SALGA Northern Cape Roundtable Discussion on Public Participation

Posted: 16 March 2020

On 10 March 2020, the SALGA Northern Cape held a Roundtable Discussion to review the Guidelines on ‘Enhancing Public Participation to Ensure the Involvement of Communities and Community Organisations in municipal matters,’ which is under review.

In his presentation, Collen Rammule, Advisor: Governance & IGR from SALGA highlighted the participation of communities in local governance as a right that is enshrined in Section 152 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Therefore, as and as consequence municipalities are obligated to put in place systems that facilitate and encourage a culture of active citizenry among communities.

To enhance the above, in his presentation, Bradley Swartland, Public Participation & Community Work Programme: The Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) spoke on the “importance of reinforcing the legal obligation municipal political and administrative arms have in ensuring the involvement of local communities in municipal affairs.”

The roundtable further engaged in a Q&A session with Councillors, whereby they were offered an opportunity to make inputs into the document for reference when implementing processes that enable public participation in municipalities.

Further engagement is to follow on Ethics Management and the Code of Conduct for municipalities.