The poster child for municipal collapse

The situation in Makhanda highlights the country's state capacity crisis and the need for decentralised, community-led action

- Leroy Maisiri

What we are witnessing in Makhanda is not only a story of potholes, sewage spills and dry taps, but a deeper issue of state capacity itself.

Does the South African state still have the ability to fulfil its most basic mandate? The Makana local municipality, encompassing Makhanda and other areas, has become emblematic of the crisis of local government.

Despite repeated court interventions, oversight hearings by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and auditor general disclaimers of accountability, the municipality remains unable to deliver the most basic services.

Makana municipality has received help in the form of treasury debt relief, provincial revitalisation funds, smart-meter rollouts and water-treatment plant support, yet service delivery remains catastrophic. The issue then cannot be scarcity of resources but the incapacity and hierarchical structure of municipal governance.

The municipality stands as a case study to interrogate the concept of state capacity. Drawing on anarchist political theory, it is clear state capacity is a technocratic illusion and is not merely eroded but becomes a structural problem that directly affects everyone.

Rather than repeating cycles of administrative intervention, dissolution orders and technocratic fixes, we need to start to imagine alternatives rooted in decentralised, participatory and directly democratic forms of organisation. Makana municipality is both a microcosm of South African state failure and a site of potential experimentation in community-driven alternatives to statist governance.

Grahamstown, renamed Makhanda in 2018, is known as a cultural and educational centre, home to Rhodes University and the biggest festivals in Africa — the National Arts Festival and Scifest. Yet, the town has become infamous for municipal dysfunction.