18 minute read
ACTIVISM
THE ISSUES THAT
STILL PLAGUE US CARYN GOOTKIN looks at some of South Africa’s most pressing human rights issues and speaks to the people and organisations working to ensure these rights are enjoyed by all
HUNGER:
Organisation: Ladles of Love Access to food is a basic human right afforded every South African in terms of our Constitution. “Every person on this planet has the right to access food – it is a basic human right,” says Danny Diliberto, founder and CEO of Ladles of Love. “In South Africa, millions of people live below the poverty line with little or no access to food. In my opinion, this is a result of apartheid, corruption
Danny Diliberto and continued bad governance, all of which is exacerbated by a poor economy, drug and alcohol abuse, family and gender-based violence, and a host of other socioeconomic factors. We are committed to getting healthy food to as many hungry people as possible.”
Ladles of Love’s benefi ciaries include the homeless community in and around the Cape Town CBD, Early Childhood Development centres and soup kitchens in communities in need. “We do this by providing weekly bulk supplies to 126 benefi ciary organisations around the Cape Peninsula to whom we distribute an average of 30 tonnes of food supplies weekly,” says Diliberto. “On World Food Day, 16 October 2021, Ladles of Love launched its sustainability programme – Feed The Soil, which aims to develop urban farming in South Africa by helping farmers grow better produce. The idea is simple: each of us can create healthy compost from our organic waste. “Using our Feed The Soil Organic Waste Tool Kit you can pay your healthy compost forward by bringing it to one of our drop-off stations, and then buy the fresh produce (on sale at the drop-off station) grown from it, forming part of a sustainable circular ecosystem.”
BECOME A VOLUNTEER
Ladles of Love feeds communities in need.
Literacy is vital for future success.
LITERACY
Organisation: Nal’ibali The right to basic education is enshrined in our Constitution – and literacy is the cornerstone of basic education. “Quite simply, if someone cannot read, they cannot thrive and will face a lifetime of closed doors,” says Katie Huston, acting director of Nal’ibali, a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading.
“Literacy means opportunity. Kids who learn to read well achieve in school and are able to absorb new knowledge and skills in all subjects. They’re more likely to go on to higher education, can confi dently seek jobs, and are much more likely to be employed.”
Nal’ibali’s guiding principle is that reading can and should be a source of pleasure, relaxation and enjoyment that anyone should be able to enjoy – it should not be limited to the wealthy and highly educated.
“The apartheid-era education system was designed to systematically disenfranchise black South Africans by denying them a basic education,” says Huston. “Nal’ibali builds reading habits in homes and communities. Children who are read to and hear stories regularly from a young age, in languages they speak and understand, develop the cognitive and socioemotional skills that set them up for success in school and beyond.”
Since 2012, Nal’ibali has distributed more than 116 million bilingual stories and tens of thousands of books. “We increase access to free reading materials in all 11 South African languages, have a free online library with more than 1 500 stories, and air stories on SABC radio stations in all 11 offi cial languages,” says Huston. “Nal’ibali also trains parents, teachers, and unemployed young people to read aloud, tell stories to children, and run community reading clubs where children can go to hear stories, read books and do fun, exciting activities to develop their literacy skills.”
GET INVOLVED
Organisation: The Justice Desk Gender-based violence (GBV), particularly violence against women, violates the fundamental rights and freedoms afforded to all people. “In South Africa, we cannot deny the deep-rooted systems of oppression that still exist in our country,” says Malcom Gertse, co-ordinator and training manager of The Justice Desk’s Mbokodo Club.
“Women are at a greater risk of human rights violations as well as the desensitisation that results in the gross acceptance of those violations. Heartbreakingly, a 14-year-old girl from Nyanga summed it up by saying, ‘rape, it is like clockwork, it’s just a matter of time before it happens’. The Justice Desk (TJD) wants to change that narrative and ensure that women and girl-children have access to their rights and freedoms.”
The Justice Desk’s Mbokodo Club is a project for girl survivors of rape and GBV from vulnerable communities. “The project focuses on addressing GBV and the need for young girls and women to feel empowered to lead their own change, and not be held back by society and the violence perpetuated against them,” says Gertse. “Through leadership and empowerment workshops, mental health care and support, physical fi tness and self-defence sessions, TJD is equipping a generation of young girls with the tools needed to access and realise their human rights. We teach them that GBV is not okay and that it was never their fault. Overall, our project provides girls from underserved communities with counselling and immediate social service assistance.”
