“The key is in the preamble of the Constitution – the first three words are ‘We, the people’,” replied Bongani Dlamini, from Youth@SAIIA (South African Institute of International Affairs).
These were the opening remarks of the Action 24 workshop, one of three events happening last week across the country.
Sandile Nombeni of Ekurhuleni Environmental Organisation says public participation is entrenched in the Constitution as a crucial element of democracy.
The organisation believes that many people lack a clear understanding of the principles and mechanisms through which the public is entitled, and encouraged, to take part in making decisions that directly affect them.
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“How easy is it for us to participate?
“To us, it seems as if we are invited to the table, then the table is placed very far out of reach.”
Nombeni says he has noted how public participation meetings are either announced too late or are at venues that people who use public transport would find it difficult to reach.
The workshops, organised in Gauteng, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are part of the Action 24 initiative, explore how to mobilise communities to engage their provincial legislature and national parliament.
Janet Munakamwe, Action 24 workshop facilitator, helped cover topics including the law-making and oversight processes, lodging submissions and petitions, reading and understanding a governmental budget, the role of the media in making information available to the public, and key environmental legislation and policies at national and provincial levels.
“We put (vote) people in positions, but it seems that when they are there they stop caring (about the interests of the people.
“Why is that?” she exclaimed.
“I was maybe ignorant before, but now I understand that everyone has a responsibility for their community.
“We must not expect our leaders to give us everything.
“We must be involved in the legislative processes so that we can know what is going on here [in Gauteng] and in South Africa as a whole,” said Esther Meletse, workshop participant and Passover Community Building Organisation representative.
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