As a network of organised Civil Society Organisations (comprised of Faith-Based Organisations, Community-Based Organisations, and Non-Governmental Organisations in different parts of South Africa), we are deploying 5000 election observers and conflict mediators in the 9 provinces of South Africa. Special focus is deployment to the hot spot areas in the various provinces. The main organisations deploying the observers and mediators in a coordinated effort in all the provinces include KZNCC, South African Council of churches, and Defend Our Democracy. The purpose is for civil society to contribute to free and fair elections as well as to defuse possible electoral conflict and promote compliance with the Electoral Code of Conduct.

The hot spot areas have been identified collaboratively by Election Monitors, the Electoral Commission, and the South African Police. The deployed observers and mediators will help in cases of violation of the Electoral Code of Conduct to prevent escalation of tensions in a collaborative effort to ensure free and fair elections.

In preparation for these elections, for the entire year, in all the 9 provinces, Civil society and faith-based organisations supported by Kagiso Trust and SADRA, led by KZNCC have been working hard on community mobilisation, community dialogues and workshops on voter and balloting education, democracy and civic education, as well as on mediation to handle this task as they remain impartial and work towards achieving peace in communities. An invest¬ment in strong work¬ing rela¬tion¬ships with com-munity stake¬hold¬ers enabled cred¬ible medi¬at¬ors to shuttle between the parties, primar¬ily to address the dif¬fer¬ences between the vari¬ous stakeholders working towards peace¬ful and tol¬er¬ant com¬munit¬ies.

All provinces have set-up call Centres that have been activated to be operational during election week to receive and process incident reports where mediation will be needed as an appropriate intervention.

We call upon all citizens of South Africa to respect the electoral process and the outcome of the election and respect those who will be handling the electoral matters so that South Africans can exercise their right to vote, which is their human right.

Released by
KZNCC and SADRA Conflict Transformation representing a range of CSO’s CBOs and NGOs around the country.