Hazel Friedman
“ORWELLIAN state interference,” claims Helen Suzman’s new liberal foundation of draft legislation proposing tighter control of South Africa’s NGO-sector — but many of the organisations who would be affected say the red alert is mostly a red herring.
Formed to promote liberal democratic values, the Helen Suzman Foundation — due to be launched officially in March — charged in its debut journal this week that the Non-Profit Organisation Bill would allow government to “intervene, dominate and destroy any NGO”, raising the spectre of “the one-party state”.
Said Bill Johnson, director of the foundation: “The proposed bill is more restrictive than anything the old apartheid regime ever envisaged and has no place in democratic
“Hysteria,” retorted NGOs who proposed the bill in the first place. The bill, now in its third draft, is the culmination of three years of consultation and research undertaken by the Development Resources Centre, working through a coalition of 2 500 NGOs ranging from Kagiso Trust and SANCO to the Black Sash and St Johns Ambulance.
Two previous drafts were hotly debated and amended at workshops held countrywide this year. The bill was drawn up by lawyers Mary Honey, Wallace Mgoqi and Richard Rosenthal. Mgoqi is assistant commissioner of land in the Western Cape and Rosenthal has worked closely with the Democratic Party.
Said Matthew Walton, a partner of Rosenthal’s: “Our clients are almost exclusively NGOs, so it would be irrational to imply that we were party to damaging legislation, or that NGOs would collaborate in their own destruction.”
Although the consultative process began before the “Boesak affair” broke, the bill is partly designed to restore the dented credibility of the NGO-sector; to introduce legislation that both empowers and holds NGOs accountable to the public; and to ensure continued funding to NGOs and community-based organisations whose donor bases have dried up since the demise of apartheid, proponents of the bill say. It is supported by the Department of Welfare and the RDP office.
The Non-Profit Organisations Bill proposes a commission on NGOs of between 18 and 25 repesentatives from the non-profit sector, including no more than five government appointees. It would be responsible for promoting integrity, overseeing spending and investigating tax benefits for NGOs.
Controversial aspects include compulsory registration of all non-profit organisations within three years, except for small institutions with disposable funds of less than R25 000, private institutions and bodies such as sports clubs and professional organisations. Some NGOs insist registration should be used not as a compulsory measure but rather as a voluntary incentive for tax relief.
The commission can refuse to register NGOs, suspend trustees, appoint new ones, curtail NGO powers and even change their names. Although these clauses are only to be enforced in cases of NGO mismanagement or financial misappropriation, critics have labelled them
Ironically, the bill derives its inspiration not from draconian legislation of totalitarian states, but from a liberal model: it is based on the 1962 English Charities Act which governs all non-profit organisations in the United
Said Zane Dangor of the Development Resources Centre: “The bill is still in the draft phase and must be further debated among the nine provincess before it even reaches the parliamentary subcommittee. To talk about it in terms of a leftist conspiracy is absurd.”
The Helen Suzman Foundation has been seen to be Democratic Party-linked, but director Johnson insists it has changed its political profile to non-partisan.
Better known as the author RW Johnson, he describes himself as a liberal democrat. Others brand him a member of the “new right” and an enthusiastic Inkatha Freedom Party supporter – — claims which he hotly denies.