Book review: Building a capable state: service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa
Abstract
Written by long-standing research practitioners Ian Palmer and Nishendra Moodley,
as well as one of South Africa’s leading academic urbanists, Professor Sue Parnell,
Building a Capable State tackles the hard
question of whether the post-apartheid state
is up to delivering rights-based, sustainable
development, and more specifically the task
of providing local services like water, electricity, roads and housing.
Somewhat surprisingly, after 10 years of
maladministration and even deliberate sabotage under the Zuma administration, the
answer is a qualified yes. Today South
Africa’s citizens, especially poor citizens, are
substantially better off than they were in
1994.