People's Participation in Rural Development: The Examples From Mafikeng

The rural development strategy is very important to the predominantly rural Central District of the North-West Province of South Africa. However, most studies of rural development in Africa seem to indicate that the strategy is always 'top-down' and devoid of people's participation. The failure of this strategy to alleviate rural poverty is mostly predicated on this . This paper examines the prevalence of people's participation in all the stages of the rural development projects, in four rural areas in Mafikeng in the Central District. The information was collected through literature review and testing the theory (by use of questionnaires and interviews) on people's participa tion in the four rural areas. The central argument in this paper is that, though people's participation renders projects more effective and success ful, the stages at which involvement can occur are varied. Examples of two very successful and two less successful projects in the district are cited to support the central argument. In conclusion, the study makes recommen dations to the rural development agencies in the North-West to practise meaningful and realistic people's participation in their projects.