Page 1 of2JOBURG ADV OCACY GROUP (JAG) Working for best practic e governance in the City of JohannesburgMedia Release Joburg Advocacy Group Launches Direct Democracy Campaign Campaign ai ms to promote a move to direct democracy in the C ity of J ohannesburgJohannesburg 22 March 2011 For immediate release The Joburg Advocacy Group (JAG), an independent civil society group working for best practice governance in the City of Johannesburg, yesterday launched a campaign for direct democracy, which will run until the local government elections on 18 May. The campaign aims to promote a move to direct democracy in the city by providing information forvoters and by off ering a platform for debate ab out the current lo cal governmen t system , as well as about viable alternatives. ³What few voters realise is that our present model isn¶t the only form of democracy,´ says JAG founding member, Lee Cahill, ³and that there are other ways of organi sing publi c life; ways which ensure that political power remains with the electorate and i sn¶t effectively trans ferred to politi cal parties.´ At present, she says , voters have no direct control over who i s nominated for election and, once councillors are el ected, no direct control over their performance. ³Essential ly, very few people are in control of deci ding who it is that sho uld stand f or election and, ifvoted into office, who will represent the people.´ To illustrate the point, she cites the fact that the ruling ANC has a membership of just over 820,000 members 1 , a number which repres ents only 2.8% of the voting popul ation 2 . It is this membership that, at branch level, nominates and approves candidates for election - without the obligation of having to 1 Reported by the ANC on 12 August 2010 2 Statistics South Africa: Mid-Year Population Estimates, July 2010
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8/7/2019 JAG Media Release - Direct Democracy Campaign
hile the structures and processes may be diff erent in the case of the var ious opposition par ties, the
same pr inciples apply.
Fur ther , both ard councillors and propor tional representation
P
councillors are directly
responsible to the par ty¶s caucus leader in local government and not to the electorate. his means
that voters cannot hold their councillors directly to account dur ing their term in office or demand that
they address cer tain issues in ouncil, especially as motions may be vetoed by either the par ty¶s
caucus leader or by the Speaker , ho is also a par ty appointee.
Similar concerns apply in the case of candidates f or
!
ayor ," says
ahill.
he city is basically a
business and the residents are its shareholders, as they provide the lion¶s share of its revenue through the payment of taxes. And yet the city¶s shareholders have no say in
ho is nominated by the
var ious par ties f or the position of !
ayor , the person ho
ill ultimately be the city¶s
EO.
his is a
situation that ould simply never be seen in the business sector .
"
he aim of
# A
$
¶s campaign, then, is to make voters aware of the f act that they are in a position to
demand a new, more direct f orm of democracy in the
ity of #
ohannesburg. As par t of this initiative,
the group will be publishing downloadable inf ormation leaflets on direct democracy throughout the
pre-election per iod. It will also be holding daily democracy debates on Facebook and
witter , and will
be actively par ticipating in media debates.
epresentational democracy can take us only so f ar ," says
ahill,
and we believe it is time to star t
working towards a more direct and accountable f orm of democracy, star ting at local level."
For f ur ther inf ormation on the # oburg Advocacy