Zama Mtshali

Assessing the Role of Communicative Planning on effective Integrated Development Planning: The case of KwaDukuza Municipality

The proposed study will investigate the role of communicative planning in effective integrated development planning, using the KwaDukuza Municipality as the case study. “Local authorities hold a significant responsibility in ensuring that local residents have access to basic services and infrastructural facilities. The development role of local government necessarily involves appropriate capacity building and the use of sound strategic tools. Local government is responsible for providing prioritized services to their communities that are informed by a consultative approach and a viable process. The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) remains to be one of the success factors or instruments in place to assist local governments in facilitating service delivery. It is maintained that while the communicative aspect of the planning processes (public participation) is being fulfilled, the practical outcomes of these processes have not had the anticipated result of fulfilling the demands of the communities these plans are required to benefit. This generates a lot of questions as to why communicative planning is ineffective, one of which is the quality of intra and intergovernmental communication and interactions during the IDP preparation process therefore, the IDP should promote inter-governmental collaboration by improving communications at the national, provincial, regional, and local levels, as well as fostering engagement of participants from various socioeconomic backgrounds and reducing inequalities through resource redistribution.