Nontando Guwa

Public participation in South Africa forms an integral part of our democracy. It is viewed as a democratic process of engaging people in decision-making, planning and generally allowing them to play an active part in their own development.

The legislative framework in South Africa mandates local government – the sphere of government closest to the people – to create spaces and facilitate public participation. Ward committees are the structure through which the public is meant to participate in local government processes; however, research shows that this structure lacks the capacity needed to perform its duties as it should.

Various local municipalities throughout South Africa have seemingly taken their mandate to heart and prioritised public participation in municipal planning processes by introducing a ward-planning system. This is viewed by many scholars as a positive undertaking that not only allows for maximum participation of ward communities, but one that has a lasting impact in transferring skills to local people, capacity building of ward committees and the empowerment of communities.

The ward-planning model is integrated into the local government planning system, is replicable, and brings poor people into the planning and management of programmes and projects that affect them in partnership with the municipality.

This model brings to reality the ‘participatory governance’ enshrined in South African planning legislation. Communities have always been viewed as the ‘problem’, and have been excluded from taking part in development. The ward-planning system builds on communities’ indigenous knowledge, resources and experience in planning.

The ward-planning model requires an external facilitator – in most instances an experienced NGO in local government planning and community development – to guide the process. The planning process involves, but is not limited to, the following elements:

• An analysis of livelihoods of the socio-economic groups
• An overview and assessment of services provided in the ward
• Prioritised key issues in the ward
• Developing an action plan for the ward
• Implementing actions by community, municipality and others
• Monitoring and evaluation

Various players come to the table during the planning exercise, and each has different roles. The municipality owns the municipal-level phase, providing some resources to the wards and managing the planning process. The community develops and owns the ward plans. The ward committee manages the community process and monitors the implementation of the ward plans and decisions taken by the community. The NGO facilitates the planning process and offers technical support during implementation.

Crucial pre-conditions that need to be put in place to ensure a successful planning exercise can be summarised as follows:

• There has to be a political commitment from the municipality to see the ward-planning programme through
• Technical support to the wards has to be ensured
• Administrative support by local government to participatory processes has to be ensured
• The local municipality has to avail funds for communities to implement some of the prioritised projects, even though the rest of the ward plans would feed into the IDP process
• CSOs (ie NGOs, CBOs) provide technical support to the process
• Stakeholders and a local facilitator to champion the process – these are normally the CSOs

Makana Municipality, in piloting the community-based planning methodology, focused on linking this with the municipal planning processes. The municipality availed an amount of R10 000 to three of its wards. These ward communities were supported by the Khanya and CARE NGOs in their planning process.

The action plans from the pilot wards outlined three categories of activities:

(1) Activities the community could undertake on their own without outside assistance
(2) Activities the community could undertake on their own with some/limited outside assistance – they also identified possible partners
(3) Activities to be undertaken by the municipality

This process in Makana saw the establishment of effective cleaning and greening campaigns, control of stray animals and crime-prevention measures being put in place. The municipality planned to roll the process out to all of its wards but this process coincided with local government elections. Sadly, the new political and administrative leadership of the municipality has not prioritised the value of rolling out the ward-planning process in Makana.

Buffalo City Municipality gave its 45 wards R100 000 each, and left it up to the ward communities to decide how the money would be used.

Mangaung Municipality in Bloemfontein also decided to develop its IDP using ward-based plans.
The municipality piloted the ward-planning methodology by availing an amount of R50 000 to three of its pilot wards. The process proved so successful that the municipality thereafter rolled out the process to all of its wards.

Ehlanzeni District Municipality was selected by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) for direct assistance to develop and implement a ward-based planning system and a capacity-building programme for ward councillors. USAid directed financial assistance of about R4 million to Ehlanzeni for this purpose.

Critics of the ward-based/community-based planning methodology argue that the planning process at a local level is subject to being hijacked by local elites and influenced highly by local politics; however the existence of a highly skilled independent facilitator in the planning process limits the influence of local elites in the process.

It is clear that local and district municipalities throughout South Africa are beginning to take their mandate for participatory planning seriously, and are prioritising community empowerment in their approaches to service delivery.

While we all hope for effective and meaningful public participation spaces in local government, it is important to acknowledge those municipalities who embrace the challenge to develop community participation policies best suited to their conditions and focus on building the capacity of their ward committees.

In turn, this should empower their people.

References
National Policy Framework on Public Participation: DPLG (2005)
Municipal Systems Act, 32 of 2000
Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998
http://www.caresa-lesotho.org.za/documents
http://www.buffalocity.gov.za/news2006/nov
http://www.makana.gov.za/documents

Local Government Transformer June-July 2008