DOCSLIB.ORG

A Critical Examination of the Nature of the Public Participation Process: a Case of Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square Project

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Critical Examination of the Nature of the Public Participation Process: a Case of Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square Project Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment School of Architecture and Planning Department of Urban and Regional Planning BSc URP Research Report (ARPL 4016) A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE NATURE OF THE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS: A CASE OF SOLOMON MAHLANGU FREEDOM SQUARE PROJECT Ntokozo Vincent Khanyile (0419602v) Supervisor: Professor Claire Benit-Gbaffou A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science Urban and Regional Planning with Honours. Johannesburg, November 2014. ii DECLARATION I declare that this is my own unaided work. It is being submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning with Honours to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for degree or examination to any other University. Signed on this.................Day of ....................2014. Signature…………………………………… iii ABSTRACT This research study sought to evaluate the participation process which was put into practice by the Tshwane City Council as part of implementing the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square (SMFS) project in 2012. NMA Effective Social Strategies were appointed by the City to facilitate the public participation process and Ikemeleng Architects to do the design of the square. The square is a public space of heritage significance to the locals and its upgrading bears a remembrance devoted to Solomon Mahlangu and other apartheid struggle heroes from Mamelodi Township. Accordingly, a variety of local organisations were invited to share their stories and memories around this memorial marking. In turn, this would help the designers of the space to collate information which would be handy for the design of the space. This study then sought to investigate the nature of the public participation process that was used in the SMFS project. It examines the rationale behind the promotion of participation in this project, the methods used. Furthermore, it analyses the participants’ interests, their roles and inputs which they contributed into the design brief. Hence, the study contributes to the radical theorist’s responses to the mainstreaming of participation that have tended to view participation as dual, i.e. as means to an end (participation to achieve certain development objectives) or an end in itself. Indeed participation holds a promise of mankind emancipation from the oppressive system of power. However, some scholars have observed that participation could be used as a way of co-opting local organisations or civil society and communities into top down development schemes that serve interests of those in power. On the contrary, others have argued that civil society is in place to guard against the exercise of power by the state or those with private interest and thus aiding people’s participation at grassroots level. This report recounts the different perspectives highlighted above in the experience of the SMFS project. It employs data pertinent to the project and in-depth interviews to answer the central question: what was the nature of the public participation process employed in the design of SMFS? The study then seeks to contribute to the understanding of different denotations and procedures of participation. While governments are requires to streamline participation, the study also adds the understanding of civil society’s role and the need for is mobilisation in public participation. The researcher argues that participation spaces and methods should be flexible to allow collective action amongst the state, civil society and communities. Furthermore, the paper argues that participants should begin to take a more intricate process of engaging plans and not to merely shape them through partial inputs and fragmentary processes. iv AKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the most high Jah who does great wonders…. what he blesses, no one can curse! Claire Benit-Gbaffou…. my dear Supervisor, you door has always been open. Thanks for your continuous encouragement and believing in me and I am grateful and thankful for you guidance and for seeing greatness in me. I would like to thank the residents of and leadership of Mamelodi without whom this research report would not have been a success. MNA Effective Social Strategists…. You are a true inspiration and thank you for contributing positively in our society. Mama….thanks for all thy sacrifices and prayers. You are a great pillar of strength in my life. I cannot forget the URP Honours class of 2014 with whom we have shared sleepless nights, successes and failures and a very Memorable trip to Maputo. v CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... iv AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ v TABLE OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x LIST OF ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER I: MAPPING THE DIRECTIONS ......................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Case Study Background ......................................................................................... 1 1.3. Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 3 1.4. Rationale ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4.1. The Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square Upgrade ......................................... 6 1.4.2. Public Participation: a common practice ........................................................... 6 1.5. Aim of the Research Study ..................................................................................... 8 1.5.1. Research Questions ........................................................................................ 9 1.5. Significance of the Study......................................................................................... 9 1.6. Research Design and Methodology .......................................................................... 