| Summary: | Much is written on the importance of participatory communication and its role in uplifting
indigent communities. As the closest government sphere to communities, local
government is charged with directly improving the lives of the poor and is required by
legislation to conduct Integrated Development Planning (IDP).
This requires that a municipal authority utilise participatory communication aspects such
as dialogue, empowerment, and planning. These are most important pillars of
community development.
However, many studies have warned that elements such as modernisation, dependency
and bureaucracy need to be re-assed and observed with caution since they have the
potential to impede and limit the extent of participatory communication in community
development.
These concepts serve as the basic points of departure and theoretical background
underpinning this study, which is tasked with exploring the extent of participatory
communication in the IDP context of Jouberton Township in the Matlosana
LocalMunicipality.
In her public address on challenges facing North West Local municipalities (Including
Matlosana Municipality) in January 2014, former premier, Thandi Modise, emphasised
the need for municipalities to ensure that communities attend IDP meetings, approve
earmarked IDP projects and be aware of how a municipality spends its budget
earmarked for specific development projects.
It is evident from theory and higher echelon of government that participatory
communication is seen as the most important pillar and the basis for the existence of a
municipal government.
It is against this background, that this study was carried out under the assumption that
the practice of participatory communication in contemporary local government only
exists on paper; while in reality the public does not enjoy active participation in
municipal IDP consultative frameworks. This is despite much discourse being available
in government and in academia around the importance and role of participatory
communication in community development.
The study espoused a qualitative research approach to gather data and purposive
sampling was used to select respondents linked to two IDP projects in Jouberton
Township from the 2012/13 financial year.
Its purpose was to explore perceptions among Matlosana municipal representatives and
community members in Jouberton Township on the extent of participatory
communication in the IDP context. The empirical part of the study comprised of focus
group and unstructured interviews, as well as participant observation.
By using a typology of participation by Anyaegbunam et al (2004), the study revealed
that Jouberton communities are passive participators in municipal IDP consultative
frameworks where they participate by just being informed about what is going to happen
or has already happened and feedback is minimal.
This is opposed to a desired form of empowered participation which is highly
recommended by scholars in development communication where stakeholders should
be able to and are willing to participate in joint analysis, which leads to joint decision
making about what should be achieved and how.
It has been discovered that there is a lack of active participation in community
development in the IDP context of Matlosana Municipality and the study makes
recommendations on how transformative elements of participation can be applied to
improve current norms and standards in participatory communication. === MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
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