What needs to happen inside a municipality for a political promise to become a working service? Host Tasneem Essop speaks with PARI’s Sithembile Mbete, Waseem Holland and Sarah Meny-Gibert about the people, systems and decisions that connect plans and budgets to delivery.

Starting with Johannesburg’s struggles to provide functioning fire services, the episode explores procurement failures, political interference and the unequal consequences of administrative neglect. It asks how appointments could be made more transparent, why outsourcing still requires expertise within municipalities, and what concrete commitments voters should demand when parties promise capable, ethical government.

Talking to Tracy Ledger and Jugal Mahabir, this episode does a deep dive into water, electricity, affordability, free basic services, alternative energy and municipal infrastructure. It examines what affects municipal finances, and how the critical need for affordable services could be prioritised by municipalities to support development and livelihoods.

Host Tasneem Essop asks what voters should look for when parties promise better services, including how municipalities use the funding allocated for free basic services. The conversation explores how rooftop solar could support infrastructure maintenance and low-income households, and how water released through the transition from coal could create opportunities for local development. Building on our first season, Just Access: The Real Transition, it asks who benefits from these choices and who is accountable for delivering.

Who decides how land is used, whose rights are recognised, and who benefits from development? Host Tasneem Essop speaks with PARI researchers Gaynor Paradza, Daniel Sher and Federica Duca about how municipal land decisions shape where people can live, work and build a future.

They explore party promises about state land, housing and title deeds, the rights that formal records overlook, and the pressures of a changing climate. From community consent to the location and affordability of housing, the episode asks what it would take for development to challenge inherited inequalities—and for residents to have a meaningful say.