October 9, 2008
By Frank Jomo, Uganda

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille highlighted the importance of promoting communication among societies as a tool for peace and to enhance socio-economic development.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of WACC's Congress, Zille said communication is the most important component of any society and without it people are cut off from fellow human beings.

"Communication seeks to establish truth," she said. "The less communication happens, the more corruption thrives. The world needs to move from liberation politics to constitutional politics and this can only happen if the people are given the freedom to communicate."

She further noted that liberation struggles are about seizing power where there are no options. Zille said communication helps in limiting power to a few individuals. The mayor said the more power is concentrated in a few hands, the less communication is allowed to the people, which stifles truth.

A former renowned journalist for The Rand Daily Mail, Zille said institutional checks and balances are important to communication. "Power needs to change hands and has to be limited. Communication is a human right and the weakest and the poorest should also have their say and those in power need to abide by it," she emphasized.

Zille condemned the power-sharing agreements that have been signed in Africa this year. She said what happened to Kenya and Zimbabwe has set a wrong precedent in Africa, adding that the people had spoken through the ballot but their voices were ignored by those in power who did not respect the democratic process.

She reiterated the need to respect the power of the ballot because that is communication from the people. "If we don't get to the heart of the problem the communication becomes miscommunication." she remarked.

Earlier this year Kenya and Zimbabwe were engrossed in disputed presidential polls that led to civil strife in the previously peaceful East African nation that left 100 people dead and more than 3,000 others internally displaced.

In Zimbabwe, the ruling ZANU PF party lost in an election in March but the leadership refused to relinquish power to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which won the first round but fell short of claiming a majority.

See Congress photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wacccongress2008/.

See Congress videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/WACCglobal/.

World Association of Christian Communicators