A Review of Spaces of Local Participation to Promote Service Delivery in South Africa

In many developing countries, there is a continued decline in public participation at the local level which often results in poor service delivery and as a result, a rise in protests. South Africa has experienced a sharp increase in service delivery protests in the last decade. One of the reasons advanced is that existing constitutional spaces of democracy do not seem to facilitate effective local participation. Consequently, there is a need to investigate potential mechanisms to enhance local participation because it is believed to contribute towards improved service delivery. This study responds to the following question: What challenges inhibit existing spaces of participation? How can these identified spaces be improved? The study draws data from existing literature and local government documents on South Africa. It concludes that there is a need to improve existing spaces of local participation, which would improve service delivery. Address for correspondence: Dr Tyanai Masiya School of Public Management and Administration, University of Pretoria, Cnr Lynnwood Road and Roper Street, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa E-mail: masiya.masiya@up.ac.za INTRODUCTION Since the 1994 democratic elections, the primary project the South African government undertook was to provide services to the neglected masses as a result of spatial planning by the former apartheid regime. In practice, such redress is complex, and the basic needs of the citizenry can easily be disregarded. The decentralisation process that the country embarked on, offered local governments an opportunity to become central places of service delivery, bequeathed with autonomy as well as legislative and administrative authority (Koelble and Siddle 2014; Mokgopo 2017). The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (2016), notes that local government is the key site of delivery and development and is central to the entire South African transformative project. The reason is that local government is in close proximity to the citizens and engages directly with communities, promotes democracy and tends to immediate needs (Tshoose 2015). Despite local government being central to service delivery, the rise in protests in the last decade signify the failure and in part, limitations of the existing spaces of participation (Mathekga and Buccus 2006; Bradlow et al. 2011). Protests over basic services have been on the rise in the last decade with Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the North West province accounting for the majority of the service delivery protests (Chigwata et al. 2017; Jordaan 2017). In many instances the protests have degenerated into violent confrontations because local authorities tend to ignore voices which they perceive to be politically weak and illegitimate (Skenjana and Kimemi 2011). Therefore it is important to question why citizens prefer protests instead of formal invited channels of local participation. This paper argues that reasons for such action include the ineffectiveness of existJ Hum Ecol, 65(1-3): 41-51 (2019) DOI: 10.31901/24566608.2019/65.1-3.3134 © Kamla-Raj 2019 PRINT: ISSN 0970-9274 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6608 42 AMARONE NOMDO, TYANAI MASIYA AND ISAAC KHAMBULE ing mechanisms for participation. According to Ngamlana and Mathoho (2012: 33), “it appears that even legislated spaces for public participation are poorly resourced and supported and that they fail to contribute meaningfully to local