Community development in democratic South Africa

This article describes how developmental and democratization imperatives are confronting policymakers in post-apartheid South Africa with difficult choices in efforts to restructure government-community relations. It is based on a set of interviews with community leaders and government officials in Johannesburg in mid-1995. The civil society of non-governmental and community-based organizations, primarily constituted to resist an illegitimate state, is now in search of a proper role in a democratic South Africa. The community sector is faced with three challenges – its independence vis-a-vis government, its funding and technical support, and its local representativeness. Concurrently, tensions in the country's early democratic life between intensive community consultation and government implementation suggest that community engagement will need to be managed in a way that avoids the extremes of an unfettered 'people's democracy' or a reactionary authoritarianism.