Hold your ward councillors to account both before and after the municipal elections

7 March 2011

Veteran consumer activist and journalist, Jim Powell, is encouraging voters across the country to hold
their ward councillors directly responsible to the electorate. He is suggesting that, during the election
campaign for the upcoming municipal elections, voters ask candidates to sign the following social
contract for measurable delivery.

This contract can be adapted according to the needs of each ward, but the objective is to get all
candidates to sign this commitment before the elections, so that the elected ward councillor can be
held to account while in office. And if the candidates in your ward don’t want to sign, the question
should be: “Why not?”.

For more information, please send an e-mail to Jim Powell at jimpowell@mweb.co.za and put DD in
the subject line.

Direct Democracy in Action

If you want more control over the day-to-day running of your town or city, you need to ensure that
ward councillors can be held to account by the people who voted them into office.

So, during the election campaign for the upcoming municipal elections, ask your selected candidate
to sign the following social contract as a commitment to direct and measurable democracy:

I, (name of candidate), acknowledge that I am effectively an employee of the

voters, since it is the voters who elect ward 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 regular and effective consultation with the voting public

through public meetings and continuous communication with local
residents' associations and community groups.
• 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 wishes of my constituency are effectively
communicated and advocated for in Council and at all levels of local
government.
 • I commit to ensuring that the by-laws are upheld and that service delivery
is efficient and effective.
• I commit to being held accountable for my performance by the voters.

I further agree that the voters in my ward should be able to remove me from
office.

Should 25% of the number of voters who voted in my constituency in the

election sign an open petition to have me removed from office, I will comply with
their wishes and resign. A petition of this nature may not, however, be initiated
within 6 months of me taking office or when an election date has been set and
may not 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 will donate R100,000 to the community, for use
in the community in a way to be decided by the voters in my ward.

Signed _____________ (Community Organisation)

Signed______________ (Candidate)