After so many months of negativity, bad-news stories and general disillusionment over the direction our country appeared to be taking, last week's local government elections were a welcome demonstration of the essential robustness of democracy in South Africa. The results have created a new fluidity in our politics, which hopefully will in turn generate a renewed sense of urgency and creativity on the part of the incoming leadership.
For our own part, we are extremely pleased with the success of our 'Make Us Count' campaign which, included voter registration drives, pre-election debates and the heading up of the largest- multi-faith and multi-ethnic observer team to assist the IEC on polling day. As a community, however, our participation in South African politics needs to go beyond merely participating at election time. We need to be constantly interested and become more involved in the political affairs of our country, just as many members of our community were in the not too distant past. In this way, we empower ourselves while also following in the footsteps of the many South African Jews who have contributed to our political culture over the generations.