The Role of Ward Committees towards Enhancing Public Participation: The Case of the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Enslin Johannes Van Rooyen, Sipho Kenneth Mokoena 
(Department of Public Management, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa)

Abstract: The advent of democracy in 1994, and the first non-racial local government elections in 1995 in South Africa, brought about a new era of leadership and promoted certain basic values and principles at all spheres of government. Such values and principles include the notion of active democracy through public engagement in planning and managing domestic development processes. This is core to any modern public management system in a democratic state. However, after fifteen years of democracy, South Africa is still faced with the daunting task of fully experiencing meaningful public participation in government institutions. This process entails a transformation from an inactive (unacceptable) to an active and democratic (acceptable) way of governance. Section 152(1)(e) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa mandates municipalities “to encourage the involvement of communities and community organizations in the matters of local government”. Thus, the notion of participation becomes a key cornerstone of good governance and constitutes an integral component in the policy making process. Within this context, public participation at the Local Government sphere is considered by some to be a primary value for democracy. It is the authors’ perspective that Local Government in South Africa is bestowed with the responsibility of driving the process of building participation in democracy at local level and that the ward committee system may be a mechanism to increase community participation. It is argued that voting alone does not constitute meaningful citizen participation and this paper forms part of a greater on-going research endeavour set to investigate the system-imposed structures designed to promote the ideal of participatory democracy. The case example of ward committees in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa is presented where an assessment is made of the role of ward committees in relation to the enhancement of citizen participation whilst acknowledging other important stakeholders such as Community Development Workers (CDWs), ward councillors, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the Business Community. Finally, some postulates are presented en route to stimulating debate in this regard.

Key words: democracy; governance; policy making; public management; public participation

JEL code: R58