Every local government election season, South Africans are handed the same menu. They hear from councillor hopefuls that they will repair potholes, stop water outages and power cuts, and improve refuse collection. Politicians campaign on service delivery as though it were the only job of local government. It isn’t.
Service delivery is what happens after the real decisions have already been made: where people are allowed to live, work and move, at what density, and on whose land. That decision is town planning, and it is the most under-discussed, under-resourced, and consequential function of South African local government.
