Exploring the contribution of civic engagement in community development initiatives in Kanyamazane, Mbombela Local Municipality.

Abstract

Civic engagement, as a fundamental aspect of development practice, plays a crucial role in promoting community development and securing livelihoods, especially for the poor in communities. However, literature on the contribution of civic engagement to community development is finite. Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to explore the contribution of civic engagement towards community development initiatives. This study adopted exploratory research design. It was grounded in the interpretive paradigm as its foundation. This study was qualitative in nature as it sought to understand the experience of its participants. Convenience and purposive sampling procedures were used to sample a total of fifteen (15) participants. Twelve community members were conveniently sampled, and three municipal officials purposively sampled. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and analysed using the thematic procedure. This analysis was framed through the social capital theory and Arnstein's ladder of participation. The findings of this study revealed that civic engagement has the capacity to empower community members. However, because there is a disconnect between how municipal officials and community members view civic engagement, it undermines the impact of civic engagement in community development. This is a result of the distinct modes of civic engagement, i.e., formal and non-formal civic engagement. Furthermore, it was revealed that formal channels such as community meetings represent formal civic engagement. From these findings, this study recommended that formal channels of engagement should not be tokenistic in nature as they exclude community members from being actively engaged. Therefore, there should be a shift towards achieving citizen power because when these formal channels fail to yield the desired outcomes, protest action rises together with non-formal civic engagement in the form of community-led initiatives. Furthermore, this study recommended that when community-led initiatives arise, they should receive financial support or capacity building support to ensure its effectiveness towards community development initiatives.