13 August 2008
The South African Communist Party and the Left Party of Sweden (Vänsterpartiet) through the Left International Forum are engaged in a collaborative effort to host a Southern African Conference on Participatory Democracy to be held in Johannesburg.
The conference will assemble an array of regional and international civil society activists, social movements, scholars and campaigners in various fields with social, political and gender orientation as well as representatives of rural and indigenous movements with extensive expertise in grassroots mobilization and politics of democratic mass participation.
The main focus will be on the experience of people’s participation, expanding the democratic space, developing an alternative peoples economic, political, social and cultural agenda, as well as of alternative forms of popular governance.
This conference is a continuation of an International Conference on Participatory Democracy held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2004 and a Latin American Conference on Participatory Democracy held in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005.
The following countries have confirmed their attendance: Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Cuba, Sweden and Venezuella.
Details of the conference are as follows:
Date: 14 to 16 August 2008.
Time: Staring at 14H00 on the 14th August.
Venue: Braamfontein Recreation Centre, Johannesburg.
Furthermore, the conference will be followed by a left networking international meeting for African Parties on the 17th August 2008, hosted by the SACP, under the theme "BUILDING A NETWORK OF PROGRESSIVE, COMMUNIST, WORKERS AND LEFT PARTIES FOR PEACE, SOCIALISM, AGAINST NEO-COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA".
Members of the press are hereby invited to attend
Issued by the SACP
For Media Registration Contact: Castro Ngobese – 082 567 3557/ 011 339 3621
For further information Contact: Malesela Maleka, SACP Spokesperson – 082 226 1802