The enforcement of socio-economic rights against local governments in South Africa

Abstract

Poverty and underdevelopment are South Africa’s greatest challenges. These are inextricably linked to uneven access to adequate public services. By all accounts, South Africa has made impressive progress in extending access to basic services to marginalised communities (see Table 1 below). However, the main challenge remains the severe inequality in access to basic services across different demographic segments of the population of 52 million inhabitants.