In democracies, public participation is regarded as a basic principle; governments derive their power from the citizens, so they must respond to citizen's needs. Principles of democracy envisage the process of decentralisation as a critical instrument that deepens democracy and affords the public decision-making powers. In Zimbabwe, the political party controlling the central state is different from that which controls the local government structures of most of the major cities. With a political environment marked by violence, polarity and economic decline, one needs to examine how public participation at the local level takes place. In such situations, one needs to examine how close the government is to the people and how effective citizen participation is in the decision-making process at the local level, and how accountable the governors are to the citizens. This study used a mixed-methods approach and collected data from citi