Community Participation And Democratic Practice In Post-Apartheid South Africa: Rhetoric Vs Reality

Abstract

Community participation is important in post-apartheid South Africa with regard to the design, implementation and evaluation of integrated development planning at local level.This paper evaluates a number of research projects to assess community participation in Cape Town from 1994 to 2004.Evidence, however, suggests that community participation has been largely rhetorical and not substantive.Thus, with a view to encourage strategic engagement of communities with local authorities, this paper suggests a range of conceptual, theoretical and practical steps to advance transformative planning practices at grassroots level.Hence the importance of substantive elements of community participation such as the initiation, identification, orientation and authentication of participatory processes.

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