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“HELPING democracy deliver requires a greater focus on the practice of democracy. Democratic practice emphasizes collective action and deliberation, and inclusive, evidence-based decision-making. It also emphasizes access to information, a voice for citizens and accountability measures and mechanisms. In addition, it is concerned with the outcomes, recognizing the stark reality that if democracy fails to deliver just, visible socio-economic and environmental gains, its value as a process can be fatally undermined by discontent. There is a distinct possibility that dissatisfaction with democracy will lead to its failure under the strain of social conflicts.”
After our recent little dance with economic disaster, the idea of “collective action and deliberation”, of “inclusive evidence-based decision-making”, “accountability”… sounds like some sort of heaven on earth, doesn’t it?
How DO we hold the president accountable for what he does? How do we deal with a non-responsive ruling party? How do we push back and make the voice of the citizen heard?
We have a robust and vocal opposition in parliament (and no, I’m not talking about the official opposition here. LOL.) We have a free press (and must be sure it remains free). We have social media (and must ensure it, too, remains free). We have huge access to information.
As much as, even more than, the vote, these are the tools of democracy. These are the things you use to leverage your vote and your rights as a citizen in the long five years between elections. But they do have to be USED, to be exercised. Clicking on a Change.org or AVAAZ petition is one teeny-weeny move towards exercising democracy, but as citizens we need to do so much more. And being an engaged, active citizen is not an easy, armchair job.
I think back now to the Black Sash. How did the Black Sash, operating under a regime which was violently repressive and in which your vote could never boot the sitting party out, play the part of active citizens and make a real difference, as it did?
An organisation of privileged middle-class white women that began in the 1950s, it’s remembered now for protests in front of parly and along the roadsides, women carrying placards and draped in the trademark black sash. And of course the awareness this raised of key injustices under apartheid was crucial and important.
But perhaps more important was the work done in the advice offices set up across the country to help black South Africans deal with the labyrinth of oppressive laws confronting them. In these offices, the Black Sash volunteers spent hours documenting the fallout of apartheid policies, so when they made submissions to hearings or passed on info to the opposition to use in parliament, it was informed by detailed, solid evidence.
At the same time, women like Sheena Duncan became experts at reading legal bumph, poring over acts like the 1982 Orderly Movement and Settlement of Black Persons Bill to understand the real intentions of apartheid’s lawmakers and bring them to public attention.
These are the hard yards of active citizenship. Attending municipal meetings and meetings of councils and committees; collating info from endless minutes; gathering facts and connecting dots, making representations, doing the sums, demanding the info under access to information legislation, sharing evidence with parliamentarians, NGOs, church bodies, regulatory authorities...
Here, by the way, is where new technology can make a huge difference: back in the day, the Sash campaigners and other activists had to crunch those numbers and connect the web of information manually. Now, software makes it really quite easy to combine layers of information, get to grips with huge data sets, and create relevant meaning from them.
What SA needs: active citizens at work
I can think of a few organisations that are examples of active citizens at work: Section 27 and Right2Know. The Treatment Action Campaign’s combination of evidence-gathering and protests yielded wonderful results in the end, but only succeeded because of the tenacity, hard work and commitment of its members. It took a lot more than a few clicks of the mouse to get those results.
Not that I’m knocking ‘slacktivism’, as many call it: that outpouring of outrage online and in the media, from every quarter, undoubtedly contributed to shifting the thinking around the finance minister. But that outpouring will not and cannot work every time.
It may not happen when it’s needed most. It’s not something you can orchestrate. And both online activism and protest marches are not something you can use on an everyday basis to pull the reins on government, to hold them to account.
People of South Africa: we are the employers of government; we pay their salaries, through tax or VAT, to do a job of work for us. You would not employ someone and then walk away, saying: “I’ll let you know how you’re doing in five years’ time,” would you? Your part of the compact has to be fulfilled, too.
Get involved. Volunteer with an NGO campaigning for our rights or for good governance. Go to those pesky local government town hall meetings. (They’re an eye-opener, I can tell you.) Ask questions. Demand answers. Suggest courses of action.
Zuma may have the technical right to change ministers on his own personal whim, but I doubt he would have exercised it so cavalierly, with such little consideration for how it would affect our economy, had a very active society been busily holding government to account on many levels.
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter.