Azile (not her real name), who grew up in the impoverished township of Nyanga, was attacked and raped when she was six years old. “After her attack, she spiralled through depression and self-hatred, trying on multiple occasions to take her own life,” says Gertse. “When she joined TJD’s Mbokodo Club project, she became part of a network of girl survivors taking a stand against GBV and was able to access trauma counselling, mental health care, and self-defence and fi tness sessions. She also attended empowerment workshops to equip her to become an incredible leader and activist in her community. She now supports other girl survivors to go from ‘victim to victors’, a phrase coined by Azile.”
FIGHTING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
Malcom Gertse
Ikhayalami works in townships to upgrade homes and shelters.
HOUSING:
Organisation: Ikhayalami Development Services Very few countries have entrenched the right to adequate housing in their constitutions. “It is good to remember that South Africa is one of the exceptions, especially in the current political climate where even a former minister of human settlements chooses to broadside the founding document of our democracy,” says Andy Bolnick, managing director of Ikhayalami Development Services.
“Even those who support the Constitution unequivocally would concur that the delivery of adequate housing has fallen short of the intentions of its drafters. The fault lies not with the Constitution, but with a delivery mechanism and policy environment that is woefully out of step with reality. The root of this problem is that for decades housing policy upgrading continuum: responding to shack fi res, has been about numbers of houses and not reconfi guring settlement layouts that eliminate about people.” the need for relocations, building fi re- and Since 1994, the state has built more than fl ood-resistant shelters, and gradually upgrading three million houses, although the numbers have them into formal homes. iKhayalami does all dropped dramatically over the past decade. “More than ever before, the rate of delivery is outstripped by the pace of urban in-migration and new household formation,” says Bolnick. “There is an estimated housing backlog of over 2.2 million units. And, the pre-occupation with delivery targets has resulted in shoddy construction, urban sprawl, and the perpetuation of apartheid’s racialised urban plan. “There is a saying that neatly captures the disparity between a constitutional right and the reality on the ground: you can write the word ‘sugar’ on the palm of your hand, but if you lick it, it will not taste sweet.” Through tried and tested mechanisms of community empowerment and a delivery process based on the incremental upgrading of existing informal structures, iKhayalami has made a small yet signifi cant contribution to demonstrating how this contradiction might be addressed. “Over the past decade-and-a-half, iKhayalami has upgraded several thousand shelters in Khayelitsha alone,” says Bolnick. “We work with shack dwellers at Andy Bolnick every level of the informal settlement of this with the communities, not for them. This is the key to bridging the gap between our Constitution and the reality on the ground. It provides a roadmap to scaling up the provision of the human right to adequate shelter.”
IKHAYALAMI DEVELOPMENT SERVICES PROJECTS
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
The Bill of Rights guarantees our basic human rights – but rights are worthless if we don’t know we have them.
The Justice Desk, a human rights nonpro t organisation with the tagline ‘empowering everyday people to understand and defend their human rights’, was established in 2013 with the main goal of ‘Promoting the Power of Everyday Activism’.
It conducts human rights speci c training at schools, colleges, nonpro t organisations, community-based organisations, and in communities, and produces educational materials that enable ordinary people to become everyday activists.
Source: The Justice Desk communications team
DEDICATED TO MAKING AN IMPACT
As one of South Africa’s leading law fi rms, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) is cognisant that its success goes hand in hand with a responsibility to our people, our communities, and our nation
We are acutely aware that if the rights in the Bill of Rights are to become a lived reality for ordinary people, lawyers need to play their role in enabling their implementation. We have a heightened role, if not a constitutional obligation, to assist vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and individuals unable to afford legal representation to enforce their rights in appropriate circumstances.
Our small but dedicated Pro Bono & Human Rights Practice with offi ces in both Johannesburg and Cape Town – runs matters that cut across several areas of law and public interest, with the potential to impact many individuals and communities by upholding, developing, and protecting their basic human rights. In this article, we highlight just four of the many such matters run by our Practice.
