Assessing public participation strategies in low-income housing : the Mamre housing project

[摘要] The role of public participation within government administration is set out in Chapter10 of the Constitution (South Africa, 1996) which states that 'people's needs must beresponded to, and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making.Public participation processes are encapsulated within various legislative mandatessuch as the Integrated Development Plans, the White Paper on Local Government(South Africa, 1998c) and the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery(South Africa, 1997b).Public participation is critical to the success of sustainable development andtherefore South Africa should justifiably 'promote public participation, includingthrough measures that provide access to information regarding legislation,regulations, activities, policies and programmes (United Nations, 2002:71).The strategies implemented to produce what can be considered successful publicparticipation is an aspect not thoroughly considered in the development process. Forthis reason this study delves into the various facets of public participation and theenvironment it operates in.The research methodology encompasses the use of the Mamre low-income housingproject as case study, qualitative, primary and secondary data as well as acomparative literature study. where 100 respondents were Face-to-face interviewsedface-to-face were conducted with 100 respondents from the Mamre community,withthrough the use of a structured questionnaire. Face- to- face interviews were alsoconducted with a municipal housing officer involved in the projectcase study. Theresults of the questionnaires were then investigated againstcompared to the publicparticipation model depicted in chapter 3 as well as the interview answers given bythe municipal housing official in terms of the public participation strategies employed. Qualitative and secondary data, as well as a comparative literature survey, informsthe content of this study.The study examines the role that public participation plays in development by meansof the public participation strategies employed within different contexts andiiiformulates a public participation model with recommended public participationstrategies to be utilised within four different phases.To emphasise the importance of implementing the correct, context-appropriate publicparticipation strategies, this study uses the Mamre low-cost housing project as acase study to demonstrate how the lack of the appropriate public participationstrategies can result in the failure of sustainable development.Having considered all of the above, a number of recommendations are made whichcan be considered when embarking on a project similar to this one. In the case ofMamre, an opportunity for improvement still exists, as the project is yet to becompleted.The recommendations are based on categorising the public participation strategiesBlaauwberg Municipality employed throughout the Mamre low-cost housing projectaccording to the public participation model presented in chapter 3. Therecommendations incorporates the lessons learnt from Cupido and suggests a preprojectstrategy and pre-project planning workshops (which explains, amongst otherthings, .what authentic and empowering public participation actually is).The research results indicate that if a more structured approach is applied to existingstrategies, the public participation process can be rendered authentic andempowering. Therefore, further recommendations are aimed at improving thestrategies already utilised by Blaauwberg Municipality, to optimise the publicparticipation process.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University