Partnership as a strategy in implementing sustainable community development in Mandeni Municipality
Community development in rural areas is under stress due to numerous setbacks such as theft, neglect, and lack of skills from the community to support development initiatives. The municipality remains the only relevant government institution that could deal with this unsustainable nature of community development by establishing an effective partnership with rural communities. In principle partnerships offer many advantages including that of sustainability of community development infrastructures. This study demonstrates that municipality has a valuable role to play in dealing with sustainability of community development. The study emphasises that both the municipality officials and the community should acquire relevant skills that would promote sustainable community development. The study was descriptive, exploratory and qualitative in nature. A survey questionnaire containing both qualitative and quantitative questions was used to collect the data from the respondents. The findings in this study indicate that the rural communities in Mandeni municipality are not empowered by the partnership between them and the municipality. The municipality is also experiencing a shortage of personnel and appropriate specialists to facilitate mentorship programmes for the rural communities on sustainable community development. In the study respondents also indicated that a partnership is necessary to empower a rural community on sustainable community development provided the community and municipality officials are trained adequately. Partnerships will increasingly become a popular approach to government-community relations, from this perspective there is a hope for improved services for communities in rural areas.
community development --sustainability --partnership --Mandeni Municipality
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