Effective service delivery is one of the biggest problems the South African government has been grappling with since 1994. During the apartheid years, the present Eastern Cape Province was fragmented into a patchwork of racially segregated “Bantustans”, with separate administrations installed by the Pretoria government, in addition to the old South African government institutions. The post-apartheid challenge is to amalgamate these underdeveloped areas with the much wealthier “formerly white” areas, to function as one province.

 

As part of the Provincial Premier’s programme to improve government service delivery, CIETafrica won a public tender to demonstrate the dynamics and likely products of social audit in Amatole, one of the province’s six districts. The audit, which began in January 2001, covers the “social needs” cluster of services: health, welfare, education and sports, arts and culture. The audit collected information from households in representative communities about people’s use, experience and perceptions of service delivery in these four sectors.

 

The report is available from the Library.