Landmark Court Ruling Highlights Crisis In South Africa’s Cities & Towns

Joleen Steyn Kotze, University of the Free State

A high court in South Africa has passed a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications for municipalities that fail to carry out their constitutional duty to citizens.

The Makhanda High Court granted an application by the Unemployed People’s Movement that the Makana Local Municipality be dissolved.

The court ordered that the Eastern Cape provincial government, under which the municipality falls, appoint an administrator to run its affairs. It will be the second time this has happened.

In 2014 the city was placed under administration for three months. This was because it was financially vulnerable, wasn’t maintaining infrastructure and service delivery had crumbled. At one point residents went without water for nine days.

That intervention failed to fix the problems.

Last year citizens turned to the judiciary, signalling that they were no longer willing to give government a chance to fix