Decades of mismanagement have plunged South Africa's local governments into a crisis, with mounting service delivery failures, financial irregularities and growing public disenchantment.
No doubt, we have all had many déjà vu moments - when we feel that we have already experienced the present situation in which we find ourselves. In most cases it is just a feeling, a sensory illusion that something is repeating itself even when it actually isn't. But, when it comes to South Africa's local government, the repetitive experience is not a feeling or the stuff of satire (as per the roadworks sign above) but a hard-nosed reality.
The foundational frame
Right from the beginning of the post-apartheid era, the experience of local government by large numbers of South Africans was one of disappointment, unfulfilled expectations and betrayed promise.
The main reason for this was with the transfer of much-expanded post-apartheid governance and service delivery mandates to local government. While driven by a generally positive and understandable constitutional mandate to bring the state closer to the previously excluded majority, this was paralleled by the gradual but systematic cutting off of a large chunk of national government fiscal support/subsidies.
As part of the ANC's overarching neoliberal development ideology (in the form of the "Gear" macro-economic frame), the real "equitable share" of national revenue that should have been provided (alongside conditional...
