ABSTRACT:
Research findings on community participation in Nelson Mandela Bay School of Public Health, University of Cape Town Author: Andiswa Nzenze

BACKGROUND:
Community participation in Nelson Mandela Bay distrcit was looked at in 3 sub-districts within the districts. The senior researchers of the South African team of the COMPLUS project were instrumental in the forming of the clinic committees, which were our sample for looking into community participation in public health. In South Africa, the COMPLUS project, titled: Community Voices in Health Governance-Translating Public Participation into Practice in a World of Pluralistic Health Systems, aims to determine how to position community participation in the plural health system that is for all intents and purposes imminent on the South African population. The project is being conducted in 2 provinces, the Western and Eastern Cape. Methodogy: The project made implememted a mixed method approach. Qualitative (focus group discussions) and quantitative data (questionnaire) was gathered in order to determine the state of these committees.

RESULTS:
Our results showed us a mixed bag results. While the challenges faced by committees are many and demand attention, we also found that the people in these committees still seek to engage with the public health sector are highly anticipating the changes that are to come with an effective plural health system by way of the implementation of the NHI. We also found that although some of the members were part of the initial cohort of clinic committee members when this form of community participation was formed they still had some uncertainties about their roles and repsonsibilities.

CONCLUSIONS:
This paper will go into further detail on these findings and the context, realities, and experiences of the clinic committees members that we engaged with. This paper will also look at what the general thoughts, misconceptions and hopes for the NHI.