JOHANNESBURG, 16 February 2018 - In the run up to the State of the Nation Address, the new South African president launched GovChat, a nationwide initiative to boost citizen engagement. Via the online platform, powered by the Belgian startup CitizenLab, citizens are invited to have a direct say on the future of their country.
State of the Nation Address 2018
On Friday, February 16th, the State of the Nation Address 2018 (SONA 2018) will be held. In this key speech, the newly elected president, Cyril Ramaphosa, will share his primary programme of action, together with the Government.
At this occasion, the government asked the citizens to share their ideas on the platform beforehand regarding what the president should talk about during his speech. During the address, citizens will also be able to comment or ask questions to the President live.
Crowdsourcing South Africa’s policy online
But the possibility for South Africans to share their ideas with their key policy-makers and contribute to their government politic does not stop there. On a longer run, all South Africans will have the opportunity to share their vision on key topics such as Budget, Home Affairs, Housing, Public Hospitals, etc. via the CitizenLab platform. The goal of the platform is simple: supporting governments in giving their citizens a say on the topics that matter to them. You can for example submit your own proposals, contribute to other citizen ideas, and express your preferences by voting for or against them.
On the South African platform, each Ministry has its dedicated section on the platform where citizens can post ideas. They will therefore be able to collect and process all of this citizen input regarding their area of expertise.
International expansion for CitizenLab
2018 has been very fruitful so far for the young Civic Tech startup from Brussels. Last month, its founders Wietse Van Ransbeeck (24) and Aline Muylaert (24) have been recognised as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in the category Law & Policy. Next to this exciting collaboration with the national South African government, it has recently rolled out its e-democracy platform in new countries, including the UK, Scandinavia, and in Canada with the City of Vancouver.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Super exciting news coming up tomorrow! 🇿🇦<br><br>South Africans can send their State of the Nation ideas to their new President via the nationwide GovChat platform, powered by CitizenLab. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SONA2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SONA2018</a> <a href="https://t.co/VzMd0aHO6O">https://t.co/VzMd0aHO6O</a></p>— CitizenLab (@citizenlabco) <a href="https://twitter.com/citizenlabco/status/964189586246307840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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About CitizenLab
The Brussels-based Civic Tech startup was founded in September 2015 by Wietse Van Ransbeeck (24) and Aline Muylaert (24). The e-democracy platform allows governments to give their citizens easily a say on the topics that matter to them. You can for example submit your own proposals, contribute to other citizen ideas, and express your preferences by voting for or against them.
Today, the e-democracy platform is now used by more than 65 local governments around the world, including big cities such as Vancouver, The Hague, Brussels, but also way smaller municipalities. The CitizenLab founders were last month included on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in Law & Policy.
About GovChat
GovChat is a South African organisation working on boosting civic engagement in partnership
with the South African Local Government Association, Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS)