Joint responsibility to bring the president’s promises to the people where they live

The 2019 state of the nation address was the most hopeful and inspiring address the nation has heard in the past five years. President Cyril Ramaphosa clearly articulated the vision of the government and raised the hopes of the nation, given the myriad challenges that the country has experienced in the past decade.

The speech had an excellent activity programme lined up for this administration in the next three months, before the elections. It gave the nation a renewed sense of urgency to address the challenges still plaguing it, especially those that relate to corruption and revamping the economy, stateowned enterprises (SOEs) and basic service delivery.

Civil society will not be “watching the space” but monitoring implementation of the promised interventions, as well as enhancing its activism towards holding the government to account for its decisions and actions.

Citizen participation is an essential element of our constitutional democracy and citizens cannot afford to watch while being squeezed by the effects of maladministration and rampant corruption. Many citizens have become despondent about the state of the nation and are looking forward to a revived economy, one that will respond to their needs and prioritise their interests above those of politicians, their families and their cronies.

As SA heads to the polls, citizens will be careful in their voting because they are desperate for change. Civil society must mobilise citizens towards active participation in public discourses, not only to inform them of their important civic responsibility to hold the government accountable but also to contribute towards the co-creation of the SA they want.

Our constitution envisages citizen-led local governance influencing municipal decisionmaking, engaging citizens from planning to implementation as well as evaluation of municipal interventions, to deepen democracy in pragmatic ways. As a nation, we must return to this civic activism and engage actively in public life with confidence, to influence the direction of the nation.

Second, decision-making at all levels of governance must be made transparent. Citizens will not endorse decisions already made elsewhere that do not capture their priorities. In most cases, these decisions are not in their favour. This means that citizens must actively participate in local governance structures such as ward committees to ensure their voices are heard and that their local leadership is held to account. This is important to ensure that the promises made in the state of the nation address are experienced at local level.

Third, connected to the above point, citizens must become more involved in their local spaces of engagement to craft the future they desire. There is no room for complaining! We must get involved, actively engaging with each other and our local leadership to cocreate communities full of hope.

Fourth, civil society must now lobby to actively involve citizens meaningfully in their decision-making places. Municipalities need to understand that if their aim is to use ward committees to endorse decisions already taken elsewhere, community participation will be ineffective and demoralising. It must be directed at ensuring communities have an effective say in decisions affecting them and have the space to play a role in implementing them, even if the council is ultimately responsible for governing the municipality.

Fifth, civil society will continue with its activism to ensure the promises are effected with urgency and according to the plans presented in parliament. The sector will ensure implementation is depoliticised so that ordinary citizens can engage with the processes without feeling obligated to trade off their values for political favours. The state should expect enhanced civic activism to ensure the interests of citizens are prioritised.

The sector will be vigilant where funding and other resources are provided to municipalities to accelerate projects aimed at creating jobs and alleviating poverty, including infrastructural development initiatives. The sector will actively monitor processes and hold leaders to account in terms of the law and government policies. The sector is willing to assist municipalities to create effective public participation mechanisms at the local level. Nonperformance will be judged and made public so that the government can work better.

In conclusion, civil society will continue its watchdog role in ensuring that the government walks the talk — improves citizens lives, curbs corruption and improves public sector performance and the enforcement of regulations towards effective management of SOEs. Without this decisiveness, ordinary citizens will continue doubting whether democracy works, because for them, democracy must be lived, not legislated.