Citizen Participation, Social Innovation, and the Governance of Local Government Service Delivery: Findings from South Africa

Social innovation (SI) remains a latent area in the South African local government (LG) sphere despite its growing use in public sector service delivery globally, specifically its use to potentially enhance citizen participation in the governance of LG service delivery. To help resolve the situation, this study used a case study approach to examine the extent to which citizen participation underpins SI during the governance of LG service delivery. The findings illustrate that open governance systems would not automatically result in sustainable, quality, and quantity service delivery, as this depends heavily on who participates in devising solutions as well as on the delivery and governance of services.