The legal accountability of local government in South Africa for the failure to deliver sanitation services

Abstract There is evidence, past and present, to the effect that local government or municipalities in South Africa do at times renege on and violate their duty to provide basic services to residents within their jurisdiction. In view of this, the paper starts by establishing the links between local government’s constitutional and legislative duties regarding service delivery, and particularly sanitation-service delivery. Once this is clarified, and with a view to demonstrating how civil society and citizens could pursue judicial avenues for the enforcement of their service-delivery rights, the discussion then evaluates past and present case law to determine the extent to which, and the methods through which, courts are holding local governments accountable for failing to deliver on sanitation services.