Abstract:
South Africa (SA) has always been a unique case for political scientists to analyse because of its heavy socio-economic cleavages created as a result of racist apartheid policies, but what has not been extensively covered is how these economic and social cleavages could impact on the practical experiences of public participation in post-apartheid South Africa. There are indeed many unexplored dimensions of this area. Herein lies the rationale for this research which revolves largely around global consensus amongst academics, development practioners, civil society as well as, amongst others, global bodies, that public participation is part of the solution to SA's development challenges but acknowledgement that obstacles to constructive SA public participation with local government do exist; it are these (potentially unique) obstacles which this dissertation aims to identify and examine in order to become part of the solution for a better SA for all.
