Democratic transition in South Africa : a case study of the public participation in development planning on local authority level in the West Coast Region

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The theme of this study is the practice of participatory democracy and its link tolocal development. The context is the current policy trend to consider the localauthority as the core development agent. Governance is seen as a partnershipbetween civil society and local state authority. The mechanism for linkingdemocracy and development is the concept of integrated development planning.This study investigates the integrity of the process of public participation asreflected within integrated development planning. The democratic transition inSouth Africa forms the backdrop of the study. South Africa, a relatively newlyformed democracy, has put legislation, political and social structures in place tosupport the transformation it intended. The question that remains and that isbeing researched in this study, is whether the lOP is a sincere attempt on theside of the government to install authentic participation on the part of the localcommunity or is this another scheme for political expediency?The study reflects the transition to democracy on social and political level and on alllevels of governance. In the case of local government, it describes thetransformation of the role of local government to that of development agent in itsjurisdiction of governance. A case study approach is used. The democratictransition in the field of local government and its application in a specific ruraldevelopment region are selected as case material. The West Coast DevelopmentRegion, a demarcated development region of the Western Cape, has been chosenas a testing ground for a number of reasons, but most importantly, because thisregion has taken the lead to implement the newly passed policy of integrateddevelopment planning in South Africa. The region also offered the most favorablecircumstances for the study as it has been subjected to systematic and sustaineddevelopment and capacity building inputs from the state since the elections in 1994.These include capacity building of ROP forums and Spatial Development Initiative.An empirical study of the process of public participation within the integrateddevelopment planning in this region was done after the first round of the process in1997/1998. A group administered questiormaire is used to measure the knowledgeand attitudes of participants who attended the workshops that were held by thelocal authority as medium of participation. Two measurements, one at the start ofthe workshop and one at the end, provided comparable data on changes inattitudes and levels of knowledge. The results indicated definite change inknowledge levels, but did not impact significantly on the attitudes of participants.The findings are presented here and form the basis of a wider study in localdemocracy and development to be proposed.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University