Prof JJ Tabane analyses the role of civil society in the advancement of our society as he reflects on some notable successes.
It is a common cause that the challenges of poverty and inequality can never be tackled by the government alone. In fact, with all the economic indicators of low to no economic growth, they seem not to be handled by the government at all. The expectations of what the government can do have been greatly exaggerated. Due to factors too numerous to mention, the government has failed its citizens who languish in deep poverty and the worst inequality in the world.
This is where the role of social partners, especially civil society, comes in. This role of civil society is as old as humanity itself. In the 18th century, the so-called ‘ideal public sphere’ as articulated by German philosopher Jurgen Habermas was a philosophical framework that outlined how civil society must be engaged in the body politic of society. In those days in mid-central Europe, people gathered in bars and saloons to conduct conversations and share opinions about the state of the country: from what the monarchies of the time were doing to the implications of wars across the continents.
In Africa, the indigenous knowledge systems were driven by individuals and philosophers other than traditional authority. Later on in our history, churches took centre stage as centres of consciousness. The role of civil society is therefore historically crucial as a building block of our nation.
The colonialism and apartheid oppression also meant that ‘official structures’ and systems pitted themselves against the collective will of the people. Civil society in the form of broad fronts had to be forced to be organised in order to push back the frontiers of oppression. Seminal moments such as the launch of the ANC in 1912 in a church saw civil society crystallising their vehicle for emancipation. This later culminated in the freedom charter in the 50s. The Congress of the People (The real one) was an assortment of civil society organisations, individuals, and influencers of the time.
Ahead of apartheid falling, we saw some of the backbone of civil society being strengthened by the faith communities, especially when political parties were banned and the student movement emerged. The combination of the likes of the SA Council of Churches and Young Christian Students kept the apartheid regime busy as they rallied society against all odds.
The political organisations also organised themselves into the likes of the UDF to create a formidable extra parliamentary force that became a force for change. 1994 was therefore not an accident but a combination of effort by partners in civil society to bring about change.
Unfortunately, what happened post-1994 was a muting of the voice of civil society. The church which was a refuge, as described early, became muted in its prophetic role and the sentiments of the Kairos document were quickly forgotten.
The instrumentality of the church to keep the government on its toes was blunted. If anything, the church did discredit things thanks to false prophets. The overseas funding also dried up, making it tough for the NGO sector to mobilise.
Some of those who were leading lights in civil society got absorbed into parliament. The attitude of the democratic government changed towards civil society, seeing it as more of an intrusion than anything else.
But I am here to tell you that the reason for that annoyance is that civil society can easily and increasingly become an alternative political centre that can hold enough sway to make a marked difference in the lives of the people it seeks to represent. The scary thing is that sometimes it can intervene even better than the government.
A number of wastages, decisions, and plans have recently been reversed by the government in South Africa owing to the critical voice of the public and a vocal civil society movement. To mention but a few:
- The attempts to construct the electronic flag by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, that would have cost the taxpayer over R22 million.
- The draft and proposed ministerial handbook that would have had the effect of exempting cabinet ministers, who already are earning excessive salaries, from paying for their rates and services.
- As recently as October 24 in South Africa, the Minister of Finance finally announced the scrapping of e-Tolls. Minister Enoch Godongwana’s scrapping of e-Tolls as a funding mechanism for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) became a victory for Gauteng motorists and brought an end to years of protest and objection against the system. Although the Automobile Association (AA) had said that the government’s commitment to pay 70% of outstanding debt for the GFIP is also to be welcomed, the remaining 30% will be paid by the Gauteng Provincial Government.
The above represents the few initiatives and efforts by civil society organisations in keeping authorities on their toes. These instances show that in the absence of civil society constituencies, governments will easily trample on the rights and interests of citizens.
In India, for example, a democratic country in its own right, political power is exercised through its designated representatives who have the command to manage them for a particular period. The civil services by quality of its knowledge, experience, and understanding of public affairs support the chosen representatives to devise effectual policy and have great responsibility to implement these policies for the welfare of society and enhancement of the nation.
India has constitutional fairness and its operations are usually dependent upon four support structures–Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, and Free Press. Each one of these has been assigned its role in democratic establishment. First pillar is associated with the governance of the State. Effective and efficient institutions form the strength of an efficacious development and governance process.
The emergence of civil society movements in raising community-based issues in South Africa
Over the years, a number of civil society organisations have shaped the future of South Africa.
The Treatment Action Campaign
As early as the late nineties, the rise in the civil society movement was unstoppable. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was founded in December 1998 to campaign for access to AIDS treatment. It is widely acknowledged as one of the most important civil society organisations active on AIDS in the developing world. One of its most significant victories was the 2002 Constitutional Court ruling in which the South African government was ordered to provide antiretroviral drugs to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies during birth. In the years following the judgement, the TAC’s campaigns were instrumental in securing a universal government-provided AIDS treatment programme, which has since become the world’s largest. In 2006, the New York Times called the TAC ‘the world’s most effective AIDS group’, while the founding director of UNAIDS, Dr Peter Piot, has written that ‘TAC was in my opinion the smartest activist group of all, worldwide’. In 2007, in large part owing to pressure from the TAC, the National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs, and Tuberculosis 2007-2011 was adopted by Parliament.
The Social Justice Coalition
Founded on 16 June 2008, the Social Justice Coalition has built a movement for safety, justice, and equality in informal settlements. It’s made up of 17 branches and thousands of members. It uses research, organising, education, and advocacy in sustained campaigns for social justice and to challenge power. Using a variety of strategies and tactics, the coalition organises informal settlement residents to build democratic power within poor communities.
