1.2. SUMMARY OF KEY RESPONSES
a) Democracy and Political Governance
The overarching objectives in this area, include among others, greater political participation,
pluralism, transparency, accountability and freedoms for citizenry to participate and entrench
democratic governance processes. The involvement and participation of civil society as well
as the protection of human rights are very key imperatives. Hence, the Report explains,
using examples drawn from provincial and local governments, how spaces of public
participation are being broadened in South Africa’s democracy. This is over and above
popular participation through election processes, including the May 2011 local government
polls and the numerous by-elections held during the reporting period. There is continuity in
the use and consolidation of forums such as izimbizo (public meetings), as well as
participatory processes connected to the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and Local
Economic Development Plans (LEDs) at municipal levels, as well as participatory Provincial
Growth and Development Strategies (PGDS). These initiatives continue to serve as the
basis for participation of communities and organs of civil society in the planning and
implementation of government programmes. The activities of these forums and initiatives
were reported in the 1st and 2nd Progress Reports. This Report underlines attempts to
broaden and refine activities intended to deepen public participation on an on-going basis. It
explains the new methods that have been designed and are being experimented with in
order to make public participation more effective.
It is important at this point to also explain, briefly, how public participation is understood,
based on consultations in the various provinces and from contributions of government, civil
society, business and labour in South Africa. It is generally understood to infer a process
wherein the people of South Africa exercise their collective and individual rights and take
initiatives to make their stake and have their voices heard in decision-making processes.
This is an important prerequisite for good governance. Good governance is understood in
this Report to entail, “the existence of efficient and accountable institutions – political,
judicial, administrative, economic, corporate – and entrenched rules that promote
development, human rights, respect the rule of law and ensure that people are free to
participate in, and be heard on, decisions that affect their lives”4.
This section of the Report discusses the violent protests that were prevalent during the
reporting period. It puts the violent protests in the context of service delivery challenges and
public participation and critically engages with the idea that protests are part of ‘a continuum
of participatory strategies’5 marginalised communities can use to get their demands attended
to. The Report explains that relooking and expanding existing forums of public participation
so that communities feel the dialogic nature of democracy in the country, remains an
important solution.
4
Hope, KR (2005): ‘Towards Good Governance and Sustainable Development: The African Peer Review Mechanism.
Governance International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions’, 18(2); also quoted in T. Ngwenya (2007): ‘The
African Peer Review Mechanism and Democratic Governance’, in Critical Dialogue: Public Participation in Review, Vol 3, no. 1,
p. 54.
5
Thompson, L & Nleya, N (2010): ‘Passivity or protest? Understanding the dimensions of mobilization on rights to services in
Khayelitsha, Cape Town’ in Vera S P Coelho and Bettina von Lieres (eds.): Mobilizing for democracy – citizen action and the
politics of public participation, Zed Book, London.
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