Party politics, elite accountability and public participation: Ward committee politics in the Msunduzi Municipality

Abstract

The paper explores whether ward committees are in fact the non-partisan structures for community participation in local government stipulated by legislation and official policy. Findings from the municipality of Msunduzi suggest that, where they actually function, ward committees are dominated by local political leaders. In most IFP wards and some ANC wards, ward committees are simply extensions of the local party branch, and reflect the pathologies associated with the 'dominant party syndrome'. In other wards there is both more party pluralism and less direct party control, but often intra-party factionalism or local political rivalries dominate the composition and operation of ward committees. In short, ward committees allow for little community voice alternative to dominant ward political leadership.

From Information to Engagement: Exploring Communication Platforms for the Government-Citizen Interface in South Africa

“…Challenges range from lack of appropriate skills and resources of committee members to party politicisation, limited decision-making power of councillors, and limited community knowledge of ward committee functions and responsibilities. These issues have received considerable treatment in the scholarship and therefore will not be replicated here (Piper & Deacon, 2008;Malabela & Ally, 2011;Cowell, Downe, Martin & Chen, 2012). Suffice it to say that direct engagement through ward committees generally does not provide a sufficient channel for either providing information on government services or fostering relationships between government and citizens.…”

Urban governance transformations and the first two years of the N2 Gateway project in Cape Town

“…The ambiguous experiences with ward-based participation in other cities are also evident in Delft, such as difficult and ambiguous role of ward councillors (Bénit-Gbaffou 2008b) and the entrenchment of party-political agendas on the ward committees despite their non-partisan definition (Piper and Deacon 2006). Also, experiences of community organisations in Delft reflect that local government fragmentations can at times provide political opportunities but also weaken local legitimacy as community organisations struggle against each other to get access to resources (Millstein 2008, Bénit-Gbaffou 2008b.…”

“…This division also informed their dismissal of the newly established ward committees in Delft, because they did not represent forums for broad based deliberation by all actors in Delft and were controlled by party political interests of the ward councillor. This might not inherently mean non-participation, but it structures what kind of voices that are being heard in broader governance processes (Piper and Deacon 2006). Bénit-Gbaffou (2008b) argues that there are systemic reasons informing the contested role of ward councillors, rather than individual conduct alone.…”

Too Dependent to Participate: Ward Committees and Local Democratisation in South Africa

“…In this regard, perhaps it is understandable that the dependence of ward committees on the sanction of party -not to mention councillor -can be described as 'unsurprising' (DPLG, 2005: 31). Notably, it is possible that this need not be a bad thing for democratic consolidation (see Piper & Deacon, 2008 for a discussion of this claim).…”