Mbali Ntuli officially launches Ground Work Collective to drive change in communities

18 April 2023

Good morning and thank you for coming.

A year ago I resigned from public office. I stated that I would not be joining or starting a political party. I keep my promises. GWC is different.

As a public representative, I took seriously the job South Africans entrusted me to do. When I left active politics a year ago, I said I would go back to communities and work on the ground. This has always been most important to me. GWC is the result of the work that I, together with others, have been doing. Today, I am proud to be able to share how I have started that work, how it serves South Africa, and importantly to show patriotic South Africans how they can take their country back.

This is not merely a reaction to the current state of our politics. This is a personal mission. I am happy say that since my resignation I have become a mother for the second time to a wonderful baby boy. I have also spent the last year on another baby and that is what I am launching today. An initiative called the Ground Work Collective (GWC).

Amongst the many things I was tired of when I left politics the main was the political point scoring across the board which daily seemed to erode our country of hope for real change.

GWC is my way to try and re-kindle that hope. I invite all South Africans to join me on this journey. Today’s launch is the first step on the road I hope we will walk together.

During my political career, five things always stood out for me.

First, most South Africans are patriotic. They love this country. They also want to make it work. But the state of our politics today not only depresses people. It actively turns them away.

Second, even though South Africans want to make this country work, they have little idea how it actually works. In not understanding how things work, people do not know how to make the country and its politicians work for them.

Third, this suits our political class. In 2014, I become the MP responsible for the rural KZN constituency of uMkhanyakude, a place so far away from anything and everyone that leaders have forgotten it. Beyond the near total collapse of basic service delivery in this area, it was clear people were starving. Being “food insecure” is a euphemism – it should be seen for what it is. It is a moral and policy scandal. Even though we have become desensitized to the horror of seeing hungry adults, nowadays, too many young children suffer from acute malnutrition. The impact of this in the short-, medium, and long-term is terrifying for the future of our country. It causes childhood stunting. It causes learning difficulties. It prejudices the chance to achieve a normal adulthood.

We are failing our children before they even get a fair chance to start life. It was so bad in that district it was the worst in the country Fourth The median age in South Africa is 27 years old. Yet we have millions of people that will never hold a stable job, nor earn a steady income, no matter how much they want to, from the time they are 18 until they can collect a pension grant at 65. Worse still, 85% of this same age group of job seekers are faced with the impossible choice of using what little money they have between buying food or using it to seek jobs.

Fifth, voters are turning away because they know the system is not for them. There is a correlation between high rates of voter participation, accountability, representation, and turnout. Voters nowadays do not simply not turn out. They increasingly do not care. They know they are on their own.

Frustrated by the fact that we are not teaching our young people to fish so they can eat in future. We are not even giving them fish to eat today and that even if we could feed our children, it would mean precious little because our children are likely to have no work I started GWC. And now freed from the burden of party membership and political competitions, these are the problems I am now free to answer. These are the community-problems I wanted to fix when I resigned.

When GWC was formed, we commissioned extensive research to understand the current context of these problems. We had to understand before we could solve.We also did not want to become the very problem we have rallied against – becoming an out-of-touch, self-satisfied clique who focus too much on each other’s voices rather than the voices of the people we aim to serve.

With the assistance of a reputable research partner, we consulted the youth, heads of households, and subject matter experts across the country. We listened to thousands of stakeholders through surveys and face-to-face interviews to get our people’s views on democracy, civic participation, entrepreneurship, and food production.

We heard people’s concerns about challenges they face, particularly the youth. We have worked hard to ensure GWC, in partnership with business, civil society, and academia, can best address these challenges and how GWC could bring change.

This listening exercise fleshed out our initial ideas and has grounded GWC’s works in the real life issues of ordinary South Africans. They are:

- Food Production

- Skills Development and Entrepreneurship

- Democracy and Civic Participation

I would like to unpack our pillars in some more detail.

Pillar 1: Facilitating Community access to consistent, reliable, safe and nutritious food

- Increased food security in communities and enhances resilience to food crises

- Increased number of households implementing home based gardens to supplement food availability and choices

- Expansion in activities and use of community food gardens

- Enhanced awareness of food production techniques and importance of food nutrition through trainings conducted

Pillar 2: Supporting Entrepreneurs and Young People to Participate in Economic Activity

- Increased entrepreneurial activity by young people to contribute to the socio-economic development of their communities

- Increase in impact investing activity at local community level that contributes to solving social problems in the community

- More young people engaged in entrepreneurial activity stages from ideation to start up

Pillar 3: Equip and empower citizens to Participate in Democratic Processes

- Increase number of people registered to vote

- Enhance awareness and understanding of civic rights, processes and responsibilities through civic education training sessions

- Increased availability of accessible engagement platforms at community levels

I cannot overstate the importance of civic education because all evidence points to the fact that something has gone badly wrong in the relationship between those who govern and the governed.

