The reasons to support Impumelelo

“All the things I saw last Saturday and at other Impumelelo award ceremonies in the past, tell me that we could strengthen democracy more and ensure greater community sustainability through enhanced synergies between such civil society initiatives and a supportive, facilitative public service. There is such enormous potential.”

Former University of Cape Town (UCT) Vice-Chancellor, Njabulo Ndebele after the 2008 Impumelelo Innovation Award

The constant barrage of bad news about service delivery has a serious effect on people's perceptions of government. This in turn has a deletarious effect on the sustainability of South Africa's hard won democracy.People are already saying that what does it help if I have a vote but my quality of life remains the same. Unfortunately this is still story of South Africa's poor.

South Africans are beginning to vent their frustration at the slow response of government by increasingly violent means, slowly undermining law and order, democratic principles and credibility of elected local authorities. The media have called these protests ‘service delivery protests’.  All protests have been targeted directly at local government and specifically at officials who are perceived to be corrupt and inefficient.

South Africa's 283 municipalities along with the nine provincial governments hold the lion’s share of direct responsibility for project selection and implementation. Better decision-making, prioritisation, coordination, communication and better implementation is absolutely crucial to a South Africa that is prosperous and democratic.

ITS ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION!

South Africa is awash with policy. What is missing is the implementation of that policy through targeted programmes, which address the needs of the poor.

Impumelelo's 268 award winners have shown the way.They have demonstrated that there are South African solutions to South African problems.

LEARNING FROM THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS

Impumelelo brings together its award winners in various sectors to train other public managers. Its workshops are not "top-down" events where a senior manager or political figure talks down to subordinates. The workshops are a platform where colleagues from different regions, provinces, municipalities and organisations swap ideas, meet, network and learn in a non-threatening and inspiring environment.

Learn why you should support Impumelelo as an individual or as a corporate.

Supporting Impumelelo goes to the heart of supporting democracy.