An assessment of public participation in KwaZulu-Natal legislature in compliance with the constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
type: CreativeWork
description: Since the inception of democracy in South Africa, public participation has become an essential element of democracy. This concept of public participation has become crucial in strengthening democracy as well as in trying to maintain a balance between representative and participatory democracy. The nation’s Constitution imposes a constitutional imperative upon the legislature to ensure ‘public involvement’ using legislative processes. This concept of ‘public participation’ therefore is a concept encompassing all democratic participation processes. It is the most conventional avenue to consider and incorporate the voices and will of community members in the law-making process. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the statutes enacted by the government has been challenged in numerous occasions because of flawed public participation processes. Wherefore public participation in the law making process becomes a subject of considerable research. The main aim of this study was to establish the compliance by the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature (KZNL) with the constitutional mandate of ‘facilitating public involvement’ when laws are being made. The study provided an international and foreign perspective of public participation intended to obtain an overall global picture of public participation and how it should be understood in a democratic country. A number of international treaties were brought into discussion. The treaty declarations were found to emphasise the significance of public involvement in democratic countries to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights. It is therefore claimed that the treaties have played an increasingly important role in agitating for the advancement of public participation in South Africa. The study further considered foreign law, where few selected experiences of developed and developing countries were analysed, and most of these countries support public participation. The study also explored public involvement in practise within the context of…
abstract: Since the inception of democracy in South Africa, public participation has become an essential element of democracy. This concept of public participation has become crucial in strengthening democracy as well as in trying to maintain a balance between representative and participatory democracy. The nation’s Constitution imposes a constitutional imperative upon the legislature to ensure ‘public involvement’ using legislative processes. This concept of ‘public participation’ therefore is a concept encompassing all democratic participation processes. It is the most conventional avenue to consider and incorporate the voices and will of community members in the law-making process. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the statutes enacted by the government has been challenged in numerous occasions because of flawed public participation processes. Wherefore public participation in the law making process becomes a subject of considerable research. The main aim of this study was to establish the compliance by the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature (KZNL) with the constitutional mandate of ‘facilitating public involvement’ when laws are being made. The study provided an international and foreign perspective of public participation intended to obtain an overall global picture of public participation and how it should be understood in a democratic country. A number of international treaties were brought into discussion. The treaty declarations were found to emphasise the significance of public involvement in democratic countries to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights. It is therefore claimed that the treaties have played an increasingly important role in agitating for the advancement of public participation in South Africa. The study further considered foreign law, where few selected experiences of developed and developing countries were analysed, and most of these countries support public participation. The study also explored public involvement in practise within the context of…
author: Mngomezulu, Kwanda Talente
keywords: Public, Public participation, KwaZulu-Natal Legislature
license: https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/58595f24-9dfa-48c5-a396-c628b946b038/download
date published: 2021
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:16:50Z
provider: University of Zululand
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zululand