Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa

Download or read book Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa written by David A. McDonald and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been a dramatic shift worldwide from welfare municipalism - where the state both subsidized and provided essential municipal services - to a neoliberal vision of balanced budgets, fiscal restraint and privatization. Cost recovery is at the heart of this new municipal vision with far reaching implications for access to services, affordability and privatization. This book brings together a theoretical and empirical review of the impact of cost recovery on basic municipal services such as water, refuse collection and electricity, with particular reference to South Africa. It describes the theory and practice of cost recovery and presents six case studies drawing on participatory and ethnographic research. The final chapter examines alternative future possibilities, reformist or equity-oriented.