OPINION: The food distribution process is the one intervention during lockdown that highlighted systemic and systematic challenges in local government, writes Nontando Zintle Ngamlana.
This article does not question the rationale behind the provision of food parcels to those who needed food the most during the lockdown - this was a proactive response from government and came at a time when such support was needed the most. For this and many other interventions, we applaud our government.
It was not surprising when reports surfaced of councillors hoarding the food or at worst selling it; this would happen in an environment where there are low levels of trust between public representatives and their constituents such as we have in South Africa across many municipalities. Scholars of the system and structure of local government have for years been arguing that South African municipalities were far too big and that the size of its wards was equally big. They argue among other things that, with the size of wards that South Africa has, it would be difficult for public representatives to properly service their constituents.
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