Equal Education
Equal Education is a community, membership-based organisation, advocating for quality and equality in the South African education system. They are a leader in youth leadership development. Their campaigns are informed by the experiences of EE members and by policy analysis. Equal Education builds understanding of the education system, while drawing attention to problems faced by schools and their communities. EE offers a new way to participate in the democratic system and bring change to education and society.
Abahlali baseMjondolo
Since the dawn of Abahlali baseMjondolo in April this year, its membership in KwaZulu-Natal has reached 50 000 people. The movement represents the residents of more than 40 new land occupations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. In total, the movement has 47 branches in five provinces countrywide.
They have declared themselves to be committed to the expropriation of land. Despite repeated waves of severe state repressions and attacks, sometimes supported by some NGOs and academics, the movement has grown into a powerful force in Durban, and is rapidly growing elsewhere. They have mobilised under the banner of ‘Land, Housing & Dignity’ and are a movement that considers itself to be on the left, committed to building popular democratic power from below.
Abahlali baseMjondolo have committed themselves to building the unity of the oppressed and to building unity in struggle. They make no distinction between people born in different provinces or countries and are committed to building women’s power.
In the past five months, the movement has lost seven leaders to assassination. They have also lost members to violent repression from the police, anti-land invasion units, and municipal security. In their view, it is clear that they, as impoverished black people, do not live in a democracy.
In June 2017, Abahlali baseMjondolo lost a young activist, Samuel Hloele, who was shot at by the municipality’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit. Also in the same year, they lost a two-week-old baby, Jaden Khoza, who inhaled smoke from teargas which was thrown by police at the Foreman Road Settlement.
Abahlali baseMjondolo has been building the democratic power of impoverished people for more than ten years and engaging in urban planning and land reform. They have been implementing ‘expropriation without compensation’ for more than ten years. The land that they occupied was taken, often at a very high cost, against a violent and repressive state.
Diverse paths
In South Africa, since the late 1990s, for example, civil society mobilisation against corruption has often been part of a wider effort involving the government and other institutions. In 1999, the government held the first anti-corruption summit. Two years later, it launched the National Anti-Corruption Forum, which brings together civil society, business, and the government in the fight against corruption. The forum subsequently adopted a comprehensive Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy, committing the government to combat corruption within the public service. More anti-corruption summits were held in 2005 and 2008 and each time, civil society actors have been closely involved.
In its 2006 report on South Africa’s efforts on good governance, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM–a self-monitoring mechanism founded in 2003 by African leaders–noted that “the development of key partnerships between the government, civil society and the private sector in fighting corruption” is one of the central aspects of the country’s effort.
Some groups independent of those partnerships also aggressively campaign against corruption, a problem some perceive as worsening in South Africa. The country has been falling on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, going from number 43 out of 179 countries in 2007 to number 69 out of 174 countries in 2012. In January 2012, community leaders, trade unionists, and civil servants launched Corruption Watch, a civil society organisation that “relies on the public to report corruption, and… uses these reports as an important source of information to fight corruption and hold leaders accountable”. The watchdog reports that in its first 11 months of operation, it received 1 227 reports alleging corruption, many of them sent through Facebook or via text messages, highlighting the modern character of the campaign.
Allegations of corruption have often swirled around oil exploitation in the Republic of the Congo. Only in the late 1990s, however, did the fight against corruption start gaining momentum, first through a campaign led by Catholic bishops, then starting in 2003 through a group of NGOs assembled under the national chapter of the Publish What You Pay coalition, a global network of civil society organisations calling for openness and accountability in the extractive sectors. Since then, their relentless denunciations have led to significant attempts at transparency by public officials.
Civil society mobilisation against corruption in Africa has also been at the heart of recent waves of protest on the continent. Tunisia’s autumn of discontent that led to the ousting of former president Ben Ali in 2011 started as a reaction against the corrupt ways of the ruling elite. These had been exposed through American diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks, a website that publishes secret information from anonymous sources and whistle-blowers.
In 2011 and 2012, anti-corruption campaigners in Senegal contributed to the downfall of former president Abdoulaye Wade, his son and heir apparent, Karim Wade, and a number of formerly powerful members of his government. Many now stand accused of corruption. Senegal’s anti-corruption campaign proved a powerful force as popular artists like the rapper Ndongo D of the group Daara-J joined journalists and activists in mobilising the public. Their movement, Y’en a Marre (Enough), rallied protesters on the streets of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, in the last months of Mr Wade’s presidency.
Civil society comprises the relationships and groups that constitute our lives at grassroots levels of society, in families, communities, and voluntary associations, independent of both the government and the corporate world. These are the relationships and groups that shape our identity, our sense of belonging, and our capacity to live connected and meaningful lives.
Yet civil society is under threat around the world. Centralised states and concentrated markets are corroding civil society and contracting the space available for it. Voluntary and relational components of social life are being colonised by both corporations and governments. In developed countries, many not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) have been turned into service delivery instruments for the state. In developing countries, a large proportion of NFPs have become instruments for the delivery of foreign aid. In both developed and developing countries, NFPs have become increasingly corporatised and detached from their founding purpose and culture. 
Prof JJ Tabane is the Editor of BBQ Magazine. This article is based on his speech at the gala dinner hosted by NOT IN MY NAME on 18 November 2022 in Hatfield, Pretoria.
