (c) training participation.

Table 1, panel 3: The numbers in the “Total” column for the five municipalities sum to 82, but the caption says “82” – yet the final row shows “Total local municipality Administration as a Case Study” with percentages summing to 100% across the four municipalities? The arithmetic is inconsistent.

Table 4: The AVE for organisational commitment is reported as 0.425, which is below the conventional threshold of 0.5. This indicates poor convergent validity. The manuscript does not discuss this. This is a serious issue.

Table 5: The diagonal values are reported as the “root of average variance extracted (AVE)” – but the values shown (0.786, 0.718, 0.652, 0.721, 0.681) are the square roots of the AVEs from Table 4. However, Table 4 shows AVE for accountability = 0.745, square root = 0.863, not 0.786. There is a mismatch. Verify all calculations.

 Discussion

Section 5, paragraph 2: The comparison with Abioro (2021) on Vietnamese communes is tangential. Focus on South African and African comparative contexts.

Section 5, paragraph 4: The statement “This study further revealed that responsibility was not correlated with transparency” – the manuscript uses “responsibility” and “accountability” interchangeably. This is confusing. Use “accountability” consistently.

Section 5, final paragraph: The discussion of “complete transparency may not always be advantageous” (citing Msenge and Nzewi, 2021) is interesting but not directly supported by the study’s findings. Move this to a future research direction.

 Conclusion

The conclusion (Section 6) is adequate but repetitive. Shorten by removing restatements of findings already in the Discussion.

Add a paragraph on study limitations as a separate subsection before the conclusion, or integrate into Section 6. Currently, limitations are only mentioned in the final paragraph of the Discussion (page 14).

 Ethics and Consent

Ethics approval reference (REF: MSci/02/2025) is provided. The date of approval (January 19, 2025) is after the data collection period (September 2023 – January 2024). This is a serious ethical concern: data were collected before ethics approval was obtained. Clarify or correct the dates.

 Data Availability

The Zenodo deposit includes “Raw Data (1).xlsx” but this file contains aggregated summaries, not raw individual responses. This does not meet F1000Research’s requirement for underlying data. Provide the full raw dataset.

 Language and Presentation

Throughout: The word “regrettably” appears repeatedly (e.g., “Regrettably, governance processes … have garnered minimal research interest”). This is stylistically inappropriate for a scientific manuscript. Remove or replace with neutral phrasing (e.g., “However,” “Nevertheless”).

Page 4, line 50: “Local are catalyst” – missing word “governments.”

Page 5, line 30: “The subsequent hypothesis was proposed based on these findings: H1: A positive association exists between organisational commitment and responsibility.” – The hypothesis is not numbered consistently (H1 in Section 2.2 is different from H1 in Table 7).

Page 13, Table 7: The row “Organisational accountability” should read “Organisational commitment → Transparency” (H3). The row “Accountability – Clarity” should read “Accountability → Transparency” (H4). The variable “Clarity” is used interchangeably with “Transparency” – standardise on “Transparency.”

 Decision Rationale

This manuscript addresses an important topic, but the current version is not scientifically sound. The unit of analysis is confused, hypotheses are inconsistent with the conceptual framework, statistical reporting is insufficient for replication, data are not available as required, and the theoretical grounding is superficial. The AVE for organisational commitment (0.425) below the 0.5 threshold raises concerns about construct validity. The ethics approval date post-dating data collection is a serious concern that must be clarified.

The manuscript cannot be accepted in its current form. The authors may consider a fundamental revision addressing all major and minor concerns, with particular attention to:

Clarifying the unit of analysis and aggregation method.

Providing full raw data.

Re-running the analysis with correct statistical reporting.

Revising the theoretical framing to derive hypotheses explicitly.

Correcting the ethics approval date or providing an explanation.

 If these issues are addressed, the manuscript could be resubmitted as a new submission. However, given the extent of required changes, a simple revision of this version is not possible.

Sincerely,

Dr. Morufu Olalekan Raimi, PhD

Academic Editor, Plos One

F1000Research

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

Partly

If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Partly

Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes

Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Partly

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

Partly

Reviewer Expertise:

Environmental Health; Environmental Epidemiology; Climate Change and Health; Waste Management and Health

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard, however I have significant reservations, as outlined above.

