Part 3: Local Government and Service
Delivery in South Africa
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Local Government and Service Delivery
o Local government restructuring and transformation since 1994.
o Local government has a constitutional mandate to provide
community services (Section 152 of the 1996 Constitution).
o Quality service delivery reflects good image of the country.
o Service delivery protests and their impact on the image of SA.
o Current challenges in local government that affect the ability of
local government to deliver quality services.
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o Ward committees are not fully operational, resulting in poor
communication between municipalities and communities;
o Failure to implement the corrective measures to address crisis in
local government (LGTAS, Operation Clean Audit and the Back to
the Basics initiative) (26 February 2025)
o Community Dissatisfactions
Service Delivery Protests!
o Water and sanitation, electricity, job opportunities, human
settlement etc.
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What are the causes of Service Delivery Protests?
o The reasons for community protests are varied. According to
UJ’s research, the top five grievances are about service delivery
in general, unemployment, housing, water and sanitation,
political representation, and electricity. Corruption, municipal
administration, roads, demarcation, land and crime also features.
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What are the Provinces that are Highly Affected?
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What are the Solutions for Service Delivery Protests?
o Improving and encouraging the culture of public participation.
o promoting proper financial management systems.
o Local government should be accountable, transparent and open to
public scrutiny (Good Governance).
o Need to resolve political tensions in municipalities.
o Need to improve coalition governance in municipalities.
o Capacity building, integrity, and ethical leadership.
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Local Government Improvement Strategies
Project Consolidate – 2004
o Two-year national strategy (2004-2006) to boost municipalities
lacking expertise for service delivery.
o Mainly rural municipalities who had the highest backlogs and
who were economically distressed.
o Most municipalities managed to improve their service delivery
systems (housing, water and sanitation, electricity).
o Entrenched pattern of inequality between rural and urban
municipalities remained a challenge.
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Local Government Turn Around Strategy - 2009
o Survey conducted in 2009 about the status of local government
Findings - local government was distressed – Introduction of
LGTAS as a corrective measure: Sicelo Shiceka
 Insufficient human and financial capacity for service delivery.
 Failure of some municipalities to manage their powers and functions
(political interference).
 Failure to work progressively with the other two spheres of
government.
 Poor growth and lack of opportunities in small town and rural areas.
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Operation Clean Audit
o Introduced in 2012 to promote good governance in financial
matters of local government.
o All municipalities and provincial departments should achieve a
clean audit on their financial statements by 2014.
o This would improve service delivery and reduce fraud and
corruption in local government.
o No significant improvements – 12 years later.
o What do you think should be the solution in this regard?
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Back to Basic Initiative of Local Government (2014)
• Introduced by COGTA in 2014 to build responsive, caring
and accountable local government.
• To ensures the delivery of basic services to the citizens
(Water and sanitation, electricity, shelter, waste removal
and road constructions).
• Basic human rights enshrined in Chapter 2 of the
Constitution.
• The initiative identified 3 types of municipalities.
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Back to Basics Initiative (2014)
TOP THIRD
MUNICIPALITIES
SECOND THIRD
MUNICIPALITIES
BOTTOM THIRD
MUNICIPALITIES
Above average performance, proper
financial management systems, deliver on
developmental mandate, innovative service
delivery strategies.
fairly
functional
and
their
overall
performance is average/ They can deliver
on the main functions of local government.
Unacceptable performance, poor service
delivery, corruption, negative audit outcomes,
service delivery protests, no community
participation.
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District Development Model (2019)
o The DDM was approved as an operational model aimed at
building a Capable and Developmental State in South Africa.
o Rationale: observation that lack of coordination between the
government spheres has not served the country.
o The pattern of operating in silos has led to lack of coherence in
planning and implementation.
o The DDM will improve the efficiency of local government for
inclusive service delivery and promote the monitoring of
development programmes.
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