The authors – Ian Palmer, founder of Palmer Development Group (PDG), a South African development agency; Sue Parnell, Professor of Urban Geography at UCT; and Nishendra Moodley, who works with the National Treasury’s City Support Programme – focus on water and sanitation, energy, roads, public transport and housing over the last 23 years, and ask whether the South African government has succeeded in improving access to services for the country’s black majority.