Koopedi, Tsholofelo2022-11-022022-11-022022-08-11Koopedi, T.J. (2022), Mmila (the Road) and the Great Stoep. Curator, 65: 701-709. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12522.0011-3069 (print)2151-6952 (online)10.1111/cura.12522https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/88095This paper explores and questions the promise of service delivery and infrastructural upgrades made in the City of Ekurhuleni in post apartheid South Africa, its immateriality in relation to concepts of modern African heritage. The paper is drawn from my PhD research which compares how the roads and storm water Repairs, and Maintenance Budget of the City of Ekurhuleni has been resourced, organized, and distributed across the city’s townships since 2000. It interrogates the budget process and its effectiveness as a political tool–rather than a technical tool–that pursues spatial justice and transformation of these previously underdeveloped townships. Section 153(a) of the South African Constitution delegates a municipality to ‘structure and manage its administration and budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote the social and economic development of the community’.en© 2022 The Authors. Curator: The Museum Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.Service deliveryInfrastructural upgradesPost-apartheid South AfricaCity of EkurhuleniArticle