By Sandile Dudu Saki
The Action for Accountability (A4A) annual Town Hall meeting on 21 July at Nompumelelo Pre-School Hall in Joza, was a reflection of Makhanda residents coming together holistically as a collective to find better ways of approaching local governance and service delivery.
Funded by the European Union and based in the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) office at Rhodes University, A4A is a project aimed at enhancing civic active citizenry in all social spheres to tackle the challenges that communities deal with. A4A also works with the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and Johannesburg-based Accountability Lab South Africa.
According to A4A Community Facilitator Andile Nayika, there have been numerous interventions and submissions made to the local authorities by the community and A4A, all of which propose solutions to key problems in the town. Nayika added that the project was essential to democracy.
Zukiswa Kota, who is the project head in Makhanda, said PSAM is active in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique. One of the reasons for establishing A4A in Makhanda was the recurrence of problems, which led activists to research the causes of the problems. Kota said that they had to formulate a plan to engage with the government and interrogate issues like budget and planning so that they could find solutions to the challenges.
“What are the ways that we can maybe tackle the problems from a different perspective? Yes, we did the research. We‘ve looked at the money, is there enough money? No, maybe there isn’t enough money – people are wasting it, people are stealing it. When we need to understand what are the issues in the city, we sometimes need to get closer to the councillors, we need to get closer to the officials and the departments,” Kota told the meeting.
The meeting went on to list the problems affecting government as the inability of councillors to engage meaningfully with the citizens, factions in the council, corruption, disunity in the civil society space, a lack of access to and disclosure of information, and ineffective and inconsistent communication. Among the many problems listed were also dishonesty and untrustworthiness of officials, apathy in the face of expertise offered or volunteerism, dishonesty among South Africans, and problematic party politics.
A group of CivActs (Civic Activists) then presented the data they collected since the establishment of the project. The CivActs members were: Nontuthuzelo ‘Ntuthu’ Blow, Karen France, and Phila Nombombo – Community Frontline Associates; Ntombentsha Entsha Yamiso – Media Fellow and Lelethu Zono – Community Frontline Associate and Current Media Fellow.
Very few government or departmental officials attended the meeting, citing a Developmental Summit organised by the Provincial Government on the same day as a competing priority.
