N5 – Module 1
2. Particular Services This type of services is the opposite to collective services. These services are called particular because they are easily apportioned or broken up into parts and these parts can be charged to the public. Water supply is a good example – people pay per kilolitre of water. It is also easy to exclude non-paying members of the public from these services because the service is, in fact, just like a product one can buy in a shop.
These services are characterised in the following way: • Apportionable – there is a price per unit, as with refuse collection; water supply; selling plants from the municipal nursery, etc.
• Exclusive – non-payers cannot use these services (refuse is collected only if you pay for the collection thereof, etc.). This then means that non-payers are excluded from the service.
• Exhaustible – must be replenished (make full, topped up, re-supplied) continuously. Someone must look after the infrastructure and the supply of the service itself – dams needs to be repaired and filled.
• Direct return – the taxpayer receives value for each unit paid – so much water for so many rands, etc. The current trend by municipalities to place a box which indicates the rate of supply of electricity in each house is an attempt to make people aware of their consumption. One can programme the unit to see exactly how much one is using, and then pay accordingly.
• No monopolies – some of these services operate on the open market (entrepreneurs can compete – as with waste removal); in the case of other services such as water supply the government creates a monopoly by legislation, converting them into public monopolies. (It is interesting to note that our government is considering privatising the supply of water to the public).
Example The Kouga Dam, is situated on the Kouga River near Humansdorp. It is a double curvature arch dam (the first in SA) with a storage capacity of 128,7 million cubic metres of water. Water is supplied to the Port Elizabeth Municipality’s purification works by means of an outlet tower and tunnel. Every irrigator is allowed a max. limit of 8 000 cubic metres/year. The length of the dam is about 34 km with a surface area of 555 ha at full capacity.
3. Quasi-Public Services These services have characteristics of both public and particular services. They are collective or public because a wide spectrum of the public use them; they are particular in a sense because they can be delivered at a charge. This means that the government pays part thereof. The reason for this is because private enterprise either has no interest in supplying the service because it is not profitable, or it is too expensive for them to do so. Examples may be schools (parents pay fees); ambulance & fire-brigade (the caller pays part of cost).
Spill-Over Effects or Externalities: Another reason for the intervention of the government is the existence of what we call positive spill-over effects and also negative spill-over effects. Some authorities call these neighbourhood effects which is an excellent term for them as you will see. Let us take a typical quasi-public service as an example: fire protection. Let us imagine a town councillor or a government saying, “We do not have money to buy fire-engines, and anyway this should be privatised because it is in fact a particular service and people can easily be charged for calling the fire brigade...”
14
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140