Leadership and elections

Africa in the World is a festival, founded and hosted by Dele Olojede, that connects leaders and innovators across the globe who are committed to moving Africa forward. The festival has built a unique platform and intimate forum for sharing ideas, collaboration, and sparking the imagination. This is a long-range attempt to showcase the best ideas and give a platform to the most honest and committed leaders from South Africa and Africa.

Established in 2008, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF) was created to uphold and promote the values embodied by Ahmed Kathrada and his generation of anti-apartheid activists. As an independent and non-partisan organization, the foundation is dedicated to advancing the principles of justice, equality, and non-racialism. Kathrada, a veteran of the liberation struggle, spent 26 years imprisoned on Robben Island alongside his fellow Rivonia Trialists for opposing apartheid. His unwavering dedication to the ideals of a democratic, non-racial South Africa continues to inspire the Foundation’s work today.

The aim of the Cities Leadership Forum is to build a network of trust amongst leaders across divides in the cities. It is an immersive, readings-based, dialogue programme. Participants are selected for diversity in respect of demographic, gender, political and economic viewpoints, but the single common criterion for selection is that each candidate should have the means to act in ways which create serious positive impact in their city. The programme deepens the leaders’ understanding of what constitutes a good society by reading and participating in the conversations of the last 2 500 years. Each participant in the programme is required to commit to a project which will contribute value to their community.

Engage SA is committed to strengthening democracy and human rights in South Africa through the promotion of youth leadership and active citizen participation in democracy. The work of Engage consists of different programmes. a) My Voice is an eight-session leadership and civic education programme that helps young people develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to find their voice as young leaders. b) My Initiative is a six-session civic engagement programme that builds on the skills developed through the My Voice programme and helps young leaders design and implement their own youth-led community initiative to tackle an issue of their choice in their immediate surroundings.

MISTRA is a South African think-tank that takes a long-term view on the strategic challenges facing South Africa, the continent and the globe. In April 2024, MISTRA released their report Coalitions Barometer 2021 to 2023. The second iteration of the Coalitions Barometer examined coalitions from August 2023 to February 2025. To this end, MISTRA undertook an analysis of the 2024 elections, assessing the election results and trends, coalition negotiations as well as the coalition governments established at both provincial and national level. The third iteration of the Coalitions Barometer will update its analysis of coalitions at all three levels of government. The report will include the following indicators per municipality: (a) 2026 election outcome; (b) coalitions formed; (c) coalition agreements, if any; (d) party political developments since 2021 (e.g. by-elections and outcomes, and party re-alignments); (e) functionality of municipality (e.g. budget passed, any references by the Auditor-General); (f) whether an IDP was developed; and (g) any other indicators on service delivery and protests. The report will also include trends in national and provincial coalitions and lessons as the country approaches the 2029 elections.

The objective of My Vote Counts is to improve the accountability, transparency and inclusivity of elections and politics in South Africa. They focus on political systems, the influence of money in politics and inter- and intra-party democracy.
My Vote Counts focuses on (a) producing popular education material to allow for a clearer understanding of South Africa’s political and electoral systems (b) conducting research that helps to inform MVC’s advocacy and popular education activities, providing an understanding of political and electoral issues and providing policy alternatives for the South African political and electoral systems based on the changing economic and socio-political context (c) initiating litigation, as a last resort, in order to ensure that the constitutional principles of transparency, inclusiveness and accountability remain the basis of our political and electoral systems.

Parliamentary Monitoring Group NPC (PMG) aims to provide accurate, objective and current information on all Parliamentary Committee proceedings in the form of detailed, unofficial minutes and documents and since 2007, sound recordings of the meeting. PMG’s key activity is attending all Parliamentary Committee meetings, where a monitor tapes and minutes the proceedings and obtains all documents tabled in the committees. The Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) and People’s Assembly (PA) are two of South Africa’s most important civic information platforms. Together they have accumulated nearly three decades of parliamentary data and serve a large, professionally engaged user base spanning government departments, law firms, universities, civil society organisations, journalists, and the public. PMG has engaged on a project to replace both platforms with a single, modern system — consolidating nearly three decades of data into a clean, well-typed schema designed to last for the next ten or more years. The rebuild will create the foundation for new features including AI-assisted content processing, data visualisation, and a tiered subscription model. The plan also incorporates the transition of ParliMeter — currently operated in partnership with OpenUp, OUTA and the EU — into the rebuilt PMG platform, bringing attendance tracking, bill progress monitoring, and parliamentary activity data into the core product.

Tore’s Foundation aims to engage young people and educate them to develop their critical thinking and confidence through debate. The content of our motions requires students to consider, research and articulate arguments concerning topical issues and current affairs, thereby inspiring and empowering them to participate politically and transform their communities. With this our programme expands their outlook and encourages their interest and involvement in democracy and its institutions.