This study is about the analysis of Community Participation in Local Government Integrated Development Planning with reference to Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality. The focus on the study was on full participation of community in the IDP processes. This report presents the findings of a study conducted to identify the strategies and consultation structures used in the development of IDP processes, together with the measures of effectiveness of these strategies. This study was triggered by the non attendance of the communities in the IDP road shows, the complaints of non service delivery and little understanding of the IDP concept. The results of this study show that the communities do not fully participate in their development planning processes. The communities do not understand the purpose and existence of IDP document. The researcher hopes that this study will sensitize the community to participate in the affairs of their development that will change the quality of their lives. King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality should improve their strategies and consultation structures in their IDP processes.

This research investigated the impact of language policy implementation towards the enhancement of community participation in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (NMMM).The NMMM is an organisation tasked with ensuring equal distribution of services to local communities. This municipality was chosen on the basis of its commitment to communicate effectively with the community and in turn encourage the community to participate fully in municipal activities. The study is conducted within the parameters of the Constitution of South Africa (1996) which states that in order to ensure language equity, all official languages must be used for the promotion of multilingualism and advancement of communities. The study therefore investigated the language policy of the NMMM and its implementation with regard to the use of all three official languages of the region, namely English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans for organisational communication. Gaps in the implementation of the municipal language policy were identified by acquiring information from selected officials responsible for service delivery and selected members of the communities who receive the services. A literature survey was conducted to investigate and conceptualise the nature of language policy development and to determine the responsibilities for policy implementation. A descriptive approach was used in the study, with the data collection coming from primary sources, such as NMMM officials and members of the community; and secondary sources, such as municipal records. A number of recommendations regarding the improvement of language policy implementation by the municipality’s Language Unit were made. It is envisaged that these changes could impact positively in encouraging community participation and ultimately improve service delivery.

In South Africa there is an extensive legislative framework supporting public participation in local government; however, participation which is genuinely empowering, and not token consultation or manipulation, is still lacking in most local municipalities. This study seeks to explore and explain public participation approaches adopted by local municipalities in South Africa by looking at a comparative study of two local municipalities. The study will further evaluate international effective practices in public participation and drawing on those, make recommendations on how to strengthen public participation in South Africa.

Community participation is an important aspect of South African government policies that deal with integrated development planning and sustainable development. This report presents aspects of community participation in infrastructure delivery and in particular housing in Reeston which is part of the Duncan Village Redevelopment Initiative in East London area of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The importance of community participation is acknowledged as it enhances the ability of the community members to demonstrate and use their own views to deal with specific issues and to address the needs and problems that emerge and prevail in their societies. The two emerging paradigms of community participation suggest that the participating communities should be involved in the ‘selection, design, planning and implementation’ of projects that will have an effect on them and from which they are going to benefit ; and that continuous feedback to communities forms a fundamental part of any development activity. This report explores how the “Breaking New Ground in Housing” (BNG) policy of the South African Government meets its objectives in the context of community participation.

Development is an idea, an objective and an activity (Kothari and Minogue, 2002). Development emerged as an idea that nations had to adopt in their journey through post-war history. Development is seen as an ambiguous concept (Allen and Thomas, 1992: 23). In other words, it is defined in many ways to suit different purposes. Furthermore, over the long term development implies increased living standards, improved health and well being for all, and the achievement of whatever is regarded as a general good for society at large (Allen and Thomas, 1992: 23). Therefore, from the above development appears as a “one size fits all” concept, because it is an attempt to address the problems in society. Furthermore, development has been defined as a participatory, people-centred process intended to reduce the incidence of poverty and achieve better livelihoods for all (Kingsbury, McKay, and Hunt, 2004: 43). The definition of development as participatory and people-centred is the most applicable for the purposes of this study. Participation has been widely used in the development discourse. Within the development sphere, participation has been associated with the community sector (Gaventa and Valderrama, 1999:2). The definition of participation in development has been located in development projects and programmes (i.e. sustainable human settlements for our study purposes), as a means of strengthening their relevance, quality and sustainability (Gaventa and Valderrama, 1999:2). Strengthening of participation in local governance has to do with the strengthening of directcitizen involvement in decision-making by individuals or groups in public activities, oftenthrough newly established institutional channels, such as monitoring committees, planning processes, etc (Gaventa and Valderrama, 1999:8-9). Hence, participation could be seen as involvement in decision-making in all phases of a project (Gaventa and Valderrama, 1999:2). Citizen participation is about power and its exercise by different social actors in the spacescreated for the interaction between citizens and local authorities. However, the control of thestructure and processes for participation - defining spaces, actors, agendas, procedures - is usuallyin the hands governmental institutions and can become a barrier for effective involvement ofcitizens (Gaventa and Valderrama, 1999:7). The above discussion has been an attempt to show what participatory development or participation in a development process is all about. This has been done through briefly defining and discussing development and participation and also showing the relationship between the two concepts. Now the discussion will focus on enlightening the reader about sustainable human settlements – the main issue of this study. The decision to do research in this area came after the realization that there is still a shortage of houses in the Eastern Cape, and when the government does deliver these houses in a particular area people still have complaints regarding the new houses delivered to them. Then a question that came to mind was whether people are consulted or not before these houses are constructed during the planning stages so that they can give their own views or ideas on houses. Overall the reason for choosing this topic was to look at people’s participation on the development of houses. It is evident in the Provincial Medium Term Sustainable Human Settlement Research Agenda that community participation is lacking in the housing delivery process of the Eastern Cape (Province of the Eastern Cape Human Settlement,2011:9).

