Resumen
The establishment of a new democracy has created high expectations amongst all the different communities of South Africa. The demand for basic essential services by the previously disadvantaged communities has increased drastically, whilst at the same time, communities from developed areas are expecting and demanding an acceptable level of maintenance and services in their respective areas. Municipalities are in serious distress with regular service delivery protests, huge service delivery and infrastructure backlog challenges (e.g., electricity, roads, housing, water, and sanitation), poor financial management and the inability to execute approved strategies, plans, and programs. This article focused on the municipalities in the Gauteng Province of South Africa and the main objective was to answer the survey question: What prevents Gauteng municipalities to successfully execute its strategies and what can be done to address the situation? The research objectives were firstly, to review the literature and determine the key enablers required for successful strategy execution; secondly, to analyze the findings of the empirical research and to make recommendations towards the improvement of strategy execution within Gauteng municipalities. The third and final objective was to develop an integrated operating framework for strategy execution in Gauteng municipalities. The article concluded by making recommendations towards the improvement of strategy execution within municipalities and developing an integrated operating framework for strategy execution. The results of the literature review as well as the empirical research were taken into account during the development of the integrated operating framework.