PROGESS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES

With the advent of the democratic dispensation in 1994, the South African Government was faced, with a host of daunting development challenges inherited from the Apartheid regime. Local government which constitutes the third sphere of governance in South Africa has been mandated by the Constitution to address apartheid era inequalities and facilitate local economic development amongst the previously disadvantaged black majority. This paper reviews the progress, achievements and challenges faced by the South African local governance in its attempt to facilitate the access to basic social services and reduce poverty among the previously disadvantaged majority. It outlines the socio-economic profile, the local governance legislative policy frameworks and discusses the institutional arrangements established to facilitate and anchor effective service delivery, as well as integrate “voice ” of local communities. The paper also analyses the basic social service delivery and the resultant municipal service delivery protests.The paper concludes that the recurrent,widespread, violent and increasingly xenophobic municipal service delivery protests, are indicative of the fact that, despite the progress made in the past seventeen years to establish the policy framework and institutional structure, to effectively facilitate socio-economic development, and address the backlogs of access to basic social services and poverty alleviation, challenges still remain at local governance level 1