Public participation and the lack of service delivery before and after the 2006 local government elections in the Free State

Elections perform a fundamental role in the democratic process, as they are seen as the practical implementation of democracy - the process through which ordinary citizens can influence how they are governed. South Africa's third democratic local government elections were held on 1 March 2006. As was the case in 1995 and 2000, hundreds of thousands of citizens in the Free State joined fellow citizens in the other eight provinces to once again exercise their democratic rights at the polling stations. These elections took place against the background of outbreaks of unrest and violence over perceived and nondelivery of services and corruption / cronyism on the part of local government councillors. The 2006 local government elections were chosen as the starting point for this article because 'in a democracy, local elections represent the first arena for citizen participation' (Cornwall and Caventa in Davids 2006: 53).