Service delivery impasses in the midst of the Covid-19 national lockdown in South African informal settlements.

Abstract

Since the dawn of the democratic dispensation in the early 1990s, the South African government has continued to face difficulties in the provision of basic but essential services to its constituencies. Despite the successful restructuring of local government as a non-racial and democratic sphere of government closer to local people, the provision of services remains one of the ongoing challenges faced by the post-apartheid government. The lack of basic services was further exposed when the South African government, in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO), announced that some of the preventative measures for the outbreak of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) were wearing masks, social distancing, hygiene, and regular washing of hands. Even though the outlined preventative measures were substantially significant in curbing the skyrocketing numbers of COVID-19 infections, some South Africans, especially residents of informal settlements, found it challenging to adhere to them because of a lack or the absence of basic services. Therefore, it is from this background that this paper sought to explore the lack of service delivery (water and sanitation) in South Africa as a challenge during the COVID-19 national lockdown, especially among the residents of informal settlements. The paper adopts a qualitative research design and utilises secondary data where resources such as newspapers, book chapters, articles, government documents, and a thesis will be reviewed. Furthermore, it employs efficiency services theory as a lens for the interpretation of the findings. The paper concludes by affirming that the COVID-19 national lockdown exposed the service delivery deficiencies in some South African local municipalities.