Seminar and Launch of EISA’s Election Update South Africa

12 May 2010
EISA Training Room, EISA House, 14 Park Rd, Richmond, Johannesburg [directions]

RSVP Nkgakong Mokonyane, telephone 011 381 60 00 or email nkgakong@eisa.org.za

Join us as we explore the question, What is the future of elections as an instrument of democratic political contestation in South Africa? within the context of the National and Provincial elections of 2009 and the forthcoming local government elections in 2011.

Seminar: The future of elections as an instrument of democratic political contestation in South Africa

Perspectives on political contestation & emergent trends

The seminar is aimed at provoking thinking and debate about the future of elections as an instrument of democratic political contestation in South Africa.

Because elections are an instrument constitutive of government, they matter considerably for the future mode through which the governance regime is incepted.

Some recent scholarship, commentary and analysis suggests that elections, though entrenched, are but one tool of democratic political contestation and political expression. They are resonating less with citizens, even though the electorate take the vote and the electoral process seriously. One political commentator has suggested that the spate of violent protests pose an existential threat to elected local government. Violence against elected councillors amounts to sedition... [1]

Others have suggested that fractured relations between political parties and adversarial relations amongst individuals in the main parties, as well as a questioning of key constitutional values and the lack of a civic culture amongst citizens, conspire to erode the credibility and legitimacy enjoyed by government and the level of stability in the political and governance system.

1Khehla Shubane. Business Day, Wednesday 7 April 2010, p. 7.

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Launch: Election Update South Africa 2009

This seminar is being held to coincide with the launch of EISA’s Election Update South Africa: February - July 2009, a collection of individually produced monthly updates around the 2009 National and Provincial elections. The Election Update will be launched together with a Policy Brief synthesising key findings. The Brief suggests policy recommendations for effective future political and electoral management and administration.

Programme

10:00-10:05 Mr Denis Kadima, EISA Executive Director - Welcome and Introduction
10:05-10:15 Mr Ebrahim Fakir, Manager, Governance Institutions and Process - Presentation of the Election Update
10:15-10:30 Commissioner Dr Brigalia Bam, Chairperson, Independent Electoral Commission
10:30-10:45 Professor Susan Booysen, University of the Witwatersrand - Key Policy recommendations arising from election updates and key emergent trends
10:45-11:00 Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana, Chief Researcher, Human Sciences Research Council
11:15-11:30 Khehla Shubane, Political Analyst and Associate: Centre for Policy Studies (former Robben Island Prisoner)
11:30–11:45 Professor Raymond Suttner, Research Professor at UNISA and honorary professorial research fellow at Wits (former Political Prisoner, ANC M.P, ANC head of Political Education, and former South African Ambassador to Sweden)
11:45-12:30 Discussion and Questions and Answers
12:30 Lunch

Directions to EISA House

MAP

  1. Take the Empire Road off-ramp
  2. Once on Empire, please keep in the middle lane, pass three sets of traffic lights.
  3. At the fourth set of traffic lights turn right into Menton street.
  4. Pass one set of robots. Turn right into Park Road. The EISA offices will be on your right hand side.