Abstract
The South African government in 1994 enacted a negotiated democracy or a social contract (SC) with the promise of the ANC - of a “better life for all”. The government was faced with rectifying the past imbalances, which was done by guaranteeing essential service delivery to communities, which included, inter alia, creating jobs, free health care, sanitation, infrastructure, and electricity. Despite this, in recent years, the government has witnessed a rise in service delivery protests from various communities in local governments, including the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).
The rise and prevalence of service delivery protests showcased a democratic government that was on a path to political unrest, conflict and instability. It is within this context that South Africa is regarded as being on the path of inequality and exclusion coupled with the deprivation of marginalised groups. The unmet aspirations of the citizens and subsequent consequences have led to service delivery protests in local government. Notwithstanding the efforts of the government to provide necessary services to the citizens, service provision in municipalities has moved at a snail’s pace. The service delivery protests have been a challenge to the government as they lead to violent, political squabbles, economic disruptions, injuries and destruction of public properties, and killings and burning of municipal officials and their properties.
To determine and understand the effect of service delivery protests on political stability in the City of Johannesburg, the researcher used a qualitative (exploratory) method, where interviews, document analysis and participant observations were used to obtain data as primary data collection methods. The primary objective of this research is to interrogate one of cause of governance crisis i.e., management and provisions of services by the municipal authorities. The study intends to explore the correlation between service delivery protests and stability in the society as a result of inadequate service delivery within the City of Johannesburg. The study used two theoretical approaches to explore and understand how citizens expectations of managers and the democratic environment led to protests among citizens as well as how such protests affected the stability of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Johannesburg, namely Runciman’s’, Davies and Gurr’s - Relative Deprivation (RD) and Rawls,
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Rousseau, Locke and Hobbes’s - Social Contract (SC). The idea was to ascertain the motivations and notions around protests taking place in the CoJ.
The findings reveal that service delivery protests exacerbated by the slow pace of essential services in the communities of the CoJ add to the frustration and aggression of residents in demanding assistance from the municipality. As a result, the service delivery protests turned violent and severely affected socio-economic activities, the political landscape, and the administration of the city. The researcher recommend that for stability, decrease in protests and proper rendering of services, intergovernmental relations (Co-operative government) must be a priority to decrease the backlogs of service delivery in municipalities and communities – which includes, inter alia, peacebuilding, proper coordination, communication and unity.
Keywords: Service delivery protests, relative deprivation, social contract, service delivery, political stability.