JO BURG

ADVO C AC Y
GRO UP (JAG)
Working for best practice governance in the City
of Johannesburg

2011 Local Government Elections

A Social Contract: Direct Democracy in Action

2 April 2011

About the Joburg Advocacy Group (JAG)

The Joburg Advocacy Group (JAG) is an independent, non-aligned, voluntary and self-
funded civil society advocacy group, working for best practice governance, social justice and
environmental protection in the City of Johannesburg.

A social contract between voters and candidates

The following social contract is based on an original developed by consumer activist, Jim
Powell, in association with a number of civil society organisations and groups.

Powell has been actively encouraging voters across the country to hold their councillors
directly accountable to the electorate, both before and after the upcoming local government
election, and is suggesting that voters make their participation in the voting process
conditional on candidates signing a social contract for measurable delivery.

This model contract can be adapted according to the needs of each community, but the
objective is to get all candidates to sign this commitment during the election campaign, so
that councillors can be held to account once in office.

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And if the candidates in your ward or on the party lists don’t want to sign, the question
should be: “Why not?”.

Social Contract: Local Government

I, [Insert Name] , acknowledge that I am effectively an employee of the voters,

since it is the voters who elect councillors into office and who, through payment
of their rates and taxes, pay the salaries of all local government officials.

I therefore commit myself to direct democracy in the following ways:

 I commit to vigorously representing the voters in my ward or, in the case
or proportional representation (PR) councillors, the voters in the greater
City of Johannesburg.
 I commit to doing this in accordance with the issues raised by them
through democratic processes in regularly-conducted public meetings that
are properly advertised, easily accessible and open to all members of the
community (i.e. not just to party supporters or to members of specific
residents’ associations and/or community groups).
 I commit to regular consultation with voters through these public
meetings and to continuous communication with local residents'
associations and community groups.
 I commit to ensuring that the wishes of my constituency, whether it be a
ward constituency or the greater metropolitan constituency, are
effectively communicated and advocated for in Council and at all levels of
local government.
 I agree to vote in Council in accordance with the wishes of the voters, who
may from time to time be polled by means of a referendum similar in
format to that used for Council petitions.
 I commit to ensuring that the by-laws and laws of the country are upheld
and that service delivery is efficient and effective.
 I commit to being held accountable for my performance by the voters.
 I commit to being held accountable in terms of the laws governing the
operation of local government.

I further agree that the voters in my ward or in the city should be able to
remove me from office for valid reasons such as demonstrable non-performance,
corruption, misconduct or criminal actions.

Should 40% of the registered voters in my ward (in the case of ward councillors)
or 10% of the registered voters in the city (in the case of PR councillors) sign an
open petition to have me removed from office, I will comply with their wishes
and resign, unless a party political motive can be demonstrably ascribed to such
an action. A petition of this nature may not, however, be initiated within six

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months of me taking office or when an election date has been set, nor may a
petition already initiated continue once an election date has been set.

Should I not follow the results of a recall petition or should I refuse to resign as
required by the recall process, I acknowledge that I will be held accountable for
violations of the relevant laws governing the operation of local government by
the voters in my ward or in the city, whichever may be appropriate.

Signed______________ (Candidate)

Should you wish to contact either Jim Powell or JAG about this model contract, their contact
details are as follows:

Jim Powell: e-Mail Jim at jimpowell@mweb.co.za and put DD in the subject line.
JAG: e-Mail Lee Cahill at jag-sa@telkomsa.net.

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