Abstract
M.A. (Strategic Communication)
Service delivery protests have alarmingly increased year on year. There is a dominant sense that community members are frustrated and feel this is their only recourse in expressing their anger concerning perceived lack of delivery of municipal services such as electricity, water, sanitation, housing or roads. There are also indications that lack of engagement by ward councillors greatly adds to frustrations experienced by community members. At the same time, very little is known about ward councillors’ current communication approach in service delivery protest areas. The research purpose of the study was firstly to explore ward councillors’ current communication approach as perceived by community members in a selected service delivery protest area and secondly, to evaluate the desirability of a strategic communication approach in a community prevalent with service delivery protests. Sebokeng township was identified as the study’s focus area due to the prevalence of former service delivery protests, some of which turned violent. The research design was exploratory and qualitative. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with six focus groups, with participants between the ages of 18-24, 25 and above, or mixed, during April 2016 were conducted. The findings indicate that ward councillors are perceived as not being visible to community members and are therefore missing the opportunity to influence them. Interactions with ward councillors are experienced as a monologue, top-down, and not empowering community members to self-organise or to collaborate on community developments. As a result community members feel unheard and forgotten, and ultimately disengaged. At the same time, participants express the need to self-organise and to collaborate with ward councillors in solving community issues. They also have a desire for dialogue and bottom-up communication with ward councillors; however, these need to be coupled with tangible delivery and accountability without which ward councillors are perceived to lack legitimacy. Drawing on the findings as well as the theoretical foundations of strategic communication and stakeholder theory, some conclusions and recommendations are made with respect to an alternative communication approach which can enrich communication of ward councillors with their community members.