We are consulting widely with fellow South Africans on forming a party political platform with a view to contesting the 2014 elections. The initiative is called Agang, or in the Nguni languages of our country, Akhani, which can be interpreted in English as “Build South Africa”.
We are building a stronger democracy in which citizens will be at the centre of public life, taking control of their lives to help the country reach its full potential, not simply being treated as subjects about whom decisions are made.
I want us to re-imagine how we can work together as South Africans, to break the mould and reinvent our politics and our policies so that we can escape the destructive patterns of division and alienation in which they are trapped as a result of the oppression of the past. This is an opportunity for citizens to take ownership of their own country’s destiny and shape it.
We are going to effect that by having conversations across the country, to understand people’s needs and expectations for the future.
Why?
Twenty years after our political liberation we are still a divided and hurt nation, without a shared identity of what it means to be a South African.
I can no longer turn my eyes away from the position our country finds itself in, or close my ears to what I hear from my fellow South Africans across the country.
The process of building our nation has only just begun. We’ve reached a point at which unless people like you and I stand up and have our voices heard we will not achieve our dreams.
How are we doing it?
In my conversations with South Africans, I have been struck by the number of people who have felt excluded from taking part in our communal effort to deliver on the dream that was promised by liberation.
Over the coming months we will work together to build this party, its policies and its leadership. We will be talking to, engaging with and empowering active citizens to help us create that new foundation together.
How can you build with us?
Be an active citizen, tell us what’s on your mind, engage with us online, on social media, on the ground, in person, amongst yourselves. Let’s start the conversation and we will have new platforms and places to talk.