The Rural Immigration Effects on Urban Service Delivery in South Africa (SA)

The current socio-economic and political problems of South Africa are rooted in the colonial apartheid era as scholars and researchers suggest through extensive research. However, there have been high levels of service delivery protests related to the government performance on the issues of service delivery to the local communities’ countrywide. Governments departments appear to be lacking much required knowledge and understanding of external factors associated with rural to urban migration such social-economic factors and other various relevant challenges, hence, local authorities are struggling to meet up with demands caused by the ever-increasing number of urban populations, which affects services delivery performance. The study was quantitative approach and used 5 Likert scale questionnaires which were distributed in the selected areas of eThekwini city. A total of 100 with 25 respondents per area, chosen areas include emhlabeni, emalandeni, ezimeleni and silver city. Whereas, qualitative aspects of the study were secondary data through extensive literature review, the study has found that indeed rural to urban migration has a negative impact on service delivery the study argue that service delivery, rural to urban migration, public participation need to be part of the government agenda holistically to improve service delivery and capacity of local authorities. This study recommends proactive urban planning and community involvement through public participation channels. The generalization of the findings of this study should be done with care.