NGO legitimacy in supporting informal settlements communities: representation, participation and accountability explored through a South African case study
Date
2012-01-16
Authors
Saibul, Georgina Peter Ole
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Abstract
This thesis studies the legitimacy of NGOs in supporting communities living in informal
settlements in South Africa. The key objective is to explore how development NGOs derive
legitimacy by using representation, participation and accountability. This is a difficult feat
considering the challenges these NGOs face working in informal settlements where tenure issues
are often not easily resolved.
The thesis discusses two approaches to legitimacy, the prescriptive/normative approach and the
descriptive approach, applying both in a single case study of the South African development
NGO Planact and its activities at Zandspruit Private Property, an informal settlement in
Johannesburg.
The case study explores normative legitimacy through representation, because development or
advocacy NGOs derive legitimacy through what Pitkin in her seminal work in 1967 refers to as
substantive representation of communities needs and interests. The case study discusses
descriptive legitimacy through the perceptions of stakeholders, namely government, the
community and Planact itself.
The thesis found that representation, participation and accountability counted little in establishing
the NGO s legitimacy. Because of unresolved tenure, Planact s legitimacy was not constructed
through representation, participation and accountability. However, Zandspruit community, local
government and Planact itself still perceived Planact to be legitimate. The thesis concludes that
the prescriptive/normative framework of NGO legitimacy is limited in the context of unresolved
tenure and marginalisation. Zandspruit community being marginalised and desperate for
assistance, the community had no power to demand greater accountability from Planact. The
performance of Planact in Zandspruit was hampered by the lack of tenure security. The thesis
recommends that to improve the performance of development NGOs in relation to service
delivery, governments need to limit delays in securing tenure. This, however, is a complex
challenge in its own right and needs further research