The 2009-10 public service delivery protests emanating from local community members in South Africa (Burger, 2009), have raised questions with regard to the effective functioning of Community Development Workers (CDW). The CDW Programme has been introduced and collectively overseen by the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Department of Provincial Local Government with the objective of accelerating service delivery. This article aims to critically define and review the role of CDWs in accelerating service delivery within local government. This will be achieved by identifying the challenges and benefits of deploying CDW in local government. Lastly, the article will identify the reporting lines of community development workers.