Fighting for Better is a South African-focused Substack newsletter by civic activist and writer Sabelo Chalufu, published under the banner of the Better Governance Initiative NPC. It offers commentary, analysis, and opinion on local and national governance, political leadership, public policy, and citizen accountability — with a particular emphasis on how everyday residents can engage with and improve the systems that affect their daily lives. Recent posts discuss municipal governance failures, political developments in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal, and broader challenges in public service delivery, drawing on current events and civic processes to illustrate deeper structural issues in South African politics and administration.
The newsletter combines analytical essays with practical calls to action and civic education, encouraging readers to participate in public consultations, hold leaders accountable, and support reforms that strengthen transparency, service delivery, and democracy from the local level upward. It also highlights specific cases — such as leadership appointments in city government and coalition politics — to make sense of how power operates in practice and what residents can do to influence outcomes.
Overall, Fighting for Better aims to connect political developments with lived experience, urging active citizenship and long-term engagement as the foundation for meaningful change in South Africa’s governance landscape.
The newsletter is the central product and conduit for the rest of BGI's work, in the form of Research, Civic Education, Public Participation and Advocacy find expression through. Further, outreach via media platforms and in conjuction with other organisations enables the realisation of our primary strategic objectives, being the empowerment of residents to create the better society they want alongside and with public institutions.