Africa-Press – South-Africa. ActionSA is prioritising public engagement as it prepares to provide credible, solutions-based alternative policies to take the country forward.
The party will host its inaugural policy conference in September to offer longstanding solutions, beyond unseating the ANC.
Party leader Herman Mashaba announced that people who have “first-hand knowledge” and skills would be a part of the party’s policy formation to succeed.
He said: “The policy conference will be the culmination of an expert-led, public engagement process that will serve to refine our policy offering. This consultative process will solicit input from internal structures but also from those South Africans who have the knowledge and skills that can enrich our offering.
“We believe that drawing on the views of people with first-hand knowledge of dealing with the challenges we face will ensure that the solutions we put forward are not just based on academic research and international best practice, but also on real-world experiences.”
Mashaba was speaking in Johannesburg on Thursday at the party’s policy process.
He said the people’s dialogue which set the party’s foundations in 2019, endorsed its seven principles, which remain its “guiding light.”
Among the seven principles are non-racialism, respect for the rule of law and social justice.
So far, the party has 11 policy areas of focus: economic prosperity, energy security, economic justice, corruption, law and order, education, healthcare, public services, foreign policy, climate and environment and rural development, and traditional affairs.
At the event, ActionSA chief strategist André Coetzee said the party would move on to the next phase of its policy development, which entailed finalising the “solutions blueprint” and and consulting with its delegates and experts.
There will be 609 delegates from all nine provinces at the conference.
Coetzee said: “At every phase of our policy development process, we have thus emphasised evidence-led development based in solid research practice while acknowledging that public policy does not exist in an academic vacuum. It must respond to the reality on the ground and the lived experience of South Africans.
“This is why we have always prioritised engagement and consultation with South Africans from all walks of life. We realise the importance of a bottom-up policy development approach, and hearing what people have to say has been a critical part in our policy development process.”
Members nationwide will also be involved in discussions on the policy process.
ActionSA’s Limpopo chairperson, Sello Lediga, said the party would launch engagements nationwide in May to interact with members on the ground.
“This will include branch-level engagements, regional engagements, and provincial-level engagements. In addition to this, we will also be allowing individual members to make submissions directly into the process. In short, we want to make it as easy as possible for Action SA members to get involved in shaping our policy offering,” Lediga said.
The party’s director of chief governance, Nosiphi Moya, said the people would select a trained and diverse group of leaders to “take our visions and implement it for the benefit of all South Africans”.
Moya added:
A political academy has been launched to maintain the quality of leadership selected.
Moya added that the party was “intentional” about “offering credible leaders” should they be elected.
“ActionSA cannot be part of the problem by flooding the system with individuals who are not ready to take this country forward. This would be contradictory to our guiding principle of ethical leadership and professional public service,” she said.
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