Book Chapter - 'Public Participation, Municipal Websites, and Transparency in Procurement in South Africa’

South Africa has a well-developed system of local government which is anchored on public publication. This chapter examines the basic features of the legal and policy framework for public participation and assess to what extent e-participation has taken root in municipalities to augment traditional forms of participation.

It highlights transparency as a precondition for public participation. The chapter establishes that the legal and policy framework for public participation in South Africa provides vast opportunities for democratic participation that go beyond just voter representation. However, communities do not always make use of public participation mechanisms created by municipalities. Often times, they invent their own spaces to voice their concerns. Furthermore, municipalities do not always make information publicly available in a way easily understandable by their communities to enable effective public participation. Whereas the law requires every municipality to establish and maintain a website to enhance digital participation, the chapter presents empirical evidence which show that municipal websites are not yet an effective mechanism of fostering public participation due to a number of reasons. The evidence also suggests that there is culture of lack of transparency particularly with regards to the publication of municipal procurement information which is inhibiting public publication.

The book ‘Citizen Participation in Local Governance: An Urban-Rural Perspective’, Karl Kössler and Erika Schläppi (eds) was published by Springer Cham.

This chapter can be accessed here. [Open Access]