'I Work with the Community, Not the Parties!' The Political and Practical Dilemmas of South Africa's State-Employed Community Development Workers

Abstract

During the past few years within South Africa, there has been a proliferation of state-led community work and community development initiatives. Examples include the National Community Development Worker Programme (CDWP), the Community Works Programme and also the Community Practitioner Programme. The backdrop for such initiatives is increasing violent protests within disaffected communities, usually emergent from people's anger at ineffective social and public service delivery and also endemic unemployment. Often, communities view state institutions, including state-led community development programmes with a mixture of hope for service delivery and mistrust, at the failure to deliver. This article draws on data from twenty interviews with two cohorts of social and community development workers within South Africa, conducted during 2010 and 2011. The first cohort represent new community development workers employed within the CDWP; the second cohort represent senior community practitioners, having worked a minimum of ten years within the field in South Africa. Analysis of the findings consider how these social and community workers are learning to negotiate the political, practical and leadership dilemmas of their ambiguous position both in and against the state. Furthermore, the discussion considers the need for social and community workers to improve their political literacy and acquire navigational capacities, and also explores ways forward for the CDWP as a whole.