A call for better governance in the townships 

The Defend our Democracy (DoD) campaign, a Civil Society initiative to defend the nation’s defend Constitutional Democracy, will hold a Conference on the 1-2 July 2022 at Birchwood hotel, Boksburg.The broad-based campaign was inspired by a call made by the South African Council of Churches for the citizens to peacefully defend Democracy against those who are intent on corrupting public institutions with impunity. The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa is part of the organisations that endorsed the campaign. The TEASA General Secretary serves as a Co Convener, along with : Fazel Randera, Rev. Frank Chikane, Neeshan Balton, Trish Hanekom, Nick Binedall,Trevor Fowler, Sheila Sisulu, Dipak Patel, Adv Mojanku Gumbi, Nicole Fritz, Mandla Nkomfe, Kristen Abrahams, Murphy Morobe, and Zaakirah Vadi. Ahead of its upcoming conference in July, DOD published a discussion paper for public comment. The paper sets out the nature of the challenge to our Constitutional Democracy and citizens are invited to weigh in on the analysis and also participate in finding solutions to defending the integrity of our Democracy. Several public workshops have been held to
garner citizens participation and inputs.

Most recently, a DoD workshop took place in White City Soweto, Ipelegeng community hall on the 17 th of June 2022.In attendance were members of the community of Soweto and representatives from different organisations such as the TAC, representatives from the
Ahmed Kathrada foundation, VaxuMzansi representatives and the general secretary of The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa and members of the clergy. Matters affecting Sowetans around governance in the townships of South Africa were raised, as were the the need for strengthen the township economy, combat unemployment, service delivery, gender based violence, crime and holding the government accountable. The need for the development of civic organisations seemed to be a solution that many in
attendance could agree upon. The Vaccine campaign VaxuMzansi was given an opportunity to remind the attendees of the importance of the none pharmaceutical interventions to COVID and to urge unvaccinated participants to get vaccinated and to those already vaccinated to get updated and boosted”. Readers are encouraged to read the discussions paper ( http://defendourdemocracy.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DISCUSSION-DOCUMENT-FINAL.pdf) and comment.