10 1.6.1. Case Study ........................................................................................................ 10 1.6.2. Qualitative research ........................................................................................... 10 1.6.3. Interviews ........................................................................................................... 11 1.6.4. Study Limitations ................................................................................................ 13 1.6.5. Ethical Considerations........................................................................................ 13 1.7. Chapter outline ......................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER II: PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: A MULTIFACETED AND MAINSTREAM DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT .............................................................................................. 16 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 16 2.2. Participation: A Concept Defined .............................................................................. 16 2.3. Origins of Participation .............................................................................................. 18 2.4. Evolution of Urban Panning Towards Participation ................................................... 18 2.5. Arnstein’s Ladder of participation .............................................................................. 19 2.6. Pretty’s Typology of Participation .............................................................................. 21 2.7. Mainstreaming of Participation .................................................................................. 23 2.7.1. The African Charter on Participation ................................................................... 24 2.7.2. The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) .............................. 24 2.8. Communicative planning .......................................................................................... 25 2.9. Role of power in decision making ............................................................................. 26 2.10. Participation: The New Tyranny? ............................................................................ 27 vi 2.11. Different Strategies of Participation ......................................................................... 28 2.11.1. Information sharing strategies .......................................................................... 28 2.11.2. Consulting strategies ........................................................................................ 28 2.11.3. Decision-making strategies .............................................................................. 29 2.11.4. Initiating action strategies ................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOLOMON MAHLANGU FREEDOM COLLEGE: a Unique South African Educational Experience in Tanzania
    ARTICLE SOLOMON MAHLANGU FREEDOM COLLEGE: A Unique South African Educational Experience In Tanzania Pethu Serote Introduction On the 9th July 1992, the African National Congress (ANC) handed over its educational institutions in Tanzania to the Tanzanian goverment in a ceremony officiated over by OR Tambo for the ANC and President Hassan Mwinyi for the Tanzanian government. In this article, I'd like to look briefly at these ANC educa- tional projects in Morogoro, Tanzania. My focus will be broadly their nature and the problems that impacted on their development in the ten years between 1979-1989. I would like to acknowledge the limitations of a study of this nature in such a short presentation. These events were taking place in Tanzania and most of the documen- tation needed to make the study complete is in the process of being transferred to South Africa and this has in some way limited it to whatever documents are available to the author in South Africa and to her personal experiences as a secondary school teacher and later head of adult education division in SOMAFCO from 1983 and 1990. Although this article is about two educational project of the ANC in Tanzania, Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO), and the ANC Development Centre, I have chosen SOMAFCO for the title because that was the original project and the name has also become famous in South Africa and abroad. The Establishment of SOMAFCO and the ANC Development Centre SOMAFCO was the ANC school in Morogoro, Tanzania. It was built on a 250ha piece of land in Mazimbu, an old sisal farm which the Tanzanian government gave to the ANC for this purpose.
    [Show full text]
  • Part 1 Envisioning
    part 1 Envisioning ∵ Danai S. Mupotsa - 9789004356368 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 04:01:29AM via free access <UN> Danai S. Mupotsa - 9789004356368 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 04:01:29AM via free access chapter 2 A Question of Power Danai S. Mupotsa Introduction In this essay, I reflect on the 2015 and early 2016 student activism at the Uni- versity of the Witwatersrand, in the context of a national movement in South Africa. I am particularly interested in questions of form, narrative and aesthet- ics. Many of the acts of protest have been circulated through digital technolo- gies offering a wide audience access to the events through spectacular images. These events have also been assembled and articulated through specific kinds of form, such as the autobiographical – where students invoke the category ‘I’ to articulate aspects of private life that animate their moves against structural injustices. I read these various animations of ‘the political’ in the same register that I read the novel, A Question of Power by Bessie Head (1974). While I do not offer a close textual reading of the novel, I propose that we read the various scenes of refusal animated by these students through an autobiographical lens that, like Head’s novel, offers us a splintered category of ‘I’ that both demands a politics of recognition while simultaneously refusing and disrupting the pos- sibilities of that very wish. Bessie Head’s (1974) partly autobiographical account stays with me be- cause of the ways a range of spectacular structural injustices are narrativized through a powerful dialogue between the public and the private.