 10.5256/f1000research.187782.r480884 Reviewer response for version 1 Homburg Vincent 1 2 Referee https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9253-6798 Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

 12 5 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Homburg V 2026 This is an open access peer review report distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. recommendation reject

This paper sets out to test hypotheses relating (self perceived) competency, organizational commitment, accountability, transparency, and community trust using survey data gathered in a sample of officials (administrators for measuring responsibility, proficiency, and commitment, consultative council members for measuring trust, transparency and accountability) from the Mtubatuba, Umdoni, Ndwedwe, and Mandeni municipalities from the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa.   

The paper itself is adequately structures and overall well written, with some typos. There are many occurrences of words like 'regrettably', which stylistically is a bit odd and compromises the 'neutrality' of the language. 

The research gap is somewhat underspecified and requires more justification. My understanding is that the authors state that there is a minimal research interest in governance processes in local municipality administrations. However, a quick search on Scopus ("local govern*" AND "trust" AND "accountability") comes up with 186 hits, and at face value at least some of these papers seem relevant. This is not to say there is no gap in the literature; obviously, there could be one, but it has to be circumscribed in better and more explicit ways (for instance there may be many studies of transparency in Western / Global North contexts (add references!), and even some in the Global South (add references!), but studies of transparency and trust in local governments in KwaZulu Natal (with some exceptions, add references) are lacking. 

In relation to the research gap,  it must also be noted that an explicit research question is lacking. 

There is a decent level of confusion about the (lack of) coherence and consistency between conceptual framework (2.4), development of hypotheses (2.1 to 2.3), and figure 1 (conceptual framework). I think it would increase the clarity of the line of reasoning to first present the conceptual background / literature review and theoretical inspiration (which now partly is in section 2.4), then to develop specific hypotheses from this line of reasoning, and then to summarise the hypotheses in a conceptual framework is such a way each of the hypotheses is depicted unequivocally in the framework. Right now,  the hypotheses do not match the conceptual framework and some elements of the conceptual framework are not discussed in the development of hypotheses (competence for instance). This is highly confusing. Overall the study claims to be driven by institutional theory, but there seems to be a weak line of reasoning that develops hypotheses from this established body of knowledge (what do isomorphic behaviours have to do with the hypotheses and measurements?). 

The design of the study and especially also the methods section raises question as to what the actual level of analysis is, and/or whether there is a multilevel structure in the data. My understanding is that data  on community trust, transparency and accountability were collected from 120 coupled observations sourced from 32 local administrations - what then is the level of observation and level of analysis of the study, and how were a municipality's levels of trust, transparency and accountability measured, If they came from different respondents (council representatives)?   Why weren't the data gathered from citizens (with perceived levels of public governance competency and trust in government, for instance)?

In terms of measurement and operationalization, I do have validity concerns (capacity is based on self-reporting, what is meant by technological skills in Comp2; why was public service motivation not used in stead of commitment? Does community trust measure the council's, council member, or citizen's trust in the municipal organization?). The interview guide suggests that open questions were used, how were scores attached to respondents' answers?

A crucial part of any deductive, quantitative and large-n type of study is the testing of the hypotheses. The paper is overly concise and only reports the conclusions with respect to the testing (in the form of a table, not in text), not the procedures for the testing itself. This makes it very hard to verify the statistical analysis. I tried to access the raw data but found out the excel sheet that is titled 'Raw Data'  only reports summaries, and does not contain the observed data. 

In the discussion and conclusion, there is ample reflection on the pragmatic aspects of the findings, but limited explanation of how the findings relate to the overarching theoretical inspiration (institutionalism, isomorphism), and mainly reiterates rather than elaborates the findings.

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

Partly

If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

No

Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

No

Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

No

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

No

Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

No

Reviewer Expertise:

Public governance, public administration, public management, organization theory, digital governance

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to state that I do not consider it to be of an acceptable scientific standard, for reasons outlined above.