The NDR at the Grassroots: Reclaiming the Soul of Service Delivery

13 Oct 2025

In the grand narrative of South Africa’s liberation, the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) has often been spoken of in lofty terms — as a theory, a manifesto, a political compass guiding transformation. But stripped of all the jargon and ideological debate, the NDR is, at its core, a promise — a covenant between the people and those who serve them.

That promise was never meant to live only in conference resolutions or on party banners. It was meant to breathe in the dust of our townships, in the classrooms of our children, in the queues at our clinics, and in the dignity of work that puts food on the table.

Today, the real battlefield of the NDR is at the grassroots, where the daily lived experiences of ordinary South Africans either affirm or betray its ideals. Service delivery — far from being a bureaucratic function — is the beating heart of the revolution’s unfinished business.

When a pothole is fixed, a tap runs again, or a small business gets the support it needs, that is not merely administration — it’s the revolution in motion. It’s democracy made tangible. It’s the NDR taking human form.

But to reclaim that spirit, we must return to the values that anchored the movement in its purest form: collective responsibility, ethical leadership, humility, and people-centred governance. The NDR was never about entitlement or elite capture; it was about service — grounded, accountable, and transformative.

Economic transformation cannot remain a distant slogan while communities sit in the shadows of unemployment and inequality. The development of society demands that we localise the revolution — that we make it visible not only in GDP figures, but in livelihoods restored and hope revived.

At its best, the NDR is not a relic of history — it’s a living blueprint for inclusive growth. It calls on public servants to be revolutionaries in the truest sense: builders of trust, agents of change, and custodians of the people’s faith.

The NDR at the grassroots is not about politics. It’s about people.

And the revolution, if it is to survive, must once again find its heart among them.

By Fundile Gade