Local governance and spatial distribution of resources: The need to harness traditional leadership for service delivery in South Africa

Abstract

Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, the aim of the study forming the basis of the article was to examine how traditional leadership can be harnessed for the purposes of service delivery at the local level in South Africa. Specifically, the study sought to examine the juxtaposition of traditional and modern forms of governance in South Africa (institutional duality) and the role traditional leaders play in the provision and delivery of social and economic services to the sections of the population within their jurisdictions. The results of the study confirmed the existence of this institutional duality with regard to the Southern African institutional culture. In other words, even though traditional leaders no longer wield the considerable administrative, legislative and judicial powers they used to exercise over the chiefdoms, they are still very much part of the institutional culture of South Africa and the sub-region.