Mobilizing Citizens towards the Local Government Elections

The Local government act and the municipal systems act both enshrines the importance of an active citizenry that can fully participate in the political sphere, however, there has been a downward trend of active citizenship due to continuous systemic failure. Voter fatigue has set in and it is upon us as a society to re-energize and re-mobilize voters back into the political space to bring legitimacy to our political system.

Political parties need to foster positive correlation amongst each other in public and reduce indignation of one another within the political arena, let the political arena become an area of robust political contestation of ideologies and political positioning. The Democracy Development Program hosted a 2-day workshop for political parties and civil society in the KZN region to unpack this narrative and prepare the citizenry for the 2021 Local Government Elections, this workshop was held at Elangeni Hotel on the 24-25 May 2021 and was facilitated by Dr. Issac Khambule and Khanya Vilakazi.

The intended outcome of this workshop was:

Using an active participatory methodology in a form of a workshop, these and other impediments to the mobilization of the citizenry will be explored through dialogue and roundtable discussions.

Working themes

• The role of civic society
• The Media Space
• Political parties
• The Voter

The aim of this workshop was to continue to cultivate a homogeneous culture that is required for a healthy democratic election through mobilizing stakeholders.

Envisioned outcomes

• Conflict resolution mechanism
• Mobilization methods
• Legislative understanding of the electoral code of conduct

The workshop was fully funded by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and implemented by DDP.

Please find more photos here>https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=ddpdemocracy&set=a.3978095045613497 

Hers is the presentation> Mobilizing towards LGE21