Podcasters define democracy in Sandton

A non-political Podcast Party was launched in Sandhurst on February 21 to address voter apathy and empower South Africans with the knowledge they need ahead of the 2024 elections.

Podcast Party programme manager Jack Motlanthe described the innovation as one providing critical information to voters ahead of voting day.

“As we all know, the majority of the countries in the world are going to be electing their new leadership,” Motlanthe said. “We call this panel discussion episode Democracy Unplugged; we felt that it would be important that we come up with a platform where critical thinking and engaging conversations take place.

“We put shows together that aim to get people to have uncomfortable but meaningful, conversations,” Motlanthe concluded. “The reason anyone would want to listen, mainly, is because there are a lot of conversations happening in and around the country, and not too many people can ask the most critical questions they have. These will be podcasts on YouTube, as well as on streaming platforms.”

The launch was characterised by a power-panel discussion directed by Motlanthe. The panel comprised of South African podcast sensations Penuel ‘The Black Pen’ Mlotshwa, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, and Jamie Mighti (known as Mighti Jamie). Among the points of discussion, the panellists were asked to describe democracy and were also put on the spot to predict the potential outcome of the upcoming elections.

“Democracy is, in another way of looking at it, the capacity to change your mind,” said Mpofu-Walsh. “Embedded in the idea of democracy is that you might believe in one thing at one point and then in the face of evidence or persuasion, it might change.”

Mpofu-Walsh predicted that the ANC would get as little as between 30 and 40% of the national vote in the upcoming elections. Mighti described the democratic situation across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as being a bastardised version of democracy, based on the low levels of political engagement he encountered in his communities.

“Every neighbourhood that I’m in at the weekend, I never see activists from a political party,” Mighti said. “Sometimes I’ll see one passionate councillor handing out flyers at an intersection, but by and large, I don’t think that anybody in any neighbourhood that I’m frequently in has got real political activity month-to-month, day-to-day.”
Objectively, Mlotshwa played devil’s advocate in encouraging the audience to think about what the African National Congress (ANC) had done for South Africans.

“You are seeing [black] children today who are medical doctors, who are engineers, who are scientists, not just here but globally because of work that’s been done by the ANC,” said Mlotshwa, threading a thin line like a professional seamstress, but with words. “You, yourself, in some way in this system benefitted from the government. You would have never been hired just for being black or female, but you’re there now, and you’ve proven that you’re worth it.”

The event delivered on providing stimulating food for thought through an engaging two-hour conversation.

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