    [Show full text]
  • Download This Report
    Military bases and camps of the liberation movement, 1961- 1990 Report Gregory F. Houston Democracy, Governance, and Service Delivery (DGSD) Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) 1 August 2013 Military bases and camps of the liberation movements, 1961-1990 PREPARED FOR AMATHOLE DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY: FUNDED BY: NATIONAL HERITAGE COUNCI Table of Contents Acronyms and Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Literature review ........................................................................................................4 Chapter 3: ANC and PAC internal camps/bases, 1960-1963 ........................................................7 Chapter 4: Freedom routes during the 1960s.............................................................................. 12 Chapter 5: ANC and PAC camps and training abroad in the 1960s ............................................ 21 Chapter 6: Freedom routes during the 1970s and 1980s ............................................................. 45 Chapter 7: ANC and PAC camps and training abroad in the 1970s and 1980s ........................... 57 Chapter 8: The ANC’s prison camps ........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Pointing to the Dead: Victims, Martyrs and Public Memory In
    Pointing to the Dead: Victims, Martyrs and Public Memory in South Africa Sabine Marschall Introduction Memorials are never erected for the sake of the dead, who demand our respect. Rather, they are set up by the living for the sake of the living. A memorial constitutes a ‘transitional object’ that facilitates the process of mourning for those immediately affected by the death of their loved ones and allows them to attain a sense of closure. For those in society not directly bereaved, notably later generations, the erection of a memorial in tribute to a departed leader or a select group of deceased establishes and publicly advertises a lasting, visible link with the dead they have chosen to honour. In times of political transition, the public commemoration, especially through lasting memorials, of selected dead heroes, shooting victims or fallen comrades can be a strategic move to legitimate the emergence of a new socio-political order. The recognition of the use value of specific ‘dead bodies’ is part of a larger process of appropriating the past for the political, social, cultural or economic purposes of the present, which many scholars see as a key characteristic of ‘heritage’.1 This political and functionalist perspective is not meant to invalidate the sense of duty to pay tribute to the dead that many individuals and organizations may genuinely experience. It does not discount the emotional contentment that the establishment of a dignified public memorial may evoke especially in those individuals who knew the deceased or were directly affected by their death. It also does not intent to question the role of such memorials in teaching the younger generation and instilling a sense of respect and gratitude for those who lost their lives for the attainment of a better life for all.
    [Show full text]
  • Education for Liberation: the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College: 10 Years, 1979–1989
    Education for Liberation: The Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College: 10 Years, 1979–1989 http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nizap1065 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Education for Liberation: The Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College: 10 Years, 1979–1989 Publisher ANC Department of Education Date 1989-00-00 Resource type Pamphlets Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, Tanzania, United Republic of, Netherlands Coverage (temporal) 1979 - 1989 Source NIZA Description Illustrated ANC publication, made with the
    [Show full text]
  • Fund for a Free South Africa
    FUND FOR A FREE SOUTH AFRICA JANUARY 1988 We are very pleased to send you the first issue of our newsletter. We intend this to be our vehicle to bring you news about the movement for a democratic South Africa, and about our work at the Fund. You may have noticed that we have changed our name from South African Relief. We think that Fund For a Free South Africa (FreeSA) more accurately suggests the broad spectrum and nature of programs we support. It is beyond our means to fully counter the apartheid regime's stringent press censorship, and the popular news media's cursory focus on what is happening in South Africa. However, on a quarterly basis FreeSA will endeavour to give you a peek into com­ munity, labor, women's, youth and.other forces in the struggle for a free South Africa. Our primary purpose is of course to raise support for progressive organizing by the people of South Africa. Our newsletter will apprise our donors of the Fund's grants and will be a vehicle to try to increase the number of donors to the Fund. The focus of our first issue is education. The article on education in South Africa was written by a member of the National Education Crisis Committee. The article on SOMAFCO was written by Nadine Dolby, who is on the staff of the Fund. We have also included an excerpt about the pending restrictions on foreign funding from the Weekly Mail, one of the best news sources from South Africa. This excerpt clearly illustrates the current and potential difficulties of supporting progressive organizations in South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Time Travel on Solomon Mahlangu
    Time Travel on Solomon Mahlangu Goals • Create awareness of the life of Solomon Mahlangu and his contribution to the struggle • Reflect on the importance of human rights, in the 70s and today • Promote the Time Travel method Facts, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was born on 10 July 1956 in Doornkoop, Middelburg which was then known as Eastern Transvaal. He was the last born son of Martha Mahlangu’s six children of three girls and three boys. His middle name Kalushi, given by his uncle means ”one who leads boys into manhood’. Solomon Mahlangu attended Mamelodi High School up to Standard 08, but his education was interrupted in 1976 by the Soweto uprisings that resulted in school closure. This fuelled him to join and pursue the struggle. In 1976 he fled to Mozambique and spent six months in a refugee camp near XaiXai. From there he was taken to an ANC training camp called “Engineering” in Angola, where he received training in sabotage, military combat, scouting and politics . After their training at Funda Camp; Solomon Mahlangu and his comrades George Lucky Mahlangu and Mondy Motloung went to Swaziland where they crossed the border into South Africa heavily armed. They made their way to Johannesburg to assist in the student protests. On the 13 June 1977, Solomon Mahlangu and his companions Mondy Motloung and George Lucky Mahlangu, were accosted by police in Goch Street, Joburg. In the gun battle that followed, Lucky Mahlangu escaped, resulting in two civilian men being killed and two wounded. Solomon Mahlangu and Mondy Motloung were incarcerated.
