From approximately twenty-eight million registered South African voters for the 2024 National Elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) results show that only a rounded fifty-eight per cent managed to cast valid votes. This could highly likely mean that about forty-two per cent of registered voters in South Africa lack civic education and therefore see no significance in following through with their right to vote. In a series of tireless, numerous efforts already put into tackling this issue before the 2024 elections, Activate! Change Drivers showed resilience by hosting a roundtable stakeholder meeting coupled with the Civic Education Projects Launch on the 18th of September, 2024, at Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The main goals of this event include reflection on previous year’s elections, evaluation of NGO roles and impact, extraction of lessons learned and strategic construction of future collaborations with relevant stakeholders.

When welcoming all present stakeholders, before her opening remarks, Lebohang Zimba guided all representatives on the roundtable to break the ice by introducing themselves with the help of an Asset Tree. This is an activity where everyone receives a piece of branch-like paper to write their names, organisation they represent and the mission of their organisations, and the branch would be pinned on the “Asset Tree” that would be pasted on the wall, then they would stand and present what they wrote on the branch. This way, each stakeholder would know who to liaise with based on the organisations they represent for their future projects and the sundry. Present stakeholders were NGOs and civil organisations involved in civic education or collaborated with Civic Education Programmes from Activate! Change Drivers, Civic Education Champions and project custodians, representatives from local communities of Gauteng Province (more especially from Duduza, Ekurhuleni and Kagiso, Mogale City), and government officials as well as policymakers who are active in civic education and community engagements.

Tebelelo Lentsoane kick-started the discussion with a thorough presentation on the activities and impact of the civic education programme. She highlighted that it is significant for citizens and youth at large to become informed voters in the next elections to experience optimal democracy. Mr Seth Mazibuko carried the discussion forward, invigorating the room with a remark that prodded applause, suggesting that the youth came in numbers during the 2024 Elections, stating, “You neutralized the space, as young people.”

Mr Seth Mazibuko is one of the freedom fighters, who was arrested during apartheid and was confined at Robben Island, at the age of fifteen. When he was facilitating the discussion, I felt his passion for this topic from his digressions and intonations. He was troubled by the lack of civic participation from the youth before the 2024 Elections and was excited to see them coming in larger numbers during the Elections. “Guiding that ballot, guiding that vote, to me is what I fought hard for,” he said. “For our people to enjoy the fruits of that tree, they must vote.”

After recapping the main events that took place in the previous year, Mr Seth Mazibuko mentioned that the hindrance to youth engagement in civic education could be that the events hosted so far had not been catered for the youth. Perhaps fun events that are aligned with already existing youthful types of events should be considered for the next elections, as a way to lure more young people into participating and learning voluntarily about their civic duties as citizens.

Under collaborative efforts and future strategies, the stakeholders contributed handfully with ideas and resource-offering proposals to enhance and build the impact that Civic Education Programmes seek to have in South Africa. Good questions were asked, such as, “How can we make a grassroots community mapping a broad big strategic plan?” and “Why can’t we replace Life Orientation with Civic Education?” Thought-provoking arguments and suggestions were made, such as, “South Africans don’t imagine enough about the kind of country they want.” and “When we have civic education and conversations, we should include our roles as citizens in making the local government work.” It was also stated that the term “civic education” is underrated, and therefore it should from then on be called “civic conversation.” Inclusivity and diversity were brought up for consideration to broaden the audience through suggested mediums such as churches, schools, groundwork collective mobilization and social media platforms. To add, a stakeholder mentioned that one of the big problems spotted during elections was the fast spread of fake news by Mainstream Media platforms, and with concern, remarked that the media should be held accountable for misinformation.

The first launch of a community project led by a civic education champion, Nompumelelo Nhlapo, is aimed at solving an unemployment problem at Duduza. Nompumelelo said that after conducting a survey of one hundred community members from Duduza, with ninety per cent being the youth, of ages between eighteen and thirty-five years, and ten per cent being adults, of ages above thirty-five years, it was revealed that seventy-eight per cent of the participants are unemployed. Then, she decided to do something about it, despite the fact that she did not have an office and funding. Her organisation is founded on the ground of making the youth realize their potential, offering them tools and giving them hope and career-based support.

Since her passion could not be doubted, and her understanding of her community could not be questioned because of her research analysis, stakeholders spotted that she only lacked resources to grow her organisation. In turn, they (stakeholders), after commending Nompumelelo on her wonderful work, provided assistance with relevant contacts for office space and promised future collaborations and funding. In closing, she said, “I hear people asking about the type of South Africa we want to live in. For me, South Africa is too big, but the Duduza that I want to live in is the Duduza that is employed and financially free.”

Following was another community project launched by two civic education champions, Kelebogile Mangole and Matshepo. Their organization strives to eradicate mental health problems and social ills at Kagiso, as well as to lead an AIDS awareness programme. Kelebogile mentioned that South Africans, on a global scale, are ranked as the least happy people. Her philosophy is that each citizen has a role to play in ensuring that our communities have mental stability and health. The organisation is her means to realising that goal. Stakeholders offered help on finding office space, for they also struggled with finding a proper office, and a suggestion on registering with relevant platforms for legitimacy and recognition for tracking was made. Another recommendation that was made was to consider doing online therapy sessions.

Citizens eventually become part of the non-voter statistics when they feel like government is not working for them. Social ills, mental health-related issues, unemployment, and the sundry, are some of the many personal factors that affect voters’ decisions. Civic education champions solve those problems with the organisations they launched. This roundtable did in fact add value to the organisations launched and to the overall gathering of solutions on ways forward for the following elections. The date of the next meeting is still unknown, but communication will be made with stakeholders in due course.

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About the author:

Mpho (MrSir) Matlhabegoane is one of the A! Hub Writers. He became an Activator in 2019, and through Activate! Change Drivers, he underwent educational training with Programmes such as SWITCH Entrepreneurship Programme, National Mentorship Movement with Printing SA and Citizen Journalism with The University of Witwatersrand (Wits). He is a Mental Health Awareness Advocate, and to spread mental health awareness, he published three books that have been accepted by Gauteng Department of Education as of 2023, namely: The Story of MrSir (Word For The Record), Expanding The World Of Nerds, and Views and Emotions (Poetry Journal of MrSir).