The importance of public participation has been
established in literature and legislation but attention should
be shifted to how best to make it more meaningful to the
public. The MCMF is in a unique position to shape and
enhance its procedures and mechanisms for the public
participation process because it is relatively new compared to
others such as Inkomati Catchment Management Agency.
The MCMF organizers should therefore not see the physical
presence of disadvantaged community stakeholders as a sign
of meaningful public participation. Emphasis needs to be
placed on the development of skills and capacity of
participants to understand and make meaningful
contributions, especially participants from the disadvantaged
communities. The skill and capacity of the organizers of
MCMF also needs to be developed in order to allow them to
know how to relate to participants in order to know their level
of satisfaction in the participation processes.