Humanist thinking on development embraces a people-centred view in which people are considered active agents for change in society. However, the nature and success of public participation in development is a contentious and widely debated issue in international planning and development literature. Simultaneously, realities in planning practice such as the effectiveness and influence of public participation on decision making seems to be daunting. In South Africa public participation is a constitutional right and enforced by planning legislation. Although post-apartheid South African legislation devised strategies to increase the participation of the public on all spheres of government, the nature of participation seems to be contradictive and regarded by numerous authors to be ad hoc, incremental, unstructured, unbalanced and uncoordinated. While good intentions were laid by the Constitution and development legislation and policies, these documents do not necessarily ensure effectiveness of participation, nor create a culture of participation. The aims of the research were thus twofold: firstly, to determine the outcome of public participation in planning applications and secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation against the background of the current legislative framework in order to enable a greater inclusion of participation in planning. The research followed a quantitative approach and included an in-depth study of statutory town planning applications in Tlokwe Local Municipality completed over a period of sixteen years. The inclusion of both periods before and after democratisation in South Africa shed some light on whether the effectiveness of public participation increased or declined during this period. A database was compiled on the detail of applications and included the type of application, location, legislation involved, public participation involved, objections (if any), rebuttals on objections and the outcome of the application. To organise and summarize the raw data gathered, a descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken. Although participation of the public is needed in town planning applications and enforced by legislation in South Africa, the public’s view that their contribution through objections is not effective was negated by the research. For example, objections (as one indication of the effectiveness of public participation) did not feature prominently (only 6, 3% of applications had objections), but these showed efficacy to influence the outcome of the applications. Overall this research provided a first step towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of public participation towards improved and more inclusive decision making. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Humanist thinking on development embraces a people-centred view in which people are considered active agents for change in society. However, the nature and success of public participation in development is a contentious and widely debated issue in international planning and development literature. Simultaneously, realities in planning practice such as the effectiveness and influence of public participation on decision making seems to be daunting. In South Africa public participation is a constitutional right and enforced by planning legislation. Although post-apartheid South African legislation devised strategies to increase the participation of the public on all spheres of government, the nature of participation seems to be contradictive and regarded by numerous authors to be ad hoc, incremental, unstructured, unbalanced and uncoordinated. While good intentions were laid by the Constitution and development legislation and policies, these documents do not necessarily ensure effectiveness of participation, nor create a culture of participation. The aims of the research were thus twofold: firstly, to determine the outcome of public participation in planning applications and secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation against the background of the current legislative framework in order to enable a greater inclusion of participation in planning. The research followed a quantitative approach and included an in-depth study of statutory town planning applications in Tlokwe Local Municipality completed over a period of sixteen years. The inclusion of both periods before and after democratisation in South Africa shed some light on whether the effectiveness of public participation increased or declined during this period. A database was compiled on the detail of applications and included the type of application, location, legislation involved, public participation involved, objections (if any), rebuttals on objections and the outcome of the application. To organise and summarize the raw data gathered, a descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken. Although participation of the public is needed in town planning applications and enforced by legislation in South Africa, the public’s view that their contribution through objections is not effective was negated by the research. For example, objections (as one indication of the effectiveness of public participation) did not feature prominently (only 6, 3% of applications had objections), but these showed efficacy to influence the outcome of the applications. Overall this research provided a first step towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of public participation towards improved and more inclusive decision making. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015