Press statement – 13 March 2024.
INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND: KAGISO TRUST LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE DEMOCRACY, CIVIC AND VOTER EDUCATION CAMPAIGN
Kagiso Trust recognises that South Africa stands at a crossroad where our collective actions are urgently required to re-shape the destiny of our nation. This moment calls for citizens, communities, and leaders at every level of society to rise to the challenges and strive for a transformative future. We must abandon complacency, apathy, division; and instead, we must embrace unity, resilience, and a common purpose. This resonates with our vision of a prosperous, peaceful, equitable and just society.
In this regard, the May 2024 national and provincial elections signals 30 years of democracy and is an election that provides citizens with an opportunity to envision the future and a contribution to the continuation and acceleration of the transformation path started in 1994. Kagiso Trust’s (KT) strategic objective is to contribute towards activating active citizenry. KT has entrusted the South African-Democracy and Election Network (SA-DEN), through the KwaZulu Natal Christian Council (KZNCC), in conjunction with the #Unmute Civil Society Coalition, with the responsibility of mobilisation and implementation of democracy, civic, balloting and voter education campaign in 54 districts and 257 municipalities in all nine provinces, as we prepare for the 29th of May 2024.
Three major concerns that must be addressed:
- The indifference and apathy of many voters.
- The disconnectedness of the youth to elections and politics generally.
- The lack of confidence and trust most citizens and voters have in the present.
- That South Africans exercise their democratic right to elect leadership through voting in an atmosphere of freedom and peace before, during and post-election period.
The indifference, apathy, disconnectedness is informed by the high levels of corruption, growing distance of leadership from the citizens. Increasing crime, high levels of unemployment, poor delivery of basic services contribute to the trust deficit and confidence, and hence low participation in the elections by the citizens.
Focus of the project – The democracy, civic, and voter education program is designed to focus on three crucial areas of active citizen participation:
- Mobilization of voters to participate in (a) voter and balloting education, (b) democracy and civic education, (c) capacity building on mediation and conflict resolution in all the 9 provinces.
- Facilitate dialogues and engagement of all political parties’ manifestos for the May 2024 elections, including the discussions on the rights of citizens to demand honesty, accountability, and transparency in the conduct of elected leaders towards the citizen.
- Short informative podcast discussions, social media platforms and radio interviews encouraging registered voters to exercise their democratic and constitutional right to express their voice through voting.
The rights of citizens must be understood, and their demands to exercise their right and responsibility to vote will be discussed in all the 54 districts. In this work, all political parties taking part in the 2024 election will be invited to reflect on social justice, delivery of basic services, equitable transformation, and democracy in discussions. The notion of the “common good” of the society, where the needs of all people are taken care of and where the communal aspects of life are enhanced.
Outreach – The intended reach is all the 9 provinces and all the 54 Districts of the country. Networks of the # Unmute Civil Society Coalition and councils of churches will participate in the planned workshops and dialogues reaching out to rural, farm, faith centers, peri-urban, and urban citizens. Millions of youths will be targeted through the unique social media and radio platforms and the coverage is intended to be district, provincial as well as national media platforms (radio, print and television and social media). The drive by these citizen groups brought together in this initiative is to provide citizens with platforms to recognize and exercise their citizen power.
- The IEC has been invited to provide information on elections and the voting processes.
- We call upon the nation, all citizens, the youth of voting age and every person to take responsibility and utilize their right to bring about the transformation they desire – by voting and then to expand these rights and responsibilities to remain active citizens in ensuring that services that matter to them are delivered.
Resisting the temptation of discouragement – That there is a high sense of disillusionment and despair in South Africa is evident from the high rate of emigration, which is depriving the country of vital skills. Equally concerning is the fact that numbers of young people have lost faith in democratic institutions and abstain from voting. It is our duty, as civil society to provide information, build capacity of voters and inspire people with a message of hope and work towards an alliance with all those who want a better country for our future generations. We cannot afford to be indifferent.
In Conclusion:
- We call upon all sectors of society to develop a stronger sense of the common good.
- Call upon all political leaders to lead by example – we demand the rule of law and accountability.
- We call upon the IEC to maintain a professional approach to the entire election process impartially without fear or favour.
- We call upon all media houses to be fair in airtime allocated to political parties.
- We call upon local leaders to encourage peace and stability before, during and after elections.
- We call upon faith communities to pray for the nation and for free, fair and credible elections.
- We call upon all Foundations and NGOs to pull resources together to amplify this noble democratic development project to secure our common future.
TRANSFORM YOUR SOCIETY
YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE
VOTE AND SHAPE YOUR TOMORROW
OUR FUTURE OUR DESTINIES OUR LIVES OUR SUCCESS IS IN OUR HANDS
