Rise Mzansi plans to dig deep to tackle crime in Gauteng 

by | Apr 16, 2024 | Elections2024, News

Rise Mzansi hosted a panel discussion to inform citizens on their plan to tackle crime in Gauteng. 

Newcomer to national politics, Rise Mzansi plans to tackle crime through addressing structural issues head on, instead of narrowly focusing on policing alone.

On April 9, 2024, Rise Mzansi hosted a panel discussion at Workshop 17 in Rosebank Mall to address their proposed policies on safety and security in South Africa, with emphasis on the need to address the root causes of crime. 

This discussion was the second instalment of a weekly event hosted by Rise labelled the “Citizens Assembly’. A public forum to deliberate proposed policies and electoral issues, allowing input from both a panel of experts and citizens in attendance. The idea is to incorporate feedback to improve policies and build a genuine ‘people’s manifesto’. 

Monday’s assembly was hosted by human rights activist, Mark Heywood and Rise’s Gauteng Premier candidate, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa. Heywood said the format would “pioneer the practice of participatory democracy”, and the two hours that followed proved his point.  

The panel of experts included Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies Gareth Newham, founder of the NGO ‘Nirvana’ Jennifer Matibi, lawyer and human rights activist Nicole Fritz, and founding member of ‘Guns Free South Africa’, Adele Kirsten. 

The assembly began with Ramokgopa outlining Rise’s objectives regarding safety and security in Gauteng. The panel then scrutinised the plan and offered suggestions on possible ways to improve the proposed policies. 

Rise Mzansi’s plan to address safety and security in Gauteng. Infographic: Kabir Jugram

Gareth Newham spoke of the importance of addressing the root causes of crime and suggested the possibility of hiring more social workers instead of police officers so the trauma behind criminality can be addressed. 

Once all experts had offered their input, the discussion was then opened to the floor for citizen input, critique and query. It was here that possible policy blind spots were pointed out – such as their neglect of the LGBTQIA+ community as pointed out by a member of the floor.

In response, Ramokgopa said profit-driven incentives contribute to the culture of corruption in the police force and that heteronormative values allow impunity in addressing rape and crimes against the LGBTQI+ community.

“We are a traumatized nation that uses violence to solve problems. (So) we need to rebuild the South African family,” she said. 

Furthermore, the event intended to illustrate what sets Rise apart from other parties in the run-up to the national elections in May. The party has built its brand off promising a new style of leadership to the current government- with their campaign slogan being “#WeNeed NewLeaders”. 

Rise claims to offer transparent leadership that is actively involved in the communities they represent. The citizen’s assembly will resume weekly in the run-up to the election and recorded sessions are available here.

FEATURED IMAGE: Mark Heywood addresses the floor while Vuyiswa Ramokgopa examines her notes. Photo: Kabir Jugram

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Q & A with Mbali Ntuli

by | May 9, 2014 | Featured 1

At the age of 26 Mbali Ntuli has made significant strides in the political arena as youth leader for the Democratic Alliance (DA). But being a leader has not stopped her from being critical of her own party….

Why doesn’t the DA Student Organisation at Wits have a presence?
We are only four years old as a youth wing so for the first two years we weren’t really able to contest in SRC elections because resources were focused on starting up the branches. We got a lot of young people in first and second year to head them up but then they enter honours year and they are under pressure and they let the ball fall so it’s all about leadership.

How successful has the DA been in using middle class black people to appeal to masses?
Two things, the first, neither Lindiwe [Mazibuko] or Mmusi [Maimane] or I actually are upper class in terms of our background, my mom was a teacher and my dad was a taxi driver. We are just in an age where black parents worked damn hard to get their children into middle class schools. I mean I work in Umlazi everyday giving them water, et cetera and they don’t give a fuck what I sound like when I speak English as long as I’m able to help them.

What are your thoughts on comments that the EFF could become the main opposition?
I’m surprised about how well the EFF has done but I don’t think they’ve done well enough to take over as the official opposition.

What do you make of the DA’s campaign?
Well I think the fact that we have grown in every election means that we are obviously doing something right. To be honest I think that this campaign has been different, 2011 was good, it was a positive campaign and people related well to our previous campaigns. It’s weird but this year my party’s been pretty negative in this campaign and I don’t think its sat well with some of us because we wanted to focus more on ourselves than the ANC and this [negative] strategy doesn’t work.

How much of a platform are young people given to contribute to the running of the party?
I sit on decision-making bodies that are the highest, like the federal council, but to be honest you need to have a lot of political capital to get stuff that you want pushed and I should technically be second after Helen [Zille] but that’s not how politics works. So it’s a balancing act and I think I don’t have as much power as I should as youth leader. So like the concert [at the DA election rally] we had on Saturday, I said to them ‘we need to not fucking bore people, it’s a fucking concert’ and 35% of the songs were slow jams, like who the fuck wants to go and listen to that?

How seriously are you taken as a young leader?
Most people, activists and members take me very seriously and that’s what matters more but I don’t think that some of our senior leaders take the youth as seriously as they should.
There’s a number of reasons, ageism being one. But I take great comfort in the fact that I’m probably going to outlive all of them so it doesn’t worry me so much now. But I’m also not the type of person who’s overly ambitious and trying to prove myself. I’m very happy to take my time and learn and grow.