Disengagement? Participation in the affairs of government

The 2011 QoL Survey asked respondents whether they, or any member of their household, had attended any participatory forums in the previous year. In general, participation in the affairs of government is significantly higher for Africans, and lowest for whites. A clear surprise is the relatively high level of participation in ward meetings, in spite of common perceptions that the ward councillor and committee system does not work to enable community participation.

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The key risk with high levels of government dissatisfaction is that residents may lose faith in their government entirely, and no longer invest any expectations in it at all.

This concern is different from worries about service delivery protests – here residents are still trying to make themselves heard by government. ‘State disengagement’ is a complete abandonment of hope that government will ever perform, and it is accompanied by serious societal problems: tax and service payment evasion; increased lawlessness and taking the law into one’s own hands; complete refusal to vote or engage in public participation processes; and insulation in communities or groups that seek to regulate themselves beyond the rule of law.