Exploring the role of social media in the G2C relationship: A South African perspective

This paper reports on a qualitative study regarding electronic citizen participation. The study assessed how government agencies based in South Africa used social media applications within the government to citizen (G2C) relationship for electronic participation. Textual data was sampled from provincial and municipal government department's social media accounts and analysed thematically. The study found that there is a discrepancy in the adoption of social media in metropolitan municipalities and provincial government departments. Contrastingly, citizens were shown to have increasing access to social media, which have become essential components of their daily lives. Furthermore citizens were willing to use the applications to engage with government departments, which were found to be responding sporadically. The paper argues that there is an opportunity for the public sector to include social media in their e-participation endeavours. Several guiding principles are also offered.