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0 viewsSpecial Report: Activate! Leadership for Public Innovation programme
Lately, there has been much focus on the Protection of State Information Bill, and we have been told that it could prevent us from accessing government information that we should know – but even now it is hard to find official data.
I live in Masiphumelele, a poor community squashed between Sun Valley and Kommetjie. I am passionate about improving the lives of the people of “Masi” and joined the Future Fighters programme of the Desmond Tutu HIV/Aids Foundation. This year I was nominated to be part of the leadership initiative called Activate! One of our first tasks as Activators was to better understand our communities and their official development plans.
I know my community well, so I thought it would be easy to find someone who had access to the relevant information. But no-one could help me. I went to the Civic Centre in Fish Hoek, which is responsible for the services in Masi. Immediately I was treated with suspicion. The lady at reception snapped at me: “Who are you to ask this information? Why do you want it?” I kept calm and just kept asking questions: what did the census say about Masi? How was it founded? What are the plans to get electricity to everyone in the community? She got increasingly irritated, but eventually gave me the details of a monthly municipal meeting and said I should ask the people there.
Unfortunately, as I sat in the meeting, I realised that even though there was black skin in the room, there was no black voice in the debates. Even the coloured community from Ocean View didn’t have a voice. The conversation was all about how to improve Fish Hoek High School’s sports fields. As the conversation continued, I got angrier and angrier! Yes, the young people of Fish Hoek needed good facilities, but why were the issues of my community any less important?
I thought my experience was unique until I met other Activate! participants at our next training. Itumeleng, from Orange Farm, told me that the only document he could trace about his community was from 1996.
Not only government departments are at fault, another Activator, Philimone, tried to meet with three nongovernmental organisations, but they all refused to meet with him until he had sent them his résumé.
The dominant experience of Activators across the country is that information is difficult to obtain. The problem wasn’t only restricted access, but public malaise as well: many officials stated that this was the first time a member of the public had approached them for such information.
In sharing our stories, we realised how little we knew about the real situation of our communities – the detail of the challenges they face, the resources that could be mobilised and the opportunities that could be exploited to improve life circumstances. Active citizenry is about developing a common vision of the country, city, town or rural area we live in, not just whining when services are not up to scratch. It is about people who know what all the noughts really mean when R20 million is siphoned from municipal coffers. It is about a society that expects openness and answers to tough questions, and doesn’t feel stymied by indifferent officials or cowed by facetious fat cats. We need activists with substance if we are to move beyond personality politics.
At the same time, we must be careful that we don’t resuscitate the activist-vs-state antagonism of the past, because that would only lead to greater paranoia on both sides. There are committed politicians across the political spectrum and officials dedicated to development.
But it’s a question of critical mass. If dedicated individuals constantly operate in environments where power is exercised by withholding information that affects people’s day to day lives, they will either eventually be co-opted by the system or leave to find more stimulating work. The success of the public sector depends on its willingness to be open to debate and scrutiny as it exercises its public mandate.
If we don’t start raising our voices and asking informed questions, how can we ever hold our leaders – in government, business and civil society – accountable? If we can’t quantify the disparities of our society, how will we ever overcome them? More positively, if we don’t all share the same vision for our communities, how will we know how we can best contribute to realising that dream? Until we start asking the right questions, we might as well already be living under a repressive Secrecy Act.
Fezeka Gxwayibeni is part of Activate!, a diverse group of young people committed to social transformation. www.activateleadership.co.za
This article has been edited for Supernews with permission from Activate! The full article was originally published by the Sunday Times on the 17th June 2012 as par