Public Service Delivery Protests in a Democratic South Africa: A Dilemma for Local Municipalities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to assess the service delivery challenges facing local municipalities with specific reference to persisting public service delivery protests in South Africa. The advent of a democratic state provided the poor with hope for better life previously denied by the apartheid government for more than four centuries. Their expectations for the new dispensation was the improved socio-economic conditions at local level such as the elimination of poverty, provision of housing, job creation, better health services, better education and general improvement in the quality of their lives. Whilst the efforts by local municipalities to address the concerns of communities in the country, poor socio-economic conditions at local level remains palpable. Two decades after the collapse of apartheid governance system and the advent of a new democratic dispensation, South Africa has observed unprecedented service delivery protests and demonstrations in most local municipalities around the country. The public service delivery in the democratic South Africa particularly at local government level has since been characterised by these costly mass demonstrations and confrontations from poor local communities who express their dissatisfaction and frustrations with the lack of the provision of basic services such as adequate water, proper housing, electricity, education, sanitation, health and employment by their municipality. However, local communities seems not only express their frustrations and dissatisfaction about the provision of services, but also about the failure of local municipalities to engage and integrate communities in the governance and affairs of the municipality. Against this background, the paper argues that the majority of poor people remain sceptical about the capacity of local municipalities to deliver services therefore resorting to mass protests and demonstrations. Thus, this has since put the local municipalities in the country under immense pressure to deliver services in response to the concerns of poor communities. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p231