M.Ed. / Democracy is the focal point of this discussion. South Africa is a new democracy and its success depends on the quality of the contribution that her citizens will make. Enthusiasm alone will not work, but if coupled with a knowledge about democratic principles, it can make a difference. This study focuses on participation and co-responsibility as democratic principles. The school is seen as a place where these principles can be taught in a systematic way. The problems which are therefore addressed in this dissertation are, whether children are sufficiently informed about participation and co-responsibility by the time they reach Std. 10 and whether there are any aspects with regard to these principles about which children have almost no knowledge.

A Research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA by course work and Research Report in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg March 2016 / The Nkandlagate scandal, in which the South African President, Jacob Zuma allegedly spent an estimated R246 million of taxpayers’ money on the renovation of his Nkandla residence, created huge public outcry. This reached yet another height in 2015 when Zuma’s administration declared that the President was not going to pay back the money as demanded by the South African publics. The publics of South Africa used social media platforms to express themselves over the decision. Studies have shown that social media platforms provide an opportunity for political mobilisation of publics and their participation in democracy. Using critical discourse analysis, this study seeks to investigate how South African publics engaged in the social media platform, particularly Facebook, over Nkandlagate. The research focuses on the discussions by two political parties’ Facebook pages: an opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The analysis involves posts and comments made by South African publics on each of the Facebook pages to establish how South Africans made use of Facebook to express themselves over Nkandlagate, how the two parties covered Nkandlagate and what kind of discourse emerged from the parties’ posts. The concepts used in this research include the networked public sphere, democracy, watchdog and collective will/opinion. Three dimensions of critical discourse analysis were used for data analysis in this study: description (text genres), interpretation (discursive type) and explanation (social practice.) The insights of South African publics social practices were recognised. This research argues that to a large extent, social media has provided South African publics with access to Facebook a public sphere through which democracy – particularly in terms of freedom of speech – is exercised. However, there is a lack of democratic interaction in that although there was interactive engagement amongst publics, there was a lack of interactive engagement between politicians and publics. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of Witwatersrand, in 50% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management in the field of Public Policy June 2017 / Successfully translating policy intentions to desired policy outputs has been identified as a challenge that most developing countries and emerging democracies are faced with. In the early 1970s theorists and researchers realised that in part the problem is not paying enough attention to policy implementation. As a result, more research effort was put into understanding policy implementation and what factors contribute towards or impede a successful implementation of policies. This research is aimed at exploring the factors that contribute to successful implementation of policies in South African Local Government. Focus has been put on institutional provisions that are put in place by these local government institutions to support the implementation of policies. The policy used for the purposes of this study is the National Policy Framework on Public Participation (NPFPP) and the area of focus is the Ugu District. The study followed the qualitative method and nineteen (19) in-depth interviews were held with members of government, civil society and community members and representatives. Municipal documents were analysed for purposes of validating information received from interviews. The study found that there are structural and systemic challenges that contribute to low levels of success in implementing the NPFPP in the Ugu district. This is mainly due to the fact that there are inadequate and ineffective provisions for public participation in the district. Issues identified include lack of capacity within municipalities, both in terms of understanding policy requirements and the number of staff available to implement the policy. Furthermore, there was no perceived involvement of all the strategic units within the municipality to implement the policy. The external structures put in place by the municipalities in accordance with the provisions of the policy, that is, ward committees and IDP processes, proved inadequate and ineffective. The study also found that communities were unaware of their right and responsibility to participate in municipal matters. However, willingness and eagerness to work with the municipalities was displayed by both communities and civil society organizations. The study concluded by making recommendations for implementation of the NPFPP in local government generally and also recommendations for the specific area of interest. / MT 2017

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2001 / Refer to the document

Thesis (MPA) -- University of Limpopo, 2011 / The study explores the role of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in promoting public awareness activities at the Fetakgomo Local Municipality. The study reveals that lack of awareness about the activities of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature has been identified. The study critically analyzed method and models of public participation and the role of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in terms promoting public awareness activities. The findings of the study will assist the Legislature with interventions that are necessary for the improvement of public awareness activities. The study concluded that the Limpopo Provincial Legislature had not created an enabling environment for meaningful community participation, and had consequently limited the impact of community engagement on the Legislature activities. As a result, guidelines and recommendations were proposed for public awareness activities.