Municipalities can ‘outsource’ to other bodies, businesses or people to provide these services. This means it can choose to hire someone else, an NGO, CBO or private company to deliver the service but the municipality is still responsible for choosing the service provider and for making sure that they deliver the service properly.

When a municipality ‘outsources’ to someone else this is called a municipal service partnership (MSP). This is not the same as privatisation, but must be done carefully so that the municipality keeps control over the quality and cost of services.

So, an MSP is an agreement between a municipality and a service provider. Under this agreement, a service provider agrees to provide a particular municipal service on behalf of the municipality within a certain time frame and budget. The service provider can provide a service to the whole community or part of it. For example it may be responsible for collecting rubbish in a certain part of the community.

MSPs can also be made with other spheres of government or government projects like the expanded public works programme. Work opportunities, such as expanded public works programmes and the community work programme are being rolled out to help unemployed people and engage them in doing community work for a small stipend. They often clean streets, do safety patrols, manage food gardens, look after old and bed-ridden people or help with extra classes or sport at schools.