In many developing countries, there is a continued decline in public participation at the local level which often results in poor service delivery and as a result, a rise in protests. South Africa has experienced a sharp increase in service delivery protests in the last decade. One of the reasons advanced is that existing constitutional spaces of democracy do not seem to facilitate effective local participation. Consequently, there is a need to investigate potential mechanisms to enhance local participation because it is believed to contribute towards improved service delivery. This study responds to the following question: What challenges inhibit existing spaces of participation? How can these identified spaces be improved? The study draws data from existing literature and local government documents on South Africa. It concludes that there is a need to improve existing spaces of local participation, which would improve service delivery.
Human Sciences Research Council (Sat,) studied this question.