Abstract
Background: Public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes does not occur in a vacuum; it is juxtaposed within contextual community realities of power, politics, institutional, systemic practices, cultures and inequities in resource capacity, amongst other relational social practices. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the nature of power dynamics in participatory governance platforms and spaces during municipal strategic development planning processes and the extent to which they impact developmental outcomes in a metropolitan municipality. Setting: A metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Methods: An interpretive, constructivist, cross-sectional exploratory case study collected in-depth qualitative data from purposefully sampled participants ( n = 34) using focus-group discussions. Qualitative data were processed using NVivo 8 computer software and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: The results indicated mixed views on participants’ satisfaction with public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes. Participants reported inadequate knowledge, capacity and capability; resource limits; political exclusion and language barriers, which muted community voice and disempowered, marginalised and excluded some residents from meaningfully participating and articulating community voice, priorities and needs. Conclusion: Public participation in municipal strategic development planning in the metropolitan municipality is at best tokenistic, constituting mere ‘window dressing,’ co-option and ‘pretence’ of inclusion of communities/residents in public participation platforms and spaces. Whilst on the surface, public participation appears inclusive of a range of stakeholders, at best powerful andr elite interests shape strategic development planning outcomes. A local governance framework for enhancing community voice in public participation platforms and spaces is recommended.
Highlights
In Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, ‘leaving no one behind’ emphasises inclusivity and citizen empowerment in development initiatives
A member of the integrated development plan (IDP) representative forum emphasised the need for sectoral integration, emphasising that: ‘Our sector plans should be an integral part of our municipality ... in our IDP ... because it takes into account different views and that all stakeholders participate freely without fear.’ (IDP representative forum member). These findings reveal a mixture of exposure, vulnerability and threat to public participation in the metropolitan municipality’s municipal strategic development planning review processes
Whilst stakeholders could benefit from public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes, many stakeholders and communities remain powerless because of exclusionary power dynamics in local governance (Odeyemi & Skobba 2020:3)
Summary
In Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, ‘leaving no one behind’ emphasises inclusivity and citizen empowerment in development initiatives. In many cases, communities are afforded little opportunity to formulate development policy programmes. In such cases, public participation becomes merely a ‘form of decoration and tokenism, where communities or residents are either used as adornments for pre-set agendas or are only involved through pseudo-participation’ (Masuku & Macheka 2020:8). Inclusivity is predicated on the right of all citizens to participate meaningfully in the governance processes and to influence policy decisions that affect them (Oni et al 2020:2–5). Both public participation and inclusive governance originate from the theory of deliberative democracy. Public participation in municipal strategic development planning processes does not occur in a vacuum; it is juxtaposed within contextual community realities of power, politics, institutional, systemic practices, cultures and inequities in resource capacity, amongst other relational social practices
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