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The various sector departments must provide relevant information for this. They need to
contribute their expertise and technical knowledge to the formulation of municipal policies
and strategies. They must be guided by municipal IDPs in the allocation of resources at the
local level. The National Department of Provincial and Local Government must issue
legislation and policy in support of lOPs, including lOP guidelines. They are responsible for
providing financial assistance and a national training framework. It is their responsibility to
establish planning and implementation on management support system (Local Economic
Development, 200I).
3.2.2.5 Public participation
According to Davids et al., (2005), public participation is, in essence, the empowerment of
people to effectively involve themselves in creating the structures and in designing policies
and programmes that serve the interests of all as well as to effectively contribute to the
development process and share equitably in its benefits. Many ofthe new municipalities are
too large to allow for the direct participation of all residents in complex planning processes.
Participation and integrated development planning therefore need clear rules and procedures
specifying who is to participate or to be consulted on behalfofwhom, and on which issue.
All municipalities must promote public participation, but they also need to create conducive
conditions to that effect. This should be done with a view to the needs of disadvantaged or
marginalised groups in accordance with the conditions and capacities in a municipality.
Public participation has to be institutionalised in order to ensure that all residents of the
country have a right to participate. Public participation has to be structured to provide
sufficient room for diversity in styles and cultures. Institutionalising participation means
setting clear minimum requirements for participation procedures, which apply to all
municipalities by means ofregulations, and providing a legally recognised framework.
This study seeks to reveal how stakeholders perceive the existing institutional structures in
terms of public participation and recommends a market-accommodating decision-making
model that are efficient and effective in the study area. An understanding of this perspective
is to bring the social and economic change that the study area will experience through
transparent and co-operative guidance.
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