By: Cassandra Zungu

The youth of Durban gathered at the Daikonia Centre on Saturday to discuss government accountability hosted by Activate.

Activate is a social group of young people who believe in accountability and making South Africa a better country.

One of the panelists Syamthanda Mbatha felt that the only way the youth can make the country’s leaders account is by uniting and speaking one language.

“We have all these views and ideas we are doing nothing about them,” he said.

Mbatha emphasized that unity is the tool the youth of 1976 used to achieve their desired goal, so should the youth of today do likewise.

“There’s no change if we don’t change what we do,” Mbatha said.

Co-founder of Isiphethu Africa Lindiwe Makhoba said that we should not make our leaders account based only on the promises they made pre-elections.

“We should read and understand the policies to make them account and reevaluate them in order to make sure that they are addressing the issues this country is facing at the moment,” she said.

Participants were divided into groups of four or five seated in chairs without tables in order to make the conversations friendlier and intimate.

The participants changed seats in different time slots, engaging in conversation, listening to each other’s views and fears.

Dumisani Zondi of Hlanathi said he found the dialogue to be very insightful.

“I found that my fears were also my group member’s fears and for me that was an eye opener,” he said.

The Democracy Development Programme (DDP) in partnership with Activate made this event possible.