/ 8 December 2017

Listening to what the people really want

Jacob Mamabolo
Jacob Mamabolo

In the last quarter of the 2017, MRM (the Moral Regeneration Movement) traversed the length and breadth of townships in Gauteng, engaging with communities about the significance of the protection of public property and infrastructure through community dialogues.

The community dialogues — part of our flagship campaign I Care We Care — have been an eye-opener, to say the least. The community dialogues took us as far as the City of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng District Municipality and the Westrand District Municipality.

Our MRM field workers visited malls, shopping centres, taxi ranks and train stations to interact with communities in order to understand the social phenomenon of violent destruction of property. Community dialogues are key because they emphasise listening in order to deepen understanding. These dialogues also develop common perspectives and goals and allow participants to express their own views and interests without any hindrances.

The I Care We Care campaign was initiated by the Gauteng department of infrastructure development to encourage communities to protect public property.

The partnership between MRM and the department will ensure that civil society takes ownership of the I Care We Care Campaign and that the campaign is taken to various communities across the province. Both the MRM and the department intend to continue to mobilise one million signatures in various communities in the province.

A total of 600 pledge books are currently circulating in different communities under the supervision of MRM’s regional co-ordinators and community facilitators. The first batch will be collected, verified, recorded and submitted at the end of December 2017, and the second one in 2018.

The strategic objective of the campaign is to educate communities about the negative effects of destroying public property; to create an active citizenry, which will work with government to protect public property; to promote a citizenry that appreciates, protects and has a sense of responsibility and ownership of public property; to change mindsets and public behaviour; and to create a society based on the Charter of Positive Values of the MRM.

The campaign is responding to the grave concern abou the destruction, looting and vandalism of public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, clinics, recreation facilities, libraries and community centres.

According to the research findings emanating from interaction with the people on the ground, many people in our communities do not have adequate knowledge on how government procedures works, particularly at local government level.

MRM has also established that they are also not aware of available platforms that they can use to make their voices heard, such as petitions.

During one of the community dialogues in Greater Sebokeng, residents urged the MRM and the department to get back to basics when it comes to service delivery issues. The people told us that politicians should stop promising people jobs and decent houses during the elections, but end up not delivering on their promises.

“Democracy brought some rights that we were fighting for and it also brought us other rights which are giving us problems, such as corporal punishment being abolished. We should take responsibility for our actions,” a concerned resident of Sebokeng said recently.

“However, we are grateful to learn about new ways of protesting, because we as the community are still stuck in the old ways of protesting, where something needs to burn in order to resolve our grievances. The community was united in the old days, where people assisted each other and cared for the entire society. Today, it’s every man for himself … we wish this I Care We Care campaign should be sustainable and not end here. It should continue until there is a change in the community.”

Local councillors stated that the program was excellent “as it will get the community talking, and there needed to be more MRM structures in all the Gauteng wards”.

What also came out clearly was that the MRM should work also with other key stakeholders such as the South African Police Services in order to check what are the challenges facing the community.

The communities also said they wanted the MRM to reach out to more people on the ground on a regular basis. One of the proposals bandied about at one of the community dialogues was to create an MRM structure in the majority of the wards to work with the councillors and drive MRM programmes.

In Dobsonville, Soweto, the community agreed to the formation of a task team for wards 47 and 48, and that the task team should consist of 10 members.

As a way forward, the MRM will establish a provincial forum comprising representatives from all regions. The purpose of this forum will be to constantly report and advice on the implementation of the campaign activities.

MRM has set out to reach one million pledges through the proposed activities, but the goal is not only making people sign the pledge but to infuse the campaign with a set of values that each active citizen should strive towards, thus ensuring that the campaign is sustained far beyond its life span.

Over and above pledging, MRM seeks to create a society that will take better care of public infrastructure.

Neo Chaka is the MRM National Office Manager