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The White Paper on Local Governmen identifies four levels of community participa tion,
which are outlined below.
• Citizens as voters
. In an effort to ensure maximum democratic accountability of the elected political
leadership for the policies they are empowered to promote, voter participation should be
enhanced through civic education programmes, ward level activities, creative electoral
campaigning, and comprehensive electoral systems.

• Citizens as participants in the policy pro-cess.

. Municipalities should develop mechan-isms to ensure citizen participation in policy
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initiation and formulation, monitoring and evaluation of decision making, and implemen-
tation.
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• Citizens as consumers and service users.
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. In most instances, the main contact between citizens and the municipality is through the
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use and consumption of municipal services.
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. It is here that a municipality needs to begin to build a relationship with communities.
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Municipalities therefore need to be responsive to the needs of consumers and service
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users through improved customer management and service provision. The Batho Pele
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("People First") White Paper, issued by the Minister for Public Service and Administration
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in 1998, provides a useful approach to building a culture and practice of customer service.
Batho Pele is based on the following eight key prin-ciples:
. - Consultation
. - Service standards —
. - Access
. - Courtesy
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. - Information
. - Openness and transparency -
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. - Redress
. - Value for money

• Citizens as partners in resource mobilisa-tion.

. Municipalities are expected to enhance service delivery within the constraints of available
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resources, particularly financial resour-ces. In addition to becoming more efficient,
municipalities should consider mobilising re-sources, additional to those budgeted for,
such as partnerships with business and non-profit organisations, to enhance service
delivery.
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