From Informal Settlement to Dignified Community: Transformative Leadership in Providing Water and Sanitation in “Permanently Temporary” South African Townships Extensions Areas

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22702981

P.A.P. Maboha (Department of Public Administration and Management, University of South Africa, South Africa)The provision of basic municipal services in African cities represents a definitive test of governance and ethical leadership. This qualitative study investigates the enduring crisis of water and sanitation provision in South Africa’s township extensions, where communities have built permanent homes and lived for decades, yet the state withholds formal services due to “legal-political paralysis” regarding their “illegal” status. These communities exist in a state of “permanent temporariness,” creating a governance paradox where the longer eviction is postponed, the more morally indefensible it becomes to deny basic rights. Guided by the central question of how transformative public service leadership can navigate this legal-political impasse to ethically deliver fundamental services, this study employs a qualitative desktop methodology synthesising published case studies, policy documents, legal frameworks, municipal reports, and media archives from Gauteng and Western Cape provinces. The analysis reveals that the stalemate signifies both a deficiency in traditional public administration and an essential opportunity for leadership aligned with Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The study concludes that providing water and sanitation in contested spaces is not a technical reward for illegality but a foundational act of legitimate governance and a prerequisite for public health, social cohesion, and developmental integration. A framework for “proactive service delivery in contested settlements” is proposed, offering actionable recommendations for African public administration.