Former Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann added that, “without people participating, it’s not real democracy”. Picture:Tracey Adams/IOL
South Africans are taking matters into their own hands with a shared vision of challenging the established political order at both provincial and national levels, which has led to the establishment of a civil society-led People’s Convention.
Starting with a mass gathering at UWC on December 15 in the Western Cape, it is a national initiative with various civil and community organisations participating.
SA1stForum convener Rod Solomons said: “It is a gathering of ordinary South Africans, civil society organisations and community entities who are concerned about the direction our country is going and decided to arrange a People’s Convention to discuss what is wrong and what must be done to reset and restart South Africa.
Although it’s held in the Western Cape, it’s a national initiative.”
Some of the major issues they hope to address include getting the best people to serve in Parliament or civil service, addressing unemployment, safety, and including young people more in public office.
Following the convention, a People’s Charter and a People’s Code of Conduct will be drafted as a standard to hold political parties to.
Professor Itumeleng Mosala said: “We’ve been disappointed, we’ve been betrayed in a way we need to resuscitate our own hope. We need to ask ourselves, ‘What are we going to do about it?’ I’ve been involved in politics, social activism and the church. I shared in the big vision we had in the beginning. What all of us have now is hopelessness. We need to go back to the drawing board, to see if we can help people recover the hope. We cannot give up what we started long ago; we suffered for it ... The future of our children compels us not to give up.”
Former Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann added that, “without people participating, it’s not real democracy”.
“In the past election only about 5.1 million participated out of 65 million, as civil society we need to start rectifying this. One of the fundamentals of any democracy is the participation of ordinary citizens.
This is one way to give the voice back to the people.”
The convention’s first gathering will be held at the Jakes Gerwel Hall at UWC from December 15 at 10am ending on the 17th at 1pm. To book a seat: see https://www. quicket.co.za/events/243796-south-african-peoples-convention/#/
Cape Times