MPM / Oliver Reginald Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies / Community participation is a concept which is meant to ensure that community
members are an integral part of processes that determine their destination in relation
to their development needs. It is a means of empowering people by developing their
skills and abilities to enable them to negotiate and make appropriate decisions for their
development. Community participation, however, is not without its challenges. In most
development projects initiated by local municipalities and other government
departments, community participation appears to be an afterthought. In this regard,
the study aimed to investigate challenges of community participation in Tickyline. The
research methods used for this study were both qualitative and quantitative and data
was collected from twenty-two (22) research participants using open-ended interviews
and questionnaires. Data was analysed using thematic method and Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.
Findings
The study revealed that majority of the participants do not participate in development
projects because some meetings are arranged during odd times, particularly during
the initial phases of the projects. The study further revealed that these challenges of
participation are influenced by officials who take decisions on behalf of communities
as they regard the participants as less capable of taking independent decisions
regarding their own projects.
It was found that community projects are literally imposed to the communities and
therefore, participation and community involvement is very minimal which
consequently collapses the projects.
Recommendations
Consequent to the findings, it is recommended that community leaders should make
community meetings open to all community members. There should be regular
community gatherings to discuss issues affecting the community; and there should be
inclusion of community members in every phase of projects by municipal and
government members to ensure maximum participation in relation to development
projects. The officials should regard the participants as important stakeholders in the
development of the projects in the area. Community members should be literally made
ii
sole beneficiaries of development projects from the inception to the hand-over phase.
By so doing, they will be able to sustain both themselves and the development projects
within their area. / NRF
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:univen/oai:univendspace.univen.ac.za:11602/1490 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Malatji, Khutso Peace |
| Contributors | Nkuna, N., Mahole, E. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (v, 90 leaves) |
| Rights | University of Venda |
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