Variables influencing participatory budgeting in the City of Ekurhuleni

Abstract: Improving municipal service delivery and getting communities involved in municipal planning processes by way of participatory budgeting (PB), in particular in the integrated development plan (IDP) and the annual budgeting process, form the basis of this study. The study focuses, in general, on the service delivery challenges of local government, and specifically in the City of Ekurhuleni (COE). The empirical analysis of the research consists of the lived experiences of people living in the COE. The dual guiding research question that is addressed focuses on how service delivery challenges can be addressed through PB in the COE by using phenomenology to provide insights to the lived experiences of community members. This qualitative study follows a qualitative approach consisting of unobtrusive methods and an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in terms of an inductive logical process that guided the data collection, analysis and the interpretation thereof. The basis of the primary data entailed the outcomes of 20 semi-structured personal interviews with a homogeneous group of people who find themselves at the lower economic-strata within the COE. The researcher followed the data analysis process as proposed by IPA in order to co-produce with participants’ deeper meanings and interpretations of their lived experience concerning their poor or no service delivery from the COE. The search for deeper meaning from the obtained rich data enabled the researcher to extrapolate themes that led to the development of subordinate themes and consequently, a third level of interpretation in terms of superordinate themes. The five developed superordinate themes were then applied to the theoretical framework to shed greater light to the nomothetic research. This study provided recommendations for improved service delivery mechanisms whereby the COE, with the involvement of its citizenry can contribute to PB. This means that the city will have to review all its organisational processes, policies and practices to involve communities to reduce the number of service delivery protests, since people will only participate to the extent that they believe that they are taken serious.Ph.D. (Public Management and Governance