The impact of the South African apartheid government history to democratic South Africa: The case of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality

Abstract

Leaders of various South African government institutions are still referring to apartheid as the reason for inequalities in the society even after more than 25 years of democracy.  The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the South African government history on the daily operations of the democratic government.  Using cross-sectional analysis, this study analyzed data collected from ward councilors and community members. The study found that leaders of the democratic government still use the apartheid government as the excuse for poor public service delivery. The history of the South African government must be used as a point of reference and not as a reason for poor public service delivery. The majority of ward councilors of the eThekwini Municipality were selected based on their political history and not based on merit. This study answers the question regarding the correlation between poor public service delivery and the use of the apartheid regime as an excuse.