    [Show full text]
  • THE QUEST for FREE EDUCATION in SOUTH AFRICA How Close Is the Dream to the Reality?
    Centre for Education Policy Development THE QUEST FOR FREE EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA How close is the dream to the reality? R. Cassius Lubisi, PhD Solomon Mahlangu Education Lecture 2008 Constitution Hill, 17 June 2008 1 Centre for Education Policy Development THE QUEST FOR FREE EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA How close is the dream to the reality? R. Cassius Lubisi, PhD 1 Solomon Mahlangu Education Lecture 2008 Constitution Hill, Johannesburg 17 June 2008 1 Dr Lubisi is the Superintendent General of Education in KwaZulu-Natal. 2 Published by the Centre for Education Policy Development PO Box 31892 Braamfontein 2017 Johannesburg South Africa Tel: +27 11 403-6131 Fax: +27 11 403-1130 CEPD Website: http://www.cepd.org.za Copyright © CEPD 2008 ISBN: 978-0-9814095-4-2 Design: Mad Cow Studio All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without prior written permission of both the copyright holder and the publishers of the book. 3 Foreword Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was a young liberation movement activist who left South Africa in the wake of the June 1976 Soweto Uprising. On re-entering South Africa as a militant of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he and a colleague, Mondy Motloung, were captured after a skirmish with the police and several white civilians who were assisting them. Two of the civilians were killed. Although the judge found that Solomon had personally played no direct part in killing them (either by shooting or throwing a hand grenade), he was found guilty of murder through ‘common purpose’ and sentenced to death.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of African Elections Special Issue South Africa’S 2014 Elections
    remember to change running heads VOLUME 14 NO 1 i Journal of African Elections Special Issue South Africa’s 2014 Elections GUEST EDITORS Mcebisi Ndletyana and Mashupye H Maserumule This issue is published by the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) in collaboration with the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) and the Tshwane University of Technology ARTICLES BY Susan Booysen Sithembile Mbete Ivor Sarakinsky Ebrahim Fakir Mashupye H Maserumule, Ricky Munyaradzi Mukonza, Nyawo Gumede and Livhuwani L Ndou Shauna Mottiar Cherrel Africa Sarah Chiumbu Antonio Ciaglia Mcebisi Ndletyana Volume 14 Number 1 June 2015 i ii JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Published by EISA 14 Park Road, Richmond Johannesburg South Africa P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006 South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 11 381 6000 Fax: +27 (0) 11 482 6163 e-mail: [email protected] ©EISA 2015 ISSN: 1609-4700 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher Printed by: Corpnet, Johannesburg Cover photograph: Reproduced with the permission of the HAMILL GALLERY OF AFRICAN ART, BOSTON, MA, USA www.eisa.org.za remember to change running heads VOLUME 14 NO 1 iii EDITOR Denis Kadima, EISA, Johannesburg MANAGING AND COPY EDITOR Pat Tucker EDITORIAL BOARD Chair: Denis Kadima, EISA, Johannesburg Jørgen Elklit, Department of Political Science, University
    [Show full text]
  • REPRODUCING TOXIC ELECTION CAMPAIGNS Negative Campaigning and Race-Based Politics in the Western Cape
    124 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS REPRODUCING TOXIC ELECTION CAMPAIGNS Negative Campaigning and Race-Based Politics in the Western Cape Cherrel Africa Dr Cherrel Africa is Head of the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT The 2014 election in the Western Cape was once again a high-stakes, fiercely-contested affair. Political parties saw the Western Cape as an ‘open race’ and the province became the centre of vigorous campaign efforts in the lead-up to the election. The African National Congress (ANC), which had lost control of the province because its vote share dropped from 45% in 2004 to 32% in 2009, hoped to unseat the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had won in 2009 by a very narrow margin (51%). The ANC felt that it had done enough to regain control of the province, especially in light of deep-seated disillusionment in many communities and the violent protests that took place prior to the election.While the ANC maintained its support base, winning votes from 33% of the provincial electorate, the type of identity-based campaign it pursued combined with other factors to work to the DA’s advantage. Despite the fact that the DA also engaged in race- based campaigning it won 59% of the provincial vote. This was obtained at the expense of small parties, who received negligible support in the 2014 election. Only the Economic Freedom Fighters and the African Christian Democratic Party won enough votes to obtain a seat each in the provincial legislature.
