Amtaika takes a critical, yet exploratory, view in providing a strong argument for the establishment and existence of local government as a distinct sphere in the post-apartheid state. This is immediately clear from Chapter 1, which deals with three critical issues of local government: theory of governance, citizen participation and service delivery. His attempt to highlight not only the dominant variables of a developmental framework of local government in South Africa, but also the narrative that has since characterised the socio-political and even economic challenges of local governance is worth noting.