The Rise of ‘Informal Local Government’ on the Back of Municipal Failures

Abstract

Local government is the sphere of government closest to the citizens. Tasked with both a service delivery and developmental mandate, local government is expected to deliver services such as the provision of potable water, sanitation and waste management services, electricity reticulation, and maintenance of municipal parks and roads. In practice, most municipalities are struggling to deliver effectively on this demanding mandate. In response, citizens and communities organise themselves to address such failures, giving rise to a phenomenon of ‘informal local government’. This thesis examined this phenomenon, focusing on factors enabling it, its characteristics, and its relationship with formal local government. The study established that ‘informal local government’ takes various forms, from loosely constituted groupings to formally organised organisations such as residents’ associations. Such groupings and organisations undertake municipal functions such as repairing potholes, cleaning streets, removal of waste and providing water to communities. Because they operate in a municipal space, the relationship between formal and ‘informallocal government' is mostly complementary but elements of substitution and competition between the two are also common. The study proposes a few recommendations on how ‘informal’ and formal local government can co-exist and how best to leverage the informality in view of the widespread municipal failures across the country.