Community participation: constructing the post-apartheid city. Case study of the areas coordinating teams, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

This research highlights the disjuncture between the constitutional provision for community participation in local governance and the absence of such institutional space, bureaucratic orientation and political will to introduce, create, foster and maintain appropriate spaces/opportunities for participatory democracy at grassroots level. This research documents specifically the story of Areas Co-ordinating Teams (ACTs) in the cases of Hanover Park, Heideveld, Manenberg, Langa and Guguletu in the historically black ghettos (locally referred to as townships) of South Africa. A problem statement, methodology and key arguments are briefly summarised, followed by an exposition of the fieldwork and the research results