The Service Delivery Election: Local Government Elections 2021 (LGE 2021)

LGE 2021 is an important milestone in an otherwise surreal year of pandemic and loss. In this context, the continued crises of service delivery predates Covid19. If anything, Covid19 brought into stark relief the large-scale inequality between race and class in South Africa. Public health messaging to apply non-pharmaceutical measures to combat the Corona Virus ironically showed a lack of sanitation infrastructure in poor non-serviced communities. Calls to social-distance confirmed that congested dormitory townships in the style of apartheid spatial planning, sought to spread, not contain Covid19. Disillusionment with government spreads across all sectors of society: from homeless citizens to unemployed graduates. These sectors of society may vote (or not) with their feet. In this series of articles we bring you the stories and experiences of South Africans voicing their views on LGE 2021.