The conversation will mark the start of Constitution Hill’s annual Human Rights Festival (HRF) which was established to commemorate the past and continuing struggles towards the full achievement of fundamental human rights for all in South Africa. This year’s HRF theme is “Seize the Power” and will unfold over two days, 25 and 26 March 2023. 

Find out more about the festival here: https://www.humanrightsfestival.co.za/ 

The festival will also serve as a call on all people to “own and live the Constitution” through various activities, programmes and campaigns promoting the Constitution, its history, its meaning today and its mandate to us, the people, to build a stronger constitutionally democratic future for generations to come. 

Lwando Xaso, one of the organisers of We, The People South Africa says that they recognise the need to engage with young South Africans, who constitute more than 60% of the population, to promote knowledge and value of the Constitution.

The opening words of our Constitution are ‘We, the People of South Africa.’ Those words foreground that it was the people of South Africa, acting in solidarity, who brought down apartheid and created our constitutional democracy.

However, the vision set out in the Constitution will remain unrealised if “we, the people” do not collectively use our power once again towards making the Constitution real for everybody. The majority of our nation are the youth. 

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

What does the Constitution mean to them? 

We would like to have more conversations with the youth to answer their questions about the Constitution, provide information to help them to be well informed about the Constitution, about how it was made and what it means today.

The conversation between Adv Madonsela and Ms Nokeri is a start. Adv Madonsela captured all our imaginations when she used the powers granted to her by the Constitution to hold people in power to account.  Ms Nokeri is using her role and power to educate young people to have a better start in life. We would like to know how the Constitution informs her vision and her work.

Adv Madonsela and Ms Nokeri will, among others, share their own meaning of “we” in a fragmented South Africa, the role community and solidarity has played in their lives, the importance of solidarity and community in how we collectively respond to the challenges of today. And what we, the people, can do to seize power to own and live the Constitution towards making the Constitution real for everyone.

The event will be a hybrid one. A small invited audience will attend the discussion. The event will be livestreamed. Please register here: webinar register 

DM/MC

Vanessa September is the CEO of the Constitution Hill Trust.