On 16 May, 3 active WRA members joined an engaging and informative workshop, co-hosted by WECA and the Umbrella Civic, with the People’s Legal Centre and the Movement for CARE, on the functions and structures of ward committees. The workshop helped to understand the current challenges around the City of Cape Town’s rules on ward committees, and to develop a ward committee manifesto that centres community voices, needs and visions in our ward.
Participatory democracy is a principle enshrined in the South African constitution – but how many of us really know how it works in practice? We joined a workshop on 16 May, organised jointly by the Umbrella Civic, WECA, People’s Legal Centre (PLC) and the Movement for CARE, that aimed to helped bring active citizens in our ward up to speed about the theory and practice of ward committees ahead of the upcoming local government elections.
In their presentation, the PLC made it clear that, while the national Municipal Structures Act asks each municipality or metropole to set up mechanisms for ward committees, the rules set by the City of Cape Town fail to enable genuine participatory democracy – in particular, by restricting the process to registered organisations. Also, the ward councillor’s power to determine which of the 10 sectors can be allocated seats in their ward committee, has led to an overrepresentation of business and security, at the expense of other sectors such as Civic-based organisations. Workshop participants reflected about the ideal sector allocation for our ward, and our collective decision was built into the ward manifesto.
The discussion from the Workshop has since become part of petition for the City of Cape Town. To read or sign the petition, please see HERE.