We – James Motlatsi and Bobby Godsell – could hardly be more different South Africans: by race, class, language, politics and historic are context. As media mogul Marcel Golding used to say: How much of the mountain you see depends on where you stand on it.

Over the past two and a half decades, the two of us have discovered some very potent shared interests and common loyalties. These have been forged through being on the opposite sides of bitter conflict – the 1987 mineworkers' strikes.

We were also involved in co-creating, but from very different constituencies, new institutions of collective bargaining, and workplace authority. This enabled us to co-define new ideas about rights and responsibilities through agreements such as the code of conduct governing management and workers during strikes. It was not an easy task but because we were resolute about changing the status quo we were committed to seeing this to fruition.

These shared interests have been shaped by campaigning together for the interests of the mining industry at a time of worldwide central bank gold sales and co-operating at moments of great threat to our country's political transition. One of these defining moments was the tragic assassination of Chris Hani – a day that will remain the cornerstone of our democracy and one that will continue to influence our future as a people.

Through these shared experiences of both conflict and co-operation we have often become impatient with established authority. We have often been unwilling to wait for others either to do what was needed, or, indeed, to tell us what to do. We have come to believe more and more in the ordinary citizen as the essential co-architect of a peaceful, prosperous and democratic South Africa.

Earlier this year, this sense of impatience prompted and inspired us to approach a group of fellow citizens and ask them to endorse a set of values and commit to personal action in terms of these values.

Values and responsibilities
We have been enormously encouraged by the response. On April 27, on the day that commemorates our country's first democratic election, we launched an Active Citizens Council of over 100 South African leaders. This group has charged itself with challenging all South Africans to embrace the values and responsibilities of active citizens. It is our hope that in time millions of our compatriots will live every day as a Mandela Day in solidarity with their own communities and also with those millions of South Africans who are yet to experience the promised benefits of this new South Africa.

Too many South Africans reside on the periphery of the struggle to make real the promise of South Africa's 1996 Constitution. Many are trapped in poverty and economic exclusion. Others are entrapped by the fears of their racial minority status.

Yet every citizen has powers entrenched in our Bill of Rights. And the development stories from so-called emerging market countries around the world indicate that all communities have resources that can be the foundation of social, economic and political development.

Our first challenge is to leave the periphery and enter the arena. In 1910 the former president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, set out this challenge in the clearest of terms: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; but who actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat."

Please join us in South Africa's arena.

Bobby Godsell, former chief executive of AngloGold Ashanti and former president of the South African Chamber of Mines is co-author, with James Motlatsi, previous president of the National Union of Mineworkers, of Do It! Every South African's Guide to Making a Difference (Jacana, 2008)

THE ACTIVE CITIZEN'S CHARTER

I recognise the injustice of the past, honour those who suffer for justice and freedom, respect those who build our country and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.

I have the freedom to be active member of the political party of my choice; the party whose values and policies are closest to my own.

I rejoice in my own identity, as constructed by me. I respect the identities of South Africans different from me.  This diversity of peoples and cultures is something that makes our country interesting and wonderful. The foundation for all these identities is our shared identity as South Africans.

I love and build my family. I respect my parents. I  am an active, engaged parent to my children.  I am a good neighbour and an active member of the community where I live.

Each day I use the resources I have – at home, at school or college, in my workplace to do things that create more value for our society.

I use money responsibly. I take on no more debt than I can afford. I lend no more than others can afford to repay.

I love my country and honour its constitution.  I do not pay bribes.  Do not buy stolen goods or shelter criminals.  I use our roads responsibly and am courteous and considerate to other road used including pedestrians.

In signing this charter I commit, in addition to what I am doing now, to add 4 hours a month in new activity: in education, crime-prevention, job-creation, environmental protection or some other form of active citizenship.  I will do this together with other South Africans who live in my community and who have signed this charter and have joined this movement.