Tribal Authority and Service Delivery in the Durban Uni‐City

International audienceThe institution of traditional leaders during the apartheid era was strongly aligned to different political forces and was manipulated to serve the divide and rule strategy of the then Afrikaner Nationalist government. However, upon democracy in 1994 this institution began to assert its authority in matters of governance and service delivery. The volatility of this institution manifested itself prominently in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal and more particularly in the Metropolitan Area of Durban in the context of the two demarcation processes held in 1995 and 1998. Although the demarcation processes subtly served as catalysts to raise the ire of traditional leaders, more importantly their need to be significant actors in matters of service delivery at a local level attracted much attention from the national government. Despite this, the role of traditional leaders in service delivery is far from being resolved. In the absence of any policy on their role in service delivery, traditional leaders adopt new interlocutory strategies with elected councillors in the Metropolitan Area of Durban in order to exercise their hegemony and avoid the risk of being totally marginalised