The Defend Our Democracy Campaign on Thursday launched a discussion paper which aims to start a conversation in South African about how democracy can be strengthened.

At the launch, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation head Neeshan Balton said there was a need for the renewal of governance in South Africa.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has also embarked on a renewal campaign ahead of the party’s national elective conference in December.

Balton said that the last time South Africa was involved in such an exercise was when the Constitution was being drafted in the nineties. He said this long period was an indication that the country did not talk about its democracy.

The Defend Our Democracy Campaign was launched a year ago by prominent politicians and civil society organisations that united and mobilised South Africans to show their disapproval for lack of accountability relating to corruption.

Balton said the discussion paper was about renewing trust and ownership over politics and resources, beyond politicians and political parties.

He believed that it would start discussions that would help South Africans engage in new methods of political discussion.

“The document will assist South Africans to renew their commitment to the Constitution,” he added.

Bolton stressed that there was a need to take South Africa’s democracy seriously to effectively defend it.

One of the founders of the Defend Our Democracy Campaign Dr Frank Chikane said the paper also aimed to reverse the downward spiral the country finds itself in and to recover values that the country lost.

He said what was expected in 1994 had been devasted in the last 14 years.

He claimed that even the country’s security forces were captured, as were those who held important government positions.

He believed that the discussion paper would help South Africans reimagine the country’s political system and values.

Chikane said the recent release of the Zondo Commission report had demonstrated that there was a need for renewal. 

“These days people kill each other for positions. This is not what we struggled for. It was either we lose our freedom or we take a stand to fight for the liberation,” he said.