Since its democratic dispensation, South Africa has been striving to find the right economic tool to confront the challenges of poverty, joblessness, widening income gap and lack of job related skills. Numerous methods have been put to trial in an attempt to rescue the rural masses from the scourge of poverty, joblessness and social degradation, but with limited impact. Literature surveys in this regard attest to social intervention programmes failing, due to the absence or little involvement of beneficiary rural communities in the programme establishment. Renewed rural development initiative at Mhlontlo Municipality occurs within this context. The study was then undertaken to evaluate stakeholder participation in the planning, the implementation and the monitoring and evaluation of the pilot programme. This is a study of the rural development pilot programme at Mhlontlo Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape. The statistical population for the study included all institutionalised stakeholder’s organizations, as critical components of engagement to realise the programme setting. The study target participants were 90 adult individuals involve in local stakeholder’s public participation institutions. A self-completed questionnaire was administered to the 90 target participants with 64 returned completely filled. The results were analysed using statistical mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variance and presented as tables and graphs. Findings were that there was more participation in the programme implementation phase, than in the programme planning and monitoring phase. Assessment of programme outputs by respondents was diverse and inconclusive. This was attributed to poor participation by programme stakeholders in programme’s planning. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

A longstanding trend in development studies literature has emerged that emphasizes the importance of addressing issues of power in all facets of development, including in the planning and design of development interventions. While top-down planning reinforces the view of the poor as impotent, powerless actors whose well-being is dependent upon the actions of others through concentration of decision-making power in the hands of those who take on the role of trustees, popular participation in planning empowers the poor by viewing the poor as competent, rational actors who are better suited to improve their own lives than any external expert. This research report analyzes the power dynamics involved in an attempt by an Australian mining company (Mineral Commodities Ltd) and the South African government to implement a mining project in the Xolobeni area of the Wild Coast of South Africa. The issue of popular participation has always been a large part of the debate of whether to approve the mining license. Opponents of the project claim that the process discouraged and even prevented local participation, while supporters claim variously that either sufficient local participation did take place or that local participation was unimportant because the project would improve the lives of local residents regardless of how much participation took place. This report aims to analyze the power dynamics that came into play throughout the long fight over the proposed mine and draw out whatever lessons can be learned regarding South Africa’s development process. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.