Abstract
The rise of protests and community unrests around the county have cautioned municipalities to explore better ways to engage different groups affected by the decisions taken. While municipalities are exploring better ways of engaging communities and other stakeholders, communities are also exploring alternative mechanisms of reaching out to the government. There is no doubt that a government that include the people in the decision-making process is a government that promotes participatory, representative democracy and the will of the people. Stakeholder engagement provides both the government and the citizens an opportunity to plan, execute and distribute resources in a way that promotes people’s power and people’s government. This study explored the different methods used by the Greater Tzaneen Municipality to engage with different groups and the perception of the community on the stakeholder engagement process. A case study approach which utilised a qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews was used in the exploration of different views and insights on the stakeholder engagement process of Greater Tzaneen Municipality. The findings revealed that stakeholder engagement in Greater Tzaneen Municipality operates on the information and consultation level of participation with the little role played by the community to influence the outcomes of the process. The study also revealed that, once a municipality operates at the information and consultation levels it creates a recipe for more misunderstanding and delegitimise every process meant to bring government and community together. The study established that public participation and involvement is reduced to counting signatures in meetings and events with no measuring tools in place to assess the level of involvement if communities in key decision-making.
M.A. (Corporate Communication)