EDUCATION
In a recent victory for South Africa’s education system, the Johannesburg-based Practice succeeded in vindicating the right to access education in a safe environment.
We represented a family in its claim for civil damages against a secondary school, the Gauteng Department of Education and the Minister of Basic Education (collectively, “the responsible parties”) following their 17-year-old daughter’s untimely death in January 2017 when she was tragically electrocuted at the school. An investigative report revealed that the responsible parties were aware of the problems with the electrical connection in the relevant mobile classroom at the time, which did not comply with legislative safety requirements, and thus failed to ensure a safe learning and teaching environment in accordance with their constitutional, legislative, and common law duties.
The untimely death of this learner was a tragic consequence of a lack of accountability of public offi cials in Gauteng’s basic education system. We launched an application seeking
a structural order requiring the responsible parties to not only take all necessary steps to comply with the recommendations of the independent investigation, but also ensure accountability, and to report within 15 days of the court order on the steps they have taken in this regard.
Section27, who joined the proceedings as amicus curiae, affi rmed that there is a historical legacy of unsafe infrastructure and inadequate security in Gauteng schools. Recently, we succeeded in obtaining the order sought on an unopposed basis and will vigilantly ensure it is enforced. The outcome of these proceedings will, we hope, impact the broader South African community at large, particularly other young learners.
HEALTHCARE
Another of the Johannesburg Practice’s impact matters considers rights in the context of healthcare. On 18 October 2019, a toddler tragically died from accidentally ingesting rat poison. Although his parents rushed him to the nearest clinic for urgent medical assistance, which should have been readily available, they failed to receive timely assistance at the clinic and were thereafter unlawfully denied emergency medical treatment at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
The failure to grant access to emergency medical care to this small child is not an anomaly. Access to healthcare for migrant workers and undocumented people remains a challenge faced by many.
We recently launched a damages claim on behalf of the family as a consequence of the harm suffered through the death of their child. We are preparing systemic legal intervention in partnership with public interest organisations to address the various policies and practices that unlawfully limit or deprive migrant workers and undocumented people access to healthcare, contrary not only to the National Health Care Act, but also the right to healthcare under the Constitution.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The Cape Town-based Practice represents two sisters who endured sexual grooming and abuse from their stepmother’s two brothers from 1974 to 1980. The sisters were minors when the incidents occurred. The consequences of sexual abuse were recognised by the Constitutional Court in 2018 when it extinguished prescription applicable to the laying of criminal charges in respect of sexual offences.
In addressing the lived realities of not only the sisters, but also further women and girls who have endured sexual abuse, we instituted a claim for damages on their behalf against the brothers and raised a constitutional challenge to the validity of section 12(4) of the Prescription Act, which we argue places an unfair evidentiary burden on sexual abuse victims to prove that the impact of the sexual abuse on their mental or psychological condition was such that it precluded them from instituting proceedings sooner. This burden not only perpetuates the secondary victimisation of sexual abuse victims, but it is also an affront to numerous constitutional rights and values, inter alia, the right to dignity, access to courts and the right to privacy.
If the sisters’ challenge is successful, section 12(4) of the Act will be declared constitutionally invalid and be substituted with wording that does away with prescription entirely for civil damages claims arising from sexual offences. The proceedings aim to take us a step towards substantive equality through the appropriate recognition of all relevant circumstances, including the gravity and impact of the harm on sexual abuse survivors.
COMMUNAL LAND RIGHTS
The Cape Town Practice represents the Elim community in legal proceedings instituted by the Moravian Church of Elim South Africa (MCSA) concerning the rights of ownership in the land on which the community lives in the small village of Elim on the Agulhas Plain in the Western Cape. The MCSA seeks, among others, a declaration that it is the true owner of the land comprising Elim. The Elim community strongly opposes this application and has launched a counter application submitting not only that it is the true owner of the land – given that at the time of MCSA’s establishment on the land, black and coloured people were prohibited from owning land – but also that the issue of ownership is appropriately determined through the presentation of factual and expert evidence at a trial. We, on the Elim community’s behalf, recently successfully obtained an order of court staying the MCSA’s application pending the outcome of the action proceedings to be launched by the community. The action proceedings will allow the community to place this vital evidence before the court to fully ventilate the customary and historical practices in Elim, all with a view to asserting their historic land rights.
