Stakeholder Power and Local Community Participation in Public-Sector Megaprojects: The Case of Medupi Power Station in Lephalale, South Africa

This article explores how stakeholder power positions influence the interpretation, expectation and practice of local community participation in public-sector megaprojects. Understanding stakeholder power positions is critical to explaining local community participant behaviour. Building on local community participation and stakeholder management theories, the case study adopted a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten purposefully selected respondents, comprising Medupi management personnel, Lephalale local municipality officials and local community actors. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. The study’s key finding is that empowerment of communities is fundamental to successful local community participation in public-sector megaprojects. Current participation practices are dominated by a top-down approach characteristic of ‘invited spaces’, exhibiting ‘representative participation’ rather than genuine local community participation. This study established that local communities, largely because of their constrained socio-economic circumstances, view participation parochially as a livelihood issue. Project implementers who occupy a privileged, powerful position view local community participation from the perspective of bestowing benevolence. Officials from the host municipality view public participation as an extension of their public participation mandate embedded in municipal legislative prescripts. The contention of this article is that, without genuine empowerment of communities, meaningful participation in public-sector megaprojects will continue to elude local communities.