LEAD Mpumalanga

A Leadership and Conflict Management (LEAD) workshop for panelists, IEC Staff, Political Parties, and SAPS members in Mpumalanga is currently being held in Badplaas, South Africa from 7 to 8 of March 2019. This 2-day LEAD training is part of part of the PEV-RSA national project, funded by the European Union. The PEV RSA project (www.democracy-support.eu/southafrica) is 24 months (2018/20) and is implemented by the European Centre for Electoral Support in partnership with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

The workshop was officially opened by Sibosiso Ngwenya of the IEC. He brought up the value that having stakeholders from across the electoral space as well as the province in attendance, and this is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

Participants were from security structures, political parties, and the IEC offices across Mpumalanga. Part of these staff will be part of the provincial pool of mediators for PEV-RSA, able to monitor local situations and hotspots, and work with ECES experts to intervene if necessary. This modality ensures that responses remain sensitive to the local context, while still retaining the international scope and expertise that ECES is well known.

Furthermore, by building the capacity of security forces and political parties, the Project raises the overall capacity of the province’s electoral stakeholders, increasing the likelihood of self reporting and incident de-escalation without the need for external mediators. This is just another way that sustainability is threaded through the entire PEV-RSA project.  

This is the 13th LEAD training nationally with trainings already occurring across South Africa. In the provincial context, a LEAD training of trainers in Durban was attended by residents of Mpumalanga, which greatly aided this training. This training is part of the PEV RSA project’s capacity building component.

The curriculum on Leadership and Dialogue was crafted by ECES in partnership with Centre for Creative Leadership, CCL. CCL is based the US and delivers high-end executive education for world leaders. Such trainings are usually very costly and require far more time than what one usually can afford. The partnership between CCL and ECES emerged to make leadership training accessible and affordable for electoral stakeholders.

Leadership training blended with dialogue techniques has so far proven to be a winning concept. Leadership, both for the individual and organizational level, are essential components of electoral processes.

The LEAD workshop in Durban is meant to explore various ways how exchange between stakeholders of difference of opinion, beliefs or ideologies can be carried out almost conflict-free by making use of technical skills.

In sum then, this workshop in Badplaas is a forum whereby mediators and conflict prevention coordinators in Mpumalanga can further develop skills in leadership and dialogue and learn new skills and approaches on how to succeed with dialogue.

The workshop is being facilitated by Dr. Zefanias Matsimbe, Senior Lecturer at Eduardo Mondiane University and a senior expert at EISA, and ECES Capacity Building Advisor, Eldred De Klerk, Election Conflict Management Advisor and Stef Snel, Early Warning Expert, and Tsakane Mathebula, LEAD Facilitator.