Public Participation in Local Government, 17 October 2016
CPLO hosted a roundtable on the subject of ‘Public Participation in Local Government. The aim of the roundtable was to discuss the ever increasing gap between formalised (invited) space in public participation and informal (uninvited) non-legislative public participation in South Africa. The three main speakers, Ms Roegchanda Pascoe (Manenberg Community Forum); Ms Nontando Ngamlana (Afesis-Corplan); and Mr Sonwabo Gqegqe (SALGA) engaged with the topic by looking at how we can bridge the gap between the invited and uninvited or invented spaces. The discussion was robust, honest and informative. Participants heard from Mr Sonwabo how the legislative environment allowed communities to take ownership of their municipalities, while Ms Ngamlana spoke about the middle ground between invited spaces and invented spaces – the so-called network spaces where the aim is shared and integrated planning, integrated implementation and integrated learning. Ms Pascoe shared her frustrations in aiding her community in accessing the invited spaces and local government officials.
Standing: L-R: Mr Sonwabo Gqegqe and Adv Mike Pothier (Research Co-ordinator)
Seated: L- R: Ms Nontando Ngamlana and Ms Roegchanda Pascoe
Presentations
[gview file=”http://www.cplo.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Invitation-17oct.pdf” save=”1″]