The non-profit organisation Ground Work Collective (GWC) has called on South Africans who are registered to vote and who are interested in becoming election observers to sign up and partake in the running of the May 29 elections.
Millions of South Africans are expected to cast their votes in the 2024 national and provincial elections, where they will elect their seventh government since 1994. For the first time, Mzansi will also vote to send a group of independent candidates to Parliament.
“We are asking all patriotic South Africans to take their active citizenry further and sign up as independent election observers in their wards, or another ward near them, playing their part in preserving the integrity of our elections – a key tenet of our hard-earned democracy,” said Mbali Ntuli, the founder and chief executive of Ground Work Collection.
The citizen empowerment group launched its election observation registration portal on Wednesday.
GWC is an organisation made of a collective of advocates that sought to address several key issues to not only empower citizens to participate in the development of their sustainable livelihoods but also to develop and uplift their communities.
Launched in 2022, the Ground Work Collective described itself as an organisation built to assist and empower communities for them to improve their lives.
The initiative by GWC comes just days after the political parties slammed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for writing a letter to the US government, requesting them to intervene in the upcoming elections.
Political parties have called for the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to ensure that the upcoming elections were free and fair.
Ntuli said GWC would train all election observers ahead of the polls.
📢 MEDIA RELEASE
GROUND WORK COLLECTIVE ASKS REGISTERED SOUTH AFRICANS TO SIGN UP AS INDEPENDENT ELECTION OBSERVERS AHEAD OF THE MAY 29 NATIONAL AND PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS.We are very excited to be launching our new Independent Election Observer sign-up portal, calling on all… pic.twitter.com/nhkW6nMJPf
— Mbali Ntuli (@mbalimcdust) March 13, 2024
According to Ntuli, the Independent Election Observation’s mission is to identify and train about 10,000 people to become observers.
“Ground Work Collective aims to have a presence at 5,000 of the 23,296 voting stations in the country. This is 21% of the voting stations in South Africa. Publish a national report based on the election observation efforts,” she said.
Citizens who are interested can sign up on the group’s website and have until April 15 to complete the registration.
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