    [Show full text]
  • Hashtag: an Analysis of the #Feesmustfall Movement at South African Universities
    #Hashtag An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Editor: Malose Langa Contributors: Sandile Ndelu, Yingi Edwin, Musawenkosi Malabela, Marcia Vilakazi, Oliver Meth, Godfrey Maringira, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Simbarashe Gukurume and Muneinazvo Kujeke. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Johannesburg Office: 33 Hoofd Street, Braampark Forum 5, 3rd Floor Johannesburg, 2001, South Africa P O Box 30778, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017, South Africa Tel: +27 (11) 403-5650 Fax: +27 (11) 339-6785 e-mail: [email protected] Cape Town Office: 501 Premier Centre, 451 Main Road, Observatory, 7925 Tel: +27 (21) 447-2470 e-mail: [email protected] #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Acronyms and abbreviations 3 Notes of contributors: 4 Researching the #FeesMustFall movement. 6 ‘A Rebellion of the Poor’: Fallism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 13 ‘Being Black’ in #FeesMustFall and #FreeDecolonisedEducation: Student Protests at the University of the Western Cape 33 Tshwane University of Technology: Soshanguve Campus Protests Cannot Be Reduced to #FeesMustFall 49 ‘Liberation Is a Falsehood’: Fallism at the University of Cape Town 58 Violence and the #FeesMustFall Movement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal 83 #FeesMustFall at Rhodes University: Exploring the dynamics of student protests and manifestations of violence 97 We are already enjoying free education: Protests at the University of Limpopo (Turfloop) 108 South African higher education at a crossroads: The Unizulu case study 121 We are not violent but just demanding free decolonized education: University of the Witwatersrand 132 1 # #Hashtag: An analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African universities Acknowledgements This research was undertaken following students’ protests in 2015 and 2016 in various universities in South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Ÿþm Icrosoft W
    Annual Report Annual Report 1985 / The flame of resistance to apartheid burned brightly in 1985. Hundreds of thousands of people-young and old, workers, teachers, priests and students-took to the streets, organized strikes and boycotts, and defied state violence and repression by using the funerals of protesters killed by the security forces to rally yet greater opposition. The South African government, mouthing empty promises of reform, struck back viciously. Over 200 children and many more hundreds of adult protesters were killed by police and soldiers; thousands of men, women and children were detained without trial; and the toll of mysterious deaths of popular leaders rose ominously. The Botha government's determination to maintain domination throughout southern Africa carried violence into neighboring countries, wreaking terrible damage in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Lesotho, among others. While the people on the ground in southern Africa continue to bear the brunt of the struggle for freedom, they have also called on the US to impose sanctions on apartheid in support of their demand for liberation. To bring this urgent appeal to the people of America, The Africa Fund greatly expanded its public education campaign in the US. hool for Namibia refugees in Angola. Empowering Americans to Act Against Apartheid The Africa Fund is the prime source of information on southern Africa and US policy. As Americans became aware of the evils of apartheid it was natural that they turn to The Africa Fund for the information they needed to build effective actions throughout the country: We provided the information that enabled the divestment movement to make 1985 a record year.
    [Show full text]