The power of change – why this Gathering matters

Change is never abstract. Real change lives in the stories of people who stand up, speak out and shift the trajectory of a community, an institution or a country. At its best, change alters the lives of people by making them safer, freer and more hopeful. Join us at The Gathering: Changemakers Impact Edition to witness change in action.

- Jillian Green

South Africa is a hard place to live in. Thirty years on, our democratic project has moved in fits and starts. The promise of freedom and equality coexist uncomfortably with the harsh realities of vast unemployment, inequality and corruption.

Institutions groan under the weight of mistrust. Communities carry daily burdens of failing infrastructure, crime and disillusionment. Politics of the trough and stomach dominate our government structures while South African youth stand on street corners, deeply frustrated by the lack of opportunities to live out their dreams.

The diagnosis couldn't be clearer - a failure to adapt, to respond, to reimagine and to build the South Africa we need will only deepen the crises we already face.

A refusal to change means we risk hardening inequality into permanence. It risks normalising corruption as part of our political and social fabric. We risk hollowing out our democratic values until trust becomes impossible to restore.

Delaying change is not neutral; it is regression.