This Elim matter illustrates the crucial role lawyers play in using strategic impact litigation to develop the common law ownership of customary rights to land. This development of the common law further promotes the constitutional imperative for equitable access to land and land ownership of not only the Elim community, but also mission stations and other communities in similar circumstances.
UPHOLDING BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS
We are honoured to play our part in upholding the basic human rights of all of the above clients and communities, and many others. The spotlight on human rights during Human Rights Month each year reminds us of the importance of long-term dedication to their protection if we as lawyers and citizens are to play our part in both promoting and upholding our constitutional democracy.
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COMPREHENsIVE SUPPORT FOR CAREGIVERS
Through its Caregiver Networker programme, aRe Bapaleng is helping to deepen the quality of ECD support in vulnerable communities
The sotho phrase for ‘let’s play’ is aRe Bapaleng. A child’s critical thinking is stimulated through play and their ability to collaborate is encouraged, and play allows them to be creative. These are the key messages that the aRe Bapaleng programme communicates to parents and caregivers of children aged 0–8 years in underserviced communities. Parents and caregivers play a vital role in supporting the holistic development of children in their care.
Since this programme’s inception in 2020, over 1 000 parents and caregivers in 30 different communities have, through our interactive, hands-on, fun aRe Bapaleng Active Learning Workshops (ALW), received content, skills and resources to ensure their active participation in their children’s development.
Parents and caregivers in underserviced communities are at a disadvantage because there is a general lack of Early Childhood Development (ECD) awareness, insuffi cient capacity development programmes for day mothers and ECD practitioners, and inadequate access to ECD learning centres for children. In most cases, due to high unemployment rates, it is fi nancially impossible for parents and caregivers to take their children to ECD centres. And, access to these centres is often a challenge as they are not optimally located. Children who have not been exposed to ECD programmes enter primary school academically unprepared and lag behind. This negatively impacts a child’s ability to listen, participate in group tasks, work independently and follow instructions. Their ability to express their ideas, make friends, share, co-operate, gain confi dence and become accountable for their actions is also affected.
THE CAREGIVER NETWORKER
To narrow this gap and ensure greater sustainability, reach and impact over time, Seriti Institute has established an additional facet to the aRe Bapaleng programme called the Caregiver Network. aRe Bapaleng benefi ciaries receive comprehensive training and mentorship programmes, which enable them to be fully fl edged members of and ambassadors for the Caregiver Network. They can then run their own ALWs within their communities, ensuring an expansion of ECD support to other parents and caregivers.
This element of the training programme works in synergy with another Seriti Institute programme, Seriti PARTNER, which supports enterprise development through mentorship and business management training for civil society organisations. Seriti PARTNER and aRe Bapaleng work closely with other key stakeholders to deliver a comprehensive support package to parents and caregivers in vulnerable communities. The programme currently operates in three provinces, however, the goal is to expand this into a national support programme.
BETTER OPPORTUNITIES, GREATER CAPACITY
Caregiver Networkers who want to become professional Early Childhood Development Practitioners (ECDPs) may have an opportunity to do so through the Education, Training, Development and Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA). This involves an 18-month practical experience and an NQF Level 4&5 ECD course. The Caregiver Networker will become a professional ECDP who is able to provide high-quality ECD services, and can further their studies in the education sector.
In this way, vulnerable communities across South Africa have a stronger, in-community hub of higher quality ECD capacity. This increases inclusion in the communal ECD ecosystem. Through the Caregiver Networker programme, more benefi ciaries will be reached in a shorter period, the quality of ECD support in vulnerable communities will be deepened, the real demand for more qualifi ed caregivers will be met and this will increase the caregiver’s employability prospects. All these elements will enable Seriti Institute and its partners to realise a collective goal: to maximise social impact by reaching many more caregivers in a way that improves children’s wellbeing. This is social innovation at work!
ABOUT aRe Bapaleng
ABOUT SERITI PARTNER
ABOUT SERITI INSTITITUTE
To fi nd out more about Seriti or support our aRe Bapaleng programme, contact us on:
011 262 7700 info@seriti.org.za www.seriti.org.za Seriti Institute - NPC @SeritiInstitute @Seriti Institute
