What do experiences in South Africa and Zimbabwe teach us about the relationship between social accountability and public participation? The relationship between social accountability and public participation is widely acknowledged as important, yet the nuances that inform such a relationship are not critically discussed. To understand such nuances, this paper critically engages two cases: Vuwani (South Africa) and Gweru (Zimbabwe). The study underscores the importance of social accountability and public participation in local governance. Robust and open citizen engagement is critical to hold the state accountable. Thus, the two cases show how lack of a constructive participatory framework, wherein all relevant stakeholders are given a voice and informed about all developments, is problematic and can cause destructive outcomes in one case and sustained political frustrations in another. Using interviews with various social actors, document analysis and observations to bring to the fore social accountability and public participation nuances, this paper argues that public participation applies in different contexts and forms part of social accountability initiatives which largely depend on the extent of public engagement with non‐state actors.

Modern human rights law developed out of customs and theories that established the rights of the individual in relation to the state. These rights were expressed in legal terms in documents such as the English Bill of Rights of 1688, the US Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the French Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen in 1791. Initially international relations and international law were predicated on the doctrine of national sovereignty, according to which each nation retains sole power over its internal affairs without interference from other nations (Ferreira-Snyman 2006). Early international law involved only relations between nation-states and was not concerned with the ways in which states treated their own citizens. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the notion of national sovereignty came under increasing scrutiny, and reformers began to press for international humanitarian standards. In special conferences such as the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907, nations created laws governing the conduct of wars and the handling of prisoners. However, it was not until after World War II that the international community adopted treaties establishing human rights standards between and within states. The United Nations (UN), established in 1945 as a successor to the League of Nations, took the lead in this effort, which was based upon a recognition among nations that the atrocities of the war should not be repeated ever again. In its Charter, or founding document, the UN developed objectives for worldwide human rights standards. It called for equal rights and self-determination for all peoples, as well as "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion" (art. 55). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, became the first instrument to deal with human rights only. To actualize the provisions of the UNDHR into a global code of human rights law, the international community created a number of multilateral human rights treaties. The two most significant of these are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR), both brought into effect in 1976. These treaties forbid discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.

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