This was a study of the problems of community involvement in the Integrated Development Planning process in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality. These problems affects the manner in which the community participation should be done in the process. This exercise is the fulfilment of the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and Municipal Systems Act which emphases community participation in the IDP process. It was found that though surveyed legislation emphasized community participation in the study area, in Ditsobotla Local Municipality this was a problem. This was due to the fact that Ditsobotla Local Municipality had a vast area consisting of urban and rural areas, as well as a diversity of races and cultures. For example, it was easy to convene mass meeting in the black communities but difficult to get similar response among the white or Asian communities. Interaction was through the media, or written messages. The following are recommendations derived from the findings: That public participation should encompass a sense that the public's contribution will influence the final outcome. That the public participation process must reflect the interests of and meet the needs of participants. The participation process should facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected. Consideration should be given to how unorganized communities or interest groups could be brought together as participants. That participants should be involved in defining the manner in which they wish to participate. Participants should be provided with the information they need to make their contribution meaningful. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2002

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Technology: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This thesis explores the management of community development projects in Mafunze and Inadi Tribal authorities. These are rural areas situated on the Westside of Pietermaritzburg along Bulwer Road. The community development projects were developed as means for rural development after the apartheid regime. When the African National Congress came into power after the first democratic elections in 1994, they came up with a working policy document which was the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Most of the community development projects were executed as per principles of the RDP. The management of these projects involved a number of stakeholders as dealt with extensively in the study. The research was a case study analysis which aimed to determine the extent to which socio- economic upliftment is achieved through community development projects and their management thereof. The sample was drawn from a population of eleven community projects. Project committee members were interviewed in their mother language as most of the committee members would not understand English. The study concentrated on the views and opinions of the stakeholders in the management of community projects. The responses were translated from IsiZulu to English while other comments were captured in IsiZulu then translated into English. The ethical conduct and confidentiality was highly emphasized and kept as such as project communities feared that they may be victimised. The study revealed that total commitment of the community in development issues is vital. This called for active participation in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. It also revealed that most projects collapsed after being handed over to the community; further, the study did reveal that there was more room for improvement in terms of skills exchange programmes with the international community.

M.A. (Community Development) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016. / This report examines the potential for private in commercial land-use activities to yield a positive return to capital as well as ecosystem infrastructure in South Africa. Intact ecosystem infrastructure in South Africa is concentrated in the Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga, all of which have a high prevalence of communal land-ownership and small-scale farmers. These areas are under threat of rapid degradation from poor land-use practices including over-grazing, over-harvesting of forestry products, alien encroachment and over-frequent burning resulting in soil erosion and degradation, decreased water retention and quality as well as denudation and biodiversity loss. As such developing effective strategies to respond to the drivers of land degradation is a critical task for ecosystem goods and services preservation. While the majority of existing state led strategies around sustainable land-use, land-reform and rural development in these areas have proven ineffective there are notable exceptions emanating from the state, NGOs and the private sector. This report analyses these examples in case study format, pointing out the key features of each case with regards to the enabling environment and primary outcomes from both a financial and ecosystem infrastructure returns perspective. Specific attention is also given to the development of effective social processes that have a proven track-record improving the social base that underlies effective socio-ecological systems. The end goal of the report is to provide a theoretical model designed for real-world application / LG2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Studies, Johannesburg, March 2017 / The role of youth in development in South Africa is of increasing concern to development practitioners. Figuring out how to maximise youth participation in a way that is meaningful is often difficult, particularly in national discourse around development. This is important because of the centrality of youth in demographic trends as well as the role of citizen participation in advancing democracy. Currently, the scope for meaningful youth participation in South Africa is limited because of access to opportunities for participation, and a perception of social status as a requirement for involvement in development; this, coupled by a lack of political will and the inability to adopt people-centred approaches to development mean that youth participation is often ignored in development processes. Within these contexts, this paper looks to assess whether there is a developmental environment which is conducive to meaningful youth participation. Through an analysis of field data obtained through interviews with youth in Tembisa as well as National Planning Commissioners, this paper analyses the scope of youth participation as it related to the National Development Plan. This data draws conclusions about youth perceptions of development, the National Development Plan and their role in national development. It also draws conclusions about the ways the National Planning Commission envisions the role of youth in the implementation of the plan, as well as their role in creating an enabling environment for youth participation. These insights are grounded in a theory of a democratic developmental state and the Capabilities Approach, assessing which approach to development would best create an environment for meaningful youth participation / XL2018