To remedy this, civic education will be key element of our work. I want to stress civic education not just voter education.

Voter education, whilst important, is the dissemination of information, materials and programmes designed to teach citizens about the specifics and mechanics of how to vote. This alone is no longer enough in a country turning 30.

Civic education is what has been missing and aimed to close the gap of simply voting every five years and understanding a country’s political system and context. Civic education gives citizens information on the system of government; the nature and powers of the offices; the principal economic, social and political issues facing the nation; the value of democracy; how to utilise legislation to use their rights to hold political players accountable.

In our research we found that that the impact of relatively lower registration among the youth, along with their disproportionately large size in the electorate, has had a profound impact on the turnout of our elections. If this continues it shows that turnout among the young may continue to decline dramatically over time. The trend would create a cohort of voters who have learnt the habit of not voting.

As people move from one age group to the next the learnt habit of not voting not only weakens our democracy but by opting out they inadvertently allow political players to escape being held to account.

For GWC, it is not enough for an electoral outcome or that the electoral system is technically sound.

Our history demands of us that after exercising our right we must take responsibility for electoral outcomes – whatever they are – and ensure elected parties and politicians honour their manifestos. We cannot abdicate this responsibility. Nobody in South Africa can afford to not be into politics anymore. I say this not to shame people who are rightfully overwhelmed at the circus that is our politics.

But if we want to end this madness it is going to require all of us to understand that whether or not you choose to understand politics, you are at risk of outsourcing decision making to people who may be the least qualified to make them. Increasingly, too, the more people who opt out of engaging with our politics means that our indifference allows for decision makers to continue with impunity for example allowing children to drown in their own faeces because there is no urgency to replace pit toilets. And when they are replaced, the funds to do so are the subject of grand scale corruption.

Being political does not mean we have to be partisan.

Very simply: GWC wants to make sure that along with civic education, we also show citizens how to empower themselves in their own lives. Do people know when their council sits? Or their provincial legislature?

Aside from calling their councillor when there is no electricity or water do they know how to get answers from them or their political party outside of election time? Are they aware they can create UIPs (urban improvement precincts) for their neighbourhoods?

South Africans do not have to wait for political parties. They can effect change themselves and force political parties to be scared of them and their collective power.

When I was given uMkhanyakude as a constituency in 2014 my then political party had no presence in the area. I spent time outside the busiest places in the 5 municipalities, sometimes sitting at a table asking people what issues I could help them with. I did a lot of knocking on doors of businesses, civil organisations listening to people and being responsive.

Every time somebody invited me to their home or street to meet people I went. Within a few months I had gathered a team of small but motivated people reflecting all walks of life in South Africa. We helped to add pressure to dissolve the dysfunctional municipality. A by election was called and I am enormously proud to say that the party was able to elect its first councillor.

In 2016 for the first time in history that political party was able to elect councillors in every single municipality in that district and become kingmakers in two of the five of them.

This would in turn help them bargain their way to coalition arrangements in metros across the country, a first, and helped them understand that beyond the idea that every vote matters, getting people involved, and training them, to see how they can effect change can change the trajectory of an entire district, province, and country.

Three things turned the tide in those elections. Voter turnout which my team and I did strategically. Civic education of everyone we came across which inspired them to get involved and asking for help.

As a new constituency with limited funds none of this would have happened without asking people to be party agents, make sandwiches, volunteer their spaces for meetings and so much more.

I tell this story to further illustrate that what is missing in our politics is political efficacy. Political efficacy is the way a citizen perceives their personal effectiveness in politics. It captures the individual’s subjective belief that one can influence the political process. People who have a sense of political efficacy are more likely to participate in politics. If a person believes that they can influence political outcomes they will be more inclined to stay informed and vote at elections. An uniformed person who has little civic education has low political efficacy and so they will not turn out to vote. Not because they are apathetic but because they are not sure their contribution makes any difference and they do not know how to access structures to get their voices heard.

When you introduce civic education you increase political efficacy and create a new cohort of active citizens armed to make political parties and players accountable to them.

Importantly this does not only galvanise citizens to vote, but it also galvanises them to organise. In societies where there is high political efficacy coupled with registration you see the emergence of new political players who are able to capitalise off a new voter base with no historic allegiance.

