Factors underlying political polarisation and its impact on service delivery at a municipality in South Africa

Abstract

In the present-days, political polarisation stands as one of the most challenging and pervasive phenomenon responsible for poor service delivery in South African local municipalities. This paper was aimed at investigating factors underlying political polarisation and its impact on service delivery in South Africa. A qualitative approach was utilised in the form of case study and semi structured interviews were conducted with nine (9) ward councillors from the selected municipality. This paper found that leadership competency, political dynamics and partisanship have surfaced as a key source of political polarisation. This paper also found that political polarisation accounts for poor and prolonged service delivery processes in local municipalities. South African local municipalities should adopt “Big Bang” approach to decentralization of decision-making about service delivery for achieving greater consensus and reforms. This paper has the potential to contribute to theory, policy and practice in terms of framework for stakeholders’ engagement strategies to address the impact of political polarization.