M.Ed. / With the democratic government in place in 1994, many donor agents put a lot of money into rural community development. This was done with the hope of addressing disparities that were caused by the apartheid era. Yet the availability of funds for rural communities has often not resulted in development as anticipated. This study looks at how community development projects should be planned, implemented and monitored. A case study of the Boschkop sanitation project has been used. In this case interviews, documents and observations (to a limited extent) were used to gather information. Two members of the Regional Sanitation Task Team, three Project Steering Committee members, three community members and two trainers were interviewed. Documents, ranging from the business plan to the closure report, were used. The data were analysed using the constant comparative method. From the data analysis it became apparent that the Boschkop sanitation project was not successful. The project was implemented over a very short period of time. There was not sufficient education on the project as the participants were not afforded the opportunity to apply what they had learned immediately. The community was not involved in making decisions and somehow they do not think they own the project. The study shows that reckless disbursement of money is not necessarily a solution to a problem. For rural community development projects to be successful there should be sufficient time allowed, a period of at least twelve months, to allow the participants to be actively involved right from the inception of the project to its evaluation. During the planning phase all the stakeholders have to indicate what it is they would like the project to achieve. Indicators of success have to be agreed upon

Digital geographical information systems (GIS) are tools for handling spatial data. Initially developed in First World countries, the technology is fast being taken up as a tool for handling spatial information by many Third World countries. GIS has been used for any number of applications involving spatial data, one of its primary uses has been in various planning fields where the advantages offered to planners by the technology have been highlighted by a number of publications and studies. GIS has been actively used as an urban planning tool in South Africa since the mid-1980s, (Vosloo 1987) however its use as a tool for rural planning has not developed to the same extent. As early as 1986 reference was made to the possible advantages offered by GIS to rural planning in South Africa (Fincham 1986). Despite this early recognition, the use of GIS in the rural planning sphere remains negligible. This study examines the. possible reasons for this by attempting to answer the question, "is GIS appropriate to rural planning in South Africa?" A number of approaches to rural planning are practised in South Africa. This study examines the appropriateness of applying GIS to one of these approaches, rural community development planning. Components of the study included i) an examination of the issues affecting the use of GIS in the rural development field, achieved through the use of a literature and questionnaire survey and ii) a case study examining the feasibility of incorporating GIS as a tool to the Shixini Development Project, Transkei. The study does not examine the intricacies of rural development theory, but it does acknowledge the fact that the approach employed by an organisation to rural development will have important implications concerning the use of a GIS in a project. The approach adopted to a project affects amongst others the administrative structure, the planning process, the flow of spatial data and its use, and consequently the possible role of GIS. The Shixini Rural Development Project was classified as a community development project, and as a result the study concentrates on this approach to rural development. This may limit the study to a particular planning process, however most rural case studies will have certain aims and factors which are unique to its situation. In order to place the results of the Shixini case study in a wider context the results of the study are linked to the questionnaire and literature survey. From this basis the usefulness of GIS in the rural development sphere was examined. Available literature on GIS indicates that the majority of problems associated with GIS rarely reside with the technology itself but rather with its supporting mechanisms. The study identified and concentrated on these support mechanisms, both at the project level and what is referred to in the study as the operating environment in South Africa. The results of the study revealed that a number of problems exist with regard to the attitude with which GIS is regarded in development organisations. It was found that these attitudes are legitimately based on a number of problems associated with incorporating the technology into project based organisations. It was concluded that GIS was appropriate to rural community planning, but is presently limited to certain aspects of the planning process and possibly to certain applications.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Magister Technologiae: Civil Engineering and Survey, M.L Sultan Technikon, 2002. / The new South African Government that came into power in 1994 faced a daunting task of undoing the political injustices of the past. The government immediately introduced a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to address these injustices / M

The current study aimed to evaluation of a Rural Development project in this case the (Kabelo Trust), by evaluating the factors that contributes to its sustainability even though 70% of the members did not undergo high school education. Qualitative research methods was employed in gathering accurate information from the project members about the strategies that they are employing in sustaining the project while many government funded project does not last for even a year. The involvement of the stakeholders like Setsoto Local Municipality, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the role they played in the project was also explored. It was therefore suggested by the researcher that the main stakeholder which is the Department of Agriculture should assist the project in establishing market for products in other countries.

Masihlumisane (let’s grow together) is a community based project in a small rural community of Glenmore situated to the south of the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) and half way between Grahamstown and Peddie in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This rural community was established as a resettlement center during pre-1994 South African government forced removals (Hallett, 1994). Glenmore is economically and socially impoverished as there are few businesses, little economic activity and minimal social tradition in the settlement (Murray, 1989). This village is characterised by an out migration of people of an economically active age, high unemployment amongst residents, dysfunctional families due to parents living elsewhere in order to earn a living, and a youthful population desperate to obtain skills and experiences that will benefit them when they leave Glenmore in the future.