What you can do to be more involved in South Africa's democracy
WATCH | In conversation with Mbali Ntuli, CEO and Founder of Ground Work Collective
Welcome to 'Building a better South Africa, together', a six-part web series brought to you by Anglo American in partnership with News24.
This series aims to leverage the country’s collective strength and discuss how all of society can tackle three triple challenges: crime and corruption, energy challenges and infrastructure issues.
In the fifth episode, news broadcaster Nzinga Qunta sits down with Mbali Ntuli, CEO and Founder of Ground Work Collective, to discuss how and why citizens should be more involved in civic affairs.
South Africa finds itself at a pivotal moment ahead of the 2024 General Elections next year. Trends show that young democratic countries should push to become a mature democracy after 30 years, but SA could be argued is struggling with a depleting voters' roll.
"I think for a long time we’ve outsourced our political civic education to political parties and also expected that the IEC or civil society would pick up the slack," says Ntuli.
"What that did is that it meant citizens themselves weren’t really being informed, and it wasn’t even part of our curriculum. We now sit in a position where less than half the people who were eligible to vote... show up at the polls."
Mbali Ntuli, CEO and Founder of Ground Work Collective
Mbali Ntuli, CEO and Founder of Ground Work Collective
According to Ntuli, democracy is a group project, and all citizens need to be involved in civic action, even in between elections, or the project “doesn’t really work.”
Around 5 million voters are between the ages of 18 and 25 – and getting them into the cycle of voting ensures they are more likely to keep voting later on in life. As the voter’s roll ages out with each election, it’s up to new generations to re-educate each other on how to hold their representatives accountable and to renew the voters' roll.
What is needed, is to make voting exciting and attractive and "something that is interesting to them," says Ntuli.
"We should be using music, games, corporate sponsors to give prizes – and not just in terms of getting them to come out, but also link it to civic education. We want to empower young people that they are not susceptible to miseducation."
Ntuli describes some of the ways Ground Work Collective is encouraging younger people to vote. Watch Episode 5 below, as Ntuli and Qunta dive deeper into these issues.
You too can decide how you want to be a part of building a better South Africa, together by joining the conversation at the social links below:
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