Civil Strife against Local Governance

Matebesi, Sethulego

doi:10.2307/j.ctvddzpt2

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The formation of ratepayer associations is often the result of a conflict between municipalities and citizens over the level and quality of services provided. Ratepayers declare a dispute 14 with the municipality and withhold their rate payments (May, 2004;Matebesi, 2017). According to the national taxpayer union, such disputes occurred in 42 municipalities in 2011 (National Treasury RSA, 2011).…”

Section: Self-supply and The Role Of Communities In Water Service Delivery In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the national taxpayer union, such disputes occurred in 42 municipalities in 2011 (National Treasury RSA, 2011). In extreme situations of service delivery failure, these associations can also create parallel structures and start to provide services themselves (National Treasury RSA, 2011;May, 2004), as was the case with water and sanitation services in Sannieshof (Matebesi, 2017;Gouws et al, 2010). Another form of self-supply among high-income households is to go off-grid by investing into alternative sources such as groundwater, rainwater or greywater.…”

Section: Self-supply and The Role Of Communities In Water Service Delivery In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo?

Hofstetter¹,

Koppen²,

Bolding³

2021

WSA

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Despite the rapid extension of public service delivery since the end of Apartheid, many rural citizens in South Africa still rely on their own initiatives and infrastructure to access water. They construct, improve, operate and maintain infrastructure of different complexities, from individual wells to complex collectively owned water schemes. While most of these schemes operate without legal recognition, they provide essential services to many households. In this article we will first provide an overview of the growing international body of literature describing self-supply as an alternative pathway for public service delivery. We then take a historical perspective on the role of communities and self-supply in South Africa and describe the emergence of six collectively owned, gravity-fed, piped schemes in Tshakhuma, Limpopo Province. We describe and compare these systems using key characteristics like resource access, investment, construction, operation, maintenance and institutional governance. We further assess their performance with regard to coverage, service level, reliability, governance structure, accountability and water quality. We do so because we are convinced that lessons learned from studying such schemes as locally adapted prototypes have the potential to improve public approaches to service delivery. The described cases show the willingness of community members to engage with service delivery and their ability to provide services in cases where the state has failed. The assessment also highlights problematic aspects of self-supply related to a lack of accountability, technical expertise and the exclusion of disadvantaged community members. By describing and assessing the performance of rural self-supply schemes, we aim to recognize, study and learn from such schemes. We consequently do not conclude this article by providing answers, but by raising some pertinent, policy-relevant questions.

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Section: Self-supply and The Role Of Communities In Water Service Delivery In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Self-supply and The Role Of Communities In Water Service Delivery In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo?

Hofstetter¹,

Koppen²,

Bolding³

2021

WSA

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“…To this end, the framework illustrates how political trust, a cognitive function conceptualised as an individual's confidence in state or private institutions (a local municipality or mining company, in this context), influences actors (citizens) to engage in protest action. 34 Interestingly, the concept of trust also features prominently in theories related to mining-community relations. The extant body of literature on trust (and thus acceptance) of mining companies -is gaining traction.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework Of Public Trust Conceptual Framework Of Public Trustmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• third, governance-related factors, which include limited opportunities for civic participation, lack of accountability, weak leadership, and the erosion of public confidence in leadership. 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 Similarly, there has been a sustained increase in the number of reported conflict incidents between mining companies and mining-affected communities in South Africa. 16 The literature reveals that since South African mining laws do not require the government to share mining agreements with the public, it engenders high levels of secrecy around such dealings.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Yearning for Basic Municipal Services: The Trajectories of Community Protests in the Eastern Cape

Matebesi¹

2021

Reflections From the Margins: Complexities, Transitions and Developmental Challenges - The Case of the Eastern Cape Province, S

Self Cite

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“…Baba Nhlapo 1 lives in a village in Kuruman, a rural area in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Kuruman came to national prominence when protests over the state of roads connecting rural areas closed schools for over a year in 2014 (Matebesi, 2017). While the protests themselves centred on demands for infrastructure, in speaking to protesters both here and in other parts of the country it has become clear that such protests are about more than just the provision of basic services but are indicative of a wider crisis of the meaning and content of post-apartheid democracy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonising and re-theorising the meaning of democracy: A South African perspective

Brooks

Ngwane

Runciman

2019

The Sociological Review

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Historically and today, social movements have often been at the forefront of envisioning the content of democracy. Although democracy itself is a contested concept, in general, definitions and measures of democracy are often drawn from the canon and experiences of the global North. Contributing to the growing decolonisation movement in the social sciences, this article examines understandings of democracy in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. It considers how ordinary people conceptualise democracy through an examination of its understanding in isiZulu, one of South Africa’s most dominant vernacular languages, and through analysing how democracy is understood and practised at the grassroots, by citizens mobilised in community protests. It is argued that popular understandings and expectations of democracy are rooted in traditions of popular organisation that emerged in the struggle against apartheid, and in the experiences of many citizens of the post-1994 state. Crucially, the article draws attention to the tensions between grassroots understandings and visions of democracy and that which has been articulated by the governing African National Congress (ANC). By rooting the analysis of democracy within local histories, practices and contexts, the article provides lessons for democratic theorists by illuminating how citizens and popular organisations articulate the current crisis of democracy and its possible alternatives, promoting a re-imagination of normative democratic thought based on ideas of democracy from below.

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Civil Strife against Local Governance

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo?

The emergence of collectively owned self-supply water supply systems in rural South Africa – what can we learn from the Tshakhuma case in Limpopo?

Yearning for Basic Municipal Services: The Trajectories of Community Protests in the Eastern Cape

Decolonising and re-theorising the meaning of democracy: A South African perspective

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