The capacity of Eastern Cape Governance in a post-apartheid era: service delivery in schools
Date
2021
Authors
Magwaca, Onela Nolwandle
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Abstract
This dissertation addresses two central questions: first, how have policies within the post-Apartheid government promoted a more equitable society in the Eastern Cape province? Secondly, how has the inequality and treatment of the previously marginalised been eliminated? These research questions are addressed by analysing the legacies of Apartheid in the Eastern Cape, from the establishment of Bantustans to citizen experiences in a post-Apartheid society today. Equity interventions, with particular focus on the regulation of service delivery within an ex-Bantustan province, are essential in this analysis. This investigation is guided by the following key variables: Bantustan governance, policy and implementation reform, and infrastructural development. This dissertation illustrates the ways in which post-1994 reform structures have not sufficiently impacted the Eastern Cape in the post-Apartheid setting. One of the previous landmarks for segregation and inequality, which were schools, is used in this study to demonstrate the continuous disadvantaged circumstances in the Eastern Cape. The conditions within schools are a fragment of the issues within the province and are reflective of the slow pace of development. The inclusion of semi-structured interviews with the selection of ex-staff members in various Mdanstane schools, ward councillors, as well as the government-owned water implementation agent Amatola Water expose real-life issues and concerns that detail sanitation in schools within the Eastern Cape. This study illustrates that there is a lack of effective implementation of service delivery in the Eastern Cape and that the regulations of the standards throughout the province shown through inherited systems of Apartheid governance and infrastructure, are not adequately maintained. This study argues that the post-Apartheid government has failed to reform and implement service delivery and infrastructure within the Eastern Cape. It indicates that the transition from separate development to a unified country has not been wholly beneficial for the previously marginalised. This study shows that development within the Eastern Cape continues to decline because of the history of neglect associated with it. It is also argued that the incapacity of Eastern Cape governance can be attributed to the inaccessibility of essential services, poor provincial governance, and inefficiency within the reform of public services throughout the years of the new representative government
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science in the Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, 2021