How Will We Achieve Our Vision?
Research
Research
Our research deepens our understanding of campaigning, informs government policy, informs how we engage policymakers and political parties and supports our popular education work.We will gather and analyse information, produce knowledge, and make this accessible through our communication platforms and the media.
Campaigning
Campaigning
We will campaign to shift policy, political culture and hold public representatives to account. We will do this through engagements with partners and coalitions, communications, lobbying and, as a last resort, litigation.
We will push for policy alternatives for the South African political and electoral systems based on the changing economic and socio-political context.
Popular Education
Popular Education
We will work directly with social movements and community organisations to give them the tools to organise and hold public representatives to account. Our approach will:
• Be a process of co-learning,
• Speak to the issues people face in their communities,
• Provide people with the tools to move toward a place of action,
• Support the development of grassroots leadership, and
• Be based on the lived experience of participants.
Additionally, we also produce educational materials such as toolkits , flyers and booklets and videos.
Our Programmes
1. Money In Politics
We successfully campaigned for the enactment of the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA), which came into effect in 2021. The Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation since 1996, and the first one that regulates the internal operations of political parties.
We will now work towards understanding the relationships between money, influence, and politics and remove the use of money to buy influence in politics.
All our work on political party funding can be viewed here.
2. Electoral Democracy
In 2020, Parliament embarked on a process to reform the Electoral Act to allow for independent candidates to stand for the General Elections.
We have campaigned for electoral reform that centres public participation and prioritises accountability. We will now work towards ensuring that mechanisms within the electoral systems ensure deeper accountability.
Our work on electoral democracy can be viewed here.
3. Inter- & Intra-party Democracy
Functioning political parties are crucial to our multi-party democracy. To deepen government democracy and accountability, parties must value democracy and accountability.
We will work towards ensuring that political parties withhold democratic principles and practices. As coalitions emerge at the centre of our politics, we will understand mechanisms for coalition relationships that are stable and based on principle.
Our work on inter- & intra-party democracy can be viewed here.
4. Democracy From Below
We will work with community organisations, social movements, and labour to develop the tools for people to organise themselves around the vote.
Click here to see MVC’s vision for 2027.