The South African Government has committed itself to instituting wide ranging participatory processes in the different spheres and institutions of governance in the country. The attempt to introduce participatory and direct democracy is evident, in addition to institutions and processes at national and provincial levels, in the planning processes and policy formulation of local government structures. Municipal authorities, for example are legally committed to involving community organisations in the formulations of budgets, planning and developmental priorities. The Constitution of South Africa (Act no.108 of 1996) mandates local government to provide a democratic and accountable local government and encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government. Measures were introduced to entrench community participation and also introduced to transforms the local government functions emphasising on development rather than regulations as was under the previous dispensation. As a result developmental Local Government is defined as “local government committed to working with citizen and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet social, economic, and material needs and improve the quality of their lives” (RSA. 1998, section B)

The Local government legislations made a provision for local authorities to establish a system of participatory democracy at the local level in the form of Ward Committees (Houston, et al 2001:206). These Ward Committees were introduced in municipalities as community structures to play a critical role in linking and informing the municipalities about the needs, aspirations, potentials and problems of the communities. They were established to form the bridge between local municipalities and communities by facilitating proper communication. Through working directly with the Municipality, ward committees, serve as a cord which articulates the new system of local government to the majority of the people, more especially to previously disadvantaged communities. Ward committees have an important role to play in actively taking part and determining core municipal business such as Integrated Developmental Planning, Budgeting, Municipal performance management process, without which democracy cannot be said is rooted on among the people.