Active Citizenry

• Mrs Makaringwe from SASSA responding to a community question
• Community member engaging the government departments
• Members of the community applying for
  ID documents
• Community members enjoying their rights and applying for social grants

Our Active Citizenry Programme encourages active citizen participation and accountability within KwaMakhutha and the surrounding areas.  Together with the community we call for service delivery and justice.

Human Rights Awareness Day

Working closely with the community made us realise that many people do not know their human rights, and therefore they do not exercise them. We now host an annual Human Rights Awareness Day. The objective of the awareness day is to empower residents with the ability to exercise their rights. On the day, we show a documentary with a human rights theme. The community is then divided into groups for an in-depth question and answer session. We ask them to identify human rights issues from the documentary that are similar to the ones in our community. The outcome is outstanding as by the end of the awareness day, the community is more informed and united. The implementation of human rights strategies with deadlines are also put in place.

Human Rights Community Dialogues

Human Rights Community Dialogues are held twice a year as we felt that the awareness day was not sufficient in addressing the many different aspects of human rights.

Objectives

• The community dialogues focus on the continuous execution of the human rights strategies that were discussed during the Human Rights Awareness Day.
• Our community dialogues also increase our collective understanding of the Integrated Development Plan, which is a mandatory annual plan prepared by the local eThekwini municipality. Linked to this, we discuss development participation opportunities with our municipality.

Outcome -

We want to create a community where residents assert their human rights confidently, as well as protect and respect the rights of others. Through these dialogues we are getting closer to this ideal.

Community Political Dialogues

Our community political forums are very important to us, as KwaMakhutha has a violent political history that led to the loss of many lives. We learnt the hard way that political intolerance and a lack of political awareness can have a devastating effect on a community.

Objective –

• We created a platform for residents to engage with political parties and to encourage political tolerance. Different political party representatives are invited to discuss their manifesto and how it coincides with issues pertaining to the community. Residents proactively question and seek understanding on these manifestos.

Outcome –

• The political dialogues have created a dynamic working relationship between the KwaMakhutha Community Resource Centre, political parties, and residents.
• Political parties listen to the community and have a better understanding of their needs.
• These dialogues have also made it easier for the community to hold political parties accountable to their promises.

We are glad to see that the political dialogues have increased tolerance, and the relations between the different political parties and the community continues to improve.

Civil Society Forums

We live in a community where service delivery is very slow and many residents are still living without water and electricity.

Objectives –

• Our Civil Society Forums advocate for service delivery from government.
• We also mobilise and encourage the community to hold the government to account for the lack of service delivery in our area.

Outcome –

• The forums have entrenched a culture of active citizenry which motivates residents to take ownership.

The success of the civil society forums is evident as participation continues to grow.