The Role of Community Participation in Support of the Successful Implementation of the Integrated Development Planning in South Africa

Abstract

This article aims to examine the role of community participation in ensuring the successful implementation of Integrated Development Planning (IDP) within municipalities. The main objective of the study is to investigate to what extent can community participation contribute to the successful implementation of Integrated development planning. The study adopted a qualitative method with specific reference to a conceptual approach relying heavily on secondary data. The South African democratic government introduced the Integrated Development Plan as a five-year strategic plan used to guide municipalities to eradicate service delivery backlogs, inefficiencies, and ineffectiveness. However, for the Integrated Development Planning to be more credible, successful, and effective it is very important to encourage members of the community to fully participate in the processes of the IDP to ascertain that all the objectives outlined in the IDP are successfully implemented. In a democratic setup like South Africa, community participation in matters of local government is a priority. The community is the primary stakeholder of the municipality. Municipalities are vested with the sole responsibility of providing economic and social services to communities within their jurisdictions endeavoring to eradicate the injustices and inequalities disseminated by the apartheid government. The paper also examines the role of community participation in the Integrated Development planning process. The study adopted a conceptual approach to investigate the role of community participation in ensuring the success of Integrated Development Planning.