Participatory anchored development in South Africa as evaluated at Thusong Service Centres

Abstract

This article focuses on the principles of participatory development communication. It is argued that that participation may exist only on a conceptual and ideological level in government policies in South Africa, resulting in the practice of diffusion communication. This article reports on how the communication approach of the Thusong Service Centres with their communities in Tshwane align with the normative principles of participatory development communication. A qualitative research approach was adopted to gather data, and purposive sampling was used, focusing on the six Thusong Service Centres in Tshwane, which are considered to be development communication vehicles. It was found that Thusong Service Centres do not fully meet the required principles of participatory development communication, which was used as the theoretical framework in this research. This inadequate alignment with the principles of participatory development communication implies that authentic development is not being realised.