This article examines the significance of political and community oversight in the effective delivery of public services, and specifically the role of such oversight in reinforcing and strengthening good governance. Though a relatively new term, 'good governance' has become part of the accepted development and democratic common sense. It is argued in this article that good governance is an essential precondition for both public and private institutions if they are to improve the lives of the poor. Apart from the institutions expressly created to defend good governance, the authors suggest that communities themselves can and should play an oversight role, thereby holding local government accountable in delivering basic services. South Africa is one of only a few countries that have made formal progress in internalising and institutionalising the logic and structures of good governance as articulated by the 1996 Constitution an