Resumen
Municipalities by design are at the grassroots and the gateway for providing direct development interventions to the masses of the people of South Africa. There is, however, evidence that success in implementing youth development programmes is limited, owing mainly to the lack of performance management application at the local government level. Nkangala District Municipality (NDM) was used as a case to explore the extent to which municipalities apply the prescripts and principles of performance management to the youth development programmes. The study sought to establish whether municipalities have performance management frameworks and systems, and whether youth development matters are included in the same. Evidence from the study shows that there are still gaps to be addressed in NDM. Finally, the study suggests a Youth Development Performance Management Framework, which will also integrate youth participation, monitoring and evaluation.