The expectations among many ANC voters are unrealistically high after Zuma’s election promises. And bad service delivery will increasingly come to haunt the ANC leadership.

The recent violent protests at small towns like Piet Retief, Cullinan and Jagersfontein have signalled as much. Zuma’s honeymoon is over before it even started. ANC voters are going to hold the ANC leadership accountable.

Of course, it is mystifying how the people involved in the protests could reason that the destruction of facilities would improve their lives. The damage to the burnt-out municipal buildings in Cullinan has been estimated at R10 million.

In Piet Retief, thousands of protesters using traditional sticks (knobkieries) and petrol bombs have killed two people, also chasing several Asian traders from the township. In Jagersfontein, the city hall and municipal buildings that have been burnt down were both cultural gems, designed by the famous British architect, sir Herbert Baker in the late 19th century.

Arrogant and overfed, government officials often do not respond to citizen concerns unless there is some pressure. However, if a revival were to occur in the beloved country, it would revolve around strong personalities following a different approach: legal pressure on the ANC and peaceful self-help.

The story of Carien Visser is quite instructive in this regard. Carien lives in Sannieshof, a small rural town in Northwest province founded by her grandfather.  An attractive and busy businesswoman, she decided a few years ago that she wanted to focus more on the relaxed and beautiful aspects of life.

However, events around her simply did not allow for this to happen. In fact, her environment deteriorated with every year of ANC management in Sannieshof. Eventually, as she says, the seven sins of municipal government destroyed the quality of daily life: no sewage control, bad water management, deteriorating transport systems, administrative incompetence, theft and fraud, systemic corruption and nepotism.

Sannieshof residents were starting to walk out of their houses or businesses and having to step over raw sewage to get to their cars. Children were walking to school in previously well-kept streets overflowing with dangerous sewage.

The taxpayers exhausted all other alternatives available to them to get the municipality to repair and maintain infrastructure.

They wrote numerous letters and attended local municipality budget meetings to make recommendations. Carien Visser even visited the premier to ask for assistance.

However, the arrogant officials did nothing. In November 2007, under Carien’s leadership, the ratepayers association declared a dispute with the local authority.

Since 2005, taxpayers in about 220 South African towns have declared a dispute with their municipalities and started withholding their municipal taxes until better services are delivered. The municipal taxes are paid into a fund run by the ratepayers association or legal trust accounts until service delivery is implemented.

If the overfed ANC officials of the municipalities still do not perform, the residents start addressing the gaps in delivery, using self-help initiatives and hiring subcontractors. This approach has also been followed in Sannieshof, where Carien has personally participated in the testing of water quality and sewage control.

If South Africa is ever to recover from an oversupply of arrogant incompetents in office, it will only be in some areas of the country. And such a revival will only emerge where strong personalities and small communities help themselves.