Abstract:
The study provides a narrative exploration of the contribution
and accentuated value of strategic communication
management (SCM) in facilitating and fostering inclusive
citizenry engagement through bottom-up constructed
governance initiatives and citizenry-oriented sustainability
programmes, using the North-West Province of South
Africa as the research context. The study ponders on how
a provincial sphere of government, as empowered by the
national sphere, uses strategic communication to identify
and address citizenry needs, interests and expectations from
a participatory perspective. The objective was to determine
the extent to which SCM enables purposeful and deliberate
bottom-up centred public participation opportunities for
inclusive citizenry engagement to be realised. Qualitative
focus group and semi-structured interviews enabled the study
to interrogate and advance how strategic communication
can be positioned to attain, promote and encourage ongoing
engagement opportunities that are poised as more inclusive
and that are premised on the idea of co-governance and
citizenry-grounded sustainability programmes. The study found that provincial government communication was
simply operational in nature, and more often, performed
and facilitated without a strategic purpose nor deliberate
intention by hemispheric and less-skilled communicators
with little regard for communication management theory.
Consequently, little evidence exists on how citizenry interests
are identified and addressed to encourage the necessary
responsive actions by ordinary citizens.