Public leadership and participation: understanding the experiences of South African local government officials’ engagement within informal settlements in the Western Cape

ABSTRACT

Studies of public leadership increasingly recognize the importance of collaboration as a mechanism for delivering public policy. Despite theoretical and empirical developments in this direction, insufficient attention has been given to developing country contexts. The literature is also analytically superficial with regard to the involvement of citizens and communities. This article uses qualitative evidence from a South African Western Cape municipality to explore how officials engage informal settlements in service delivery. The article discusses how officials mobilize communities, navigate relations, and frame agendas for the purposes of public engagement. This provides an entry to understand officials’ practices and leadership influence.

KEYWORDS:

• Public leadership
• collaboration
• community participation
• local government
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Human Sciences Research Council and South African National Treasury under Grant [RFP 13/2012] awarded through the Development Bank of Southern Africa; and a University of Pretoria Postgraduate Bursary.

Notes on contributors

Elmé Vivier

Elmé Vivier is a Senior Research Fellow in the Responsible and Sustainable Business Lab at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University. Over the past 10 years, she has been involved in a variety of research projects related to community engagement, social accountability and public leadership and governance in South Africa. She completed her PhD in leadership at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, with a focus on public leadership in community engagement.

Derick De Jongh

Derick de Jongh is the founding Director of the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership at the University of Pretoria. Prior to that, he founded the Centre for Corporate Citizenship at the University of South Africa in 2001. He has extensive experience in both the private and academic sectors spanning over 30 years. His academic interests include responsible leadership, leadership and complexity and leadership for development. He holds under-grad and post-grad degrees in Industrial Psychology and a Doctorate in Commerce.

Lisa Thompson

Professor Lisa Thompson is a full Professor in the School of Government and Director of the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy situated at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Over the past 22 years, she has led numerous international and national research projects within the School of Government in the areas of international development and participatory democratic development. She has published widely in these areas and is editor (with Chris Tapscott) of Citizens and Social Movements: Perspectives from the Global South, published by Zed Books.