In South Africa, this means that increasing the number of people on the voters roll not only makes existing political parties step up. It is also about encouraging new political entrants into the market by allowing them to persuade a pool of voters with no historic allegiance. This strengthens democracy.

The days of political party impunity will only end once we all know how the system really works. You cannot change something you do not understand; you will always be at the mercy of those who know the system better than you.

I was privileged to hold public office in this country for over a decade. I have been in multiple roles at different legislative levels, I have experience in campaigning, policy making, fundraising, and executing strategy. There will always be an oversupply of politicians and political parties but I felt strongly that where I am most needed right now to serve my country is to use my knowledge and expertise to empower communities and South Africans.

Aside from GWC’s civic strategic pillar being most closely aligned with my skill set it is one that works across the world when executed correctly. I watched with pride as Nse Ufot and Stacey Abrahams swung the state of Georgia for a democratic presidential nominee and senators for the first time since Clinton in 1992.

Two women saw what was happening in their communities and knew the only way to get change was to go out and do the hard work of walking the ground, educating Georgians, registering them and getting them out to vote.

I was privileged last year to meet and have a long strategic session with Nse Ufot the CEO of the Georgia project.

Our day spent together with my team was instrumental in shaping how we will, in the South African context, use their advice and strategies to help galvanise unregistered voters.

I have also recently returned from Zambia. I attended the summit for democracy with the intention of linking up with the many inspirational youth-led organizations like High Five which were instrumental in shaping the last Presidential election.

Zambia, as the most successful democracy in Africa, is an example to us all. With similar contexts and background connecting with many likeminded organisations there showed again that the youth is not apathetic but it does show that they have largely been left behind by politicians.

The examples of Georgia in the United States and what is happening in Zambia is not dissimilar to my own experience organizing.

Nearly 2 decades in the field has shown me that communities are not afraid of change. They are not afraid of hard work. They are not afraid to do it for themselves.

What they need more than anything is help to let them achieve it. They need the political class to get off their backs and stop holding them to ransom. It is changing this dynamic which guides me and GWC in wanting

• To be the organisation that can best catalyse change for communities. There are many good people out there doing good work in their communities. Often their good work is limited because they do not have the connections or resources they need. GWC and I stand ready to help these people helping our communities. We will support community change makers.

• To help communities and those who help communities to tell their stories. GWC will be the best storyteller in South Africa of how change makers are transforming their communities and unlocking opportunities for progress in these across the country.

• To be the organisation that connects, recruits, and mobilises mentors from within the establishment to help change makers on the ground. Money is important, but our interest is beyond money itself. This is about connecting people with professional skills and who want to make a difference with other people who are already doing this work.

Asking for help is how GWC has come this far. Within a year we have embarked on various projects, commissioned research, had people help with our strategy, branding, legal work, introductions for resources.

We benefited from a thousand acts of kindness and more than that – the real love for this country by people who know that things cannot carry on like this.

All of this was done by asking for help. Our best asset in South Africa is the people. I cannot thank all the people who have helped GWC individually. They know who they are.

Some of the specific people I would like to mention, though, include:

- Likeminded organisations ranging from subsistence farmers to youth community organisations and other civil society partners. In particular, I would like to mention CitizensZA, Future Elect, the IEC, and Youth Interactive.

- Some of the individuals we have been lucky to be supported by include Bobby Godsell, Thero Setlioane, Adi Enthoven, Rick Menell, and Chief Ntshingila, as well as Lindiwe Mazibuko and Dr Sithembile Mbete. Their names are among over a hundred patrons across the South African landscape of business, academia, philanthropy, arts, and activism.

- A special word of thanks too to my team especially our non-executive director and strategic advisor Sazini Majopelo and Siphesihle Dube our chief strategy and communications officer.

- These people and so many others have sustained my hope that South Africa still has enough of us ready to do what it takes to make our country a success. As the CEO of GWC, I want to replicate this example all over SA.

At this point I want to announce that next week as GWC we will be unveiling our first big public project. We believe it will capture the imaginations of young south Africans and excite them about the role they can play in their futures.

We have partnered with philanthropists, influencers, media personalities, and the country’s biggest events and live concerts companies including Playmakers and Matchbox Live.

We hope that once this exciting project is announced that we will be joined by everybody, every company, every civil society organisation that realises what a worthy and urgent need the project is. We cannot wait to unveil it to South Africa.

This is the start of an exciting journey. On behalf of GWC, I express my excitement in walking it with the people of South Africa. Thank you.

Issued by Siphesihle Dube on behalf of Ground Work Collective, 18 April 2023