COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Governing for the people,
with the people
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The City of Johannesburg is ramping up efforts to ensure it engages more extensively and works more closely with its communities. After all, an active citizenry with access to open channels of communication benefits all stakeholders.
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CITY OF JOBURG 2022
s the City continues to work towards emphasising bottomup planning and building sustainable communities, it has reformed its ward-based approach to citizen involvement to a more multicentric model, by incorporating asset-based community development and community-based planning into its analyses. Asset-based community development is a way of thinking and an approach to development that focuses on strengths, abilities, opportunities, talents and gifts as a foundation or starting point for community development. In essence, it recognises people as assets and involves development from the inside-out, meaning that it builds on existing capabilities. The objective is to co-produce results in the delivery or facilitation of services, to encourage community-driven development initiatives, and to create social capital. The aim of earlier ward-based community conversations was to assess the level of access to basic services and service backlogs in order to foregather community priority issues for inclusion in the 2021/22 IDP and budget. These sessions presented communities and interest groups (e.g. NGOs, ward committees, CBOs, business fora, etc.) with an opportunity and platform to
review the service delivery needs and priorities of the ward within which they reside – and to present their views and aspirations. It ultimately also helped the City to see first-hand what problems its communities are facing, in order to ensure that communities’ needs are adequately articulated and addressed in the IDP and budget.
Citizen engagement measures The myriad streams and tools used by the City to enhance the active engagement of its citizenry include the following: • public meetings chaired by councillors to engage communities regarding service delivery issues and ward projects • public campaigns, roadshows and briefings • opinion polls, surveys, public hearings and reviews • community research projects and studies – mapping and enumeration • e-platforms: online networks and social media • public-private partnerships to enhance interface with citizens • expert panels, debates and dialogues • marketing, communication and advertising • focus groups • assisting other spheres of government with ‘Taking Parliament to The People’, and issues related to the
