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South
Africa
From
one Apartheid to another:
the
Rise of the South African Social Movement
Since the end of apartheid, the ANC have implemented economic programs
meant to help the poor. The people-driven reconstruction and development
program did not last long. In 1996 it was replaced by GEAR (Growth,
Employment and Redistribution Program) which was effectively a World
Bank advised package containing the same instructions as under structural
adjustment programs already tried and failed. Privatisation of public
institutions and cutting government spending on public services
lies at the heart of GEAR and resulted in what has already been
seen in many other African countries; a rise in poverty and the
gap between rich and poor; the disempowerment of people and less
access to vital services such as energy, health, transport, water
and education. The basic needs essential to the development of the
poorest had been either taken away or made unaffordable.
To
add to this the South African government privatised many of the
services to foreign companies furthering the drain of wealth from
the South to the North. One must not forget though that many of
the companies investing and making friends with the current government
are the same ones that did it under apartheid.
Thabo
Mbeki, the second president of the new South Africa, is selling
out his country which has now become the African darling of the
WTO and the World Bank. Now the second wave of neo-liberal reform
has been decided through the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
(Nepad) This new package, this time designed for the whole of Africa,
has been a complete top down process, without any input from civil
society yet endorsed by the World Bank and the G8. To a nation that
has suffered as much as South Africa, this is an assault on the
pride and strength which held black South Africa together during
the white rule from which they emerged with so much hope and dignity.
Yet that strength still remains in the hearts of many people and
the social movement has grown in recent years.
The
struggle against privatisation With the rise in electricity prices
due to the privatisation of the state power company, people who
could not pay were cut off. As a result the Soweto Electricity Crisis
Committee (SECC) was formed and people began re-connecting themselves
and demonstrating against the company even while being beaten and
jailed. Resistance is on the rise on many fronts, with communities
resisting evictions and water cut off. Activists are demanding access
to fair education and to medicine especially for antiretroviral
medicine so needed in a country with one of the planets worst AIDS
epidemics. Environmentalists have begun to challenge projects such
as the controversial Lesotho dam project as well as other dirty
industries. Poor black people living in apartheid created townships
next to polluting chemical and refineries factories are standing
up and confronting these multinationals.
The
World Summit on Sustainable Development will offer the opportunity
for the social movement to demonstrate with the whole world watching.
This will be the time to show that the neo-liberal paradigm aided
by the international financial institutions and profit hungry corporations
do not deliver social or ecological justice to those who need it
most.
For
more articles and information on Nepad, GEAR and the Social Movement
contact ASEED, email uncorp@aseed.antenna.nl
The
two faces of civil society
Glenda
Daniels, 24 May 2002
The
New Partnership for Africa's Development appears to be key to the
divisions in this sector. The ideological split in South Africa's
civil society sector is likely to end in two independent processes
being staged at the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the
end of August. The original Civil Society Indaba, from which the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and other major
groups - including the South African Council of Churches (SACC)
and the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) - split, say they
are rejecting the New Partnership
for Africa's Development (Nepad), the country's development path,
outright. The Civil Society Indaba has a leftist, anti-globalisation
focus. It has claimed there is "big brother" interference
from the government in the new, mainstream South African Civil Society
Forum set up by Cosatu and its allies. The Forum will be responsible
for convening the civil society sector gathering at Nasrec during
the summit. It will be the largest component of the summit, with
between 50000 and 60 000 delegates. The in-fighting in the civil
society sector began about six months ago, when Cosatu began alleging
weak management and a lack of financial controls of the Indaba,
headed by Jacqui Brown. After two audits, Brown was suspended in
March this year. Cosatu, the SACC and Sangoco took the reins and
constituted the South African Civil Society Forum. But not all parties
came on board. The Rural Services Development !Network (RSDN) and
some rural groups and NGOs allege that the Forum is being hijacked
by the government via Cosatu. The breakaway group appears to be
headed by the RSDN. The group also has the First
Peoples group within its ranks - although the Forum, headed by Sangoco
leader Zakes Hlatswayo, is trying to persuade the First Peoples
to come back on board. The head of the RSDN, Eddie Cottle, says
more organisations are joining the Indaba group. He has over the
past few months claimed "big brother" interference in
the Forum, implying that Cosatu is not independent from the government
but is rather toeing the political line, especially that of Nepad.
A key mover and shaker in the civil society process and senior Cosatu
official, Neva Makgetla, says at this point the Forum is indifferent
to what the Cottles of the world are up to. "We are working
so hard to make this work that I can't be bothered. These people
are not relevant," she says. "My view is that the logistics
and facilitation are more important than these ifferences. Indications
of success are that [delegates] leave South Africa happy. The R!SDN
and the other small groups are not building solidarity. They are
being divisive, but at least they are not planning
to disrupt the Nasrec process," she says. It is, however, expected
that he breakaway group will have some international support from
other NGOs ith similar ideological positions, probably anti-globalisation
rotestors, who might well take to the streets of Johannesburg. Cottle
says his group will not be in conflict with the main Forum group
at Nasrec. "Our process is not conflicting with the formal
United Nations process, but is a politically independent process
that will result in a Global Indaba Forum." His group is involved
in the preparation of several "pre-summits", such as war
and peace, women, labour, water and sanitation, health and debt
and trade. Cottle adds that his group's process is catering for
the world's social movements - from the anti-globalisation movement
to the landless and the anti-dams types - "who either do not
recognise the UN or have no confidence that the Agenda 21 review
[of! the Rio Earth Summit in 1992] will have any meaning."
Cottle alleges that the "government-led process" of civil
society is "chaotic". "In essence our process is
one that seeks to act as a political pole and contest the politics
of civil society as a whole. We will have a people's declaration
of all the world's social movements, together with a commonly defined
plan of action, as our objectives of the Global Indaba," he
says. Makgetla responds: "They are a separate issue, not a
competing thing. The summit is going to be so huge, so exciting,
so full of different ideas, with over 1 000 different events going
on, that they can't possibly replicate it." She says her concern
is logistics and facilitation. "Our policy process is not as
trong as we'd like and we will be having a series of workshops over
the
next few weeks to sort this out." She says in other countries
overnments organise the fund-raising and logistics for civil society,
ut in South Africa this is not happening because of a strict divide
between the government and civil society. "So now we have policy
people running around fund-raising and organising logistics."
"If we have chaotic facilitation and logistics aren't sorted
out, then the whole summit will be useless. As South Africa we have
to get this aspect right."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200205230607.html
South Africa Gearing up for Protest
-
Solidarity actions could be needed
South
African police have warned the social movement about protests and
are mobilising a massive police force which will be barricading
certain streets and conference venues. Protests have happened before
in South Africa, notably at the UN Conference on Racism in Durban
last year and police response is often as brutal as anywhere else.
We at ASEED urge people to keep in touch with the situation down
in South Africa as it could be quite an affair with the social movement
wanting to show that the neo-liberal policies implemented in South
Africa, and which are being mirrored at the WSSD have not worked.
At the same time the police and the ANC government want to protect
their showcase event. The social move- ment will not be deterred
and for all people reading this, get ready to email, write, fax,
or even demonstrate occupy your local South African embassy or consulate.
Also
in the Roots
from July/August you can find a lot of information about South
Africa and the World Summit
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