In 2019, Awake Mzansi! sponsored a major qualitative research project which aimed to understand how the issue of race affects people’s voting patterns in South Africa.

The qualitative study interviewed 50 people from 4 regions across SA in a mix of one-to-one, pairs and trio interviews. The average interview length was 1 to 1.5 hours and our research team spent 12 days in the field. (3 per region).

We garnered many terrific insights but one of the key out-takes of the project was the real need for a scale-able non-party aligned voter education program aimed at the youth in SA. There are literally no voter education programs in SA that focus on educating youth on how democracy works and how South Africa’s constitutional democracy functions.

Awake Mzansi! believes that voter education is crucial for the survival of SA’s young democracy and that there’s a specific reason the ruling party hasn’t introduced voter education into the high school curriculum. We plan on creating SA’s first non-politically aligned voter educational program in SA.

Our research indicated that a large portion of the youth don’t actually know how it all works. How Parliament works, what fiscal policy is, the difference between local government vs. national government etc. There’s a big knowledge gap amongst the youth which more than likely creates considerable voter apathy at the polls.

The local elections are coming up in May 2021 and many young voters simply have no idea on how their vote works and will simply not vote. We plan on changing this.

We are fund-raising in order to produce SA’s first independent and non-party aligned voter education program. We believe that we are the right platform and Political Action Group

to launch and host this program. We have the credibility and the online community to help us achieve our goals.

We expect that the program would be digital (an e-course) as well as print i.e. possibly in a comic format. Stage 1 will be around understanding the shape and format and we will approach this by doing a pilot. We think it might make sense get a university onboard for  validation and content creation purposes. Perhaps partnering with their Political Science Department and their 3^rd or 4^th year students…

Phase 1 will more than likely be a series of workshops with the universities to help us understand how to structure the program and deliver the content needed.

Phase 2 will be a pilot where we mock up a one or two single learning modules and we test the content and the learner interface with our target audiences.

Please contact us via the contact form if you’d like to help sponsor us or for any offers of assistance.

“State capture possibly cost the country more than R500 billion…” President Cyril Ramaphosa is said to have told a gathering of international investors, in 2019. (Fin24: 14.10.19)

During that gathering, and even before that, Ramaphosa – through his well calculated and orchestrated campaign termed “Thuma Mina” or send me, promised and declared that his was a new broom. A “New Dawn” that would work to restore the battered and bruised confidence and low morale of South Africans –who were tired of the escalating unemployment rate, a very weak economy, the devastatingly high rate of crime and violence (that was likened to a war zone/war ravaged country), poor service delivery, high inequality, poor public healthcare and transportation, the unabated corruption and so on – that had become commonplace in the country.

During this period of “New Dawn” or “Ramaphoria”, we heard of Jacob Zuma’s “9 wasted years” – in reference to the impact of former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure in office. Much was said and continues to be said about the mess, disaster and ‘state capture’ that happened during Zuma’s Presidency, and while Ramaphosa branded himself as the new broom, that would sweep clean, fight and end corruption, and reinvigorate South Africa’s dwindling reputational and economic fortunes, he made little mention of his and his party’s (The ANC) complicity – for during those “wasted years”, we were constantly told that the government and the ANC took “collective responsibility.” So why blame the decay on one individual, when the whole ANC was part and parcel – and did nothing to stop the rot? In fact, members of the ANC were and continue to be implicated in corruption and state capture allegations.

Ramaphosa promised and assured South Africans that action would be taken against those implicated in corrupt activities, and that those who looted public funds would answer and be dealt with. To date, none of this has happened. It is business as usual. Many of those implicated have either been deployed to other departments/posts or continue merrily to live off their ill-gotten gains. And even tough a commission of inquiry into state capture was set up –over a year and a few months later, no one has been held accountable. No one has been charged or prosecuted. No measures taken.

We have state owned enterprises (SOE) that have been plundered and mismanaged to the brink of collapse. And with each year, SAA; Eskom; SABC and many others, receive billions upon billions in bailouts and nothing changes. The mismanagement, incompetence, looting and cadre deployment continues. So many of our public institutions have been corrupted. Public and private corruption has taken hold, so much so, that when it is reported in the news nowadays, many South Africans do not bat an eyelid anymore.

Sadly, corruption has become such a part of South African life, that , even during the ongoing national lockdown (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), there have been numerous reports of politically connected individuals including ANC members and councillors allegedly stealing, looting or selling food parcels meant for the poor and  vulnerable. And yet again, no consequences, charges or accountability. Simply business as usual. Right now, our law enforcement and prosecutorial institutions are considered toothless and unactionable.

So as an ordinary South African, how can you not be despondent, frustrated, angry, disillusioned or apathetic? How can you not want change and better? How can you be happy and comfortable with the continued decay and rampant corruption?

As things stand, we are yet to know the real extent and cost of the years of public funds and state capture looting. But we do know that so much could have been done with that money. The fixing of poor public health, schools and transport facilities, dealing with the ticking unemployment time bomb and many other service delivery challenges, and so on.

How can we still hope that the ANC led government – that was implicated in many corruption related scandals (including state capture) can mitigate, fight and end corruption?!

South Africa, like many countries globally is under lockdown due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. And although the Presidency has since announced that many of the stringent (and at times bizarre) restrictions will be eased – to allow for more economic activity to take place, the immediate impact of this pandemic and subsequent lockdown are already being felt.

As South Africans continue to debate and discuss the implications of the lockdown – with differing opinions on whether the economy should be fully opened and lockdown end completely vs the calls for an extension and continuing of the lockdown (as more positive covid-19 cases are recorded), It is clear that what ever decision/s are taken in the coming weeks – the severe consequences are yet to come.

Even before the lockdown, the unemployment rate stood at an alarming 29.1% – which according to Statistics South Africa, it is the highest unemployment rate in 11 years. (source: Stat SA Q3 2019 Quarterly Labour force Survey)

As things stand, many economists, business bodies and even the National Treasury are forecasting a bleak outlook for the economy and are warning of impending – and significant job losses. To put it bluntly, they are anticipating a jobs bloodbath. As business confidence drops, and businesses continue to shut down in numbers, while others opt for the business rescue route, inevitably, many people are going to lose their jobs, thus adding more numbers to an unemployment rate that was already disturbing.

Considering National Treasury’s own projections (‘a worst-case scenario’), that 7 million people could lose their jobs and that the unemployment rate could increase to as much as 50% due to this pandemic, we should all be very worried.

Not long ago – 2018 to be exact, President Cyril Ramaphosa and government hosted a jobs summit (that involved the public and private sector, and many other organisations), with a promise that it would focus on job creation, address, as well as ‘fight’ the staggering unemployment rate – particularly youth unemployment. However, evidently, that promise has now been reduced to nothing more than a pipe dream.

While others may be quick to liken our situation to other countries – who too are seeing unemployment numbers rise, as well as, negative economic outlooks – with growing fears of a potential global economic recession, it should be noted that unlike other countries, South Africa was already in desperate need for economic growth. Our economy contracted by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019 (Statistic SA), plunging us into recession. Not forgetting that Fitch, Moody’s and S&P have downgraded South Africa further into junk status, and the outlook remains negative.

Low economic growth, little economic activity, increasing debt levels, rising unemployment and joblessness, growing frustration and anxiety, persistent uncertainty… a ticking time bomb?!

Can you confidently say that you believe that government can mitigate the severe impact of covid-19 on impending job losses, and economic growth, when they struggled to do it pre-pandemic and lockdown?

Can we afford a further decline?