OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday
A CIVIL society conference in Johannesburg starting on April 24 with Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton as speakers could be boycotted by unions and non-governmental groups, the organiser said on the weekend.
The organiser and chairman of the Civil Society Initiative (CSI) conference, Roelf Meyer met powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leader Zwelinzima Vavi on Sunday in an unsuccessful bid to avert a boycott by Cosatu.
Cosatu and the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) – representing about 4_000 non-governmental organisations – declared on Friday that they would boycott the conference as it lacked transparency.
“The conference will … be an unrepresentative jamboree, whose decisions will in no way reflect the views of the real South African civil society,” they said in a statement.
Meyer said that Vavi indicated in Sunday’s meeting with him that Cosatu “would not change its position” on the conference.
“We will continue discussions with a view to the future. We have the same purpose of building civil society,” Meyer said, describing the meeting as constructive.
A former member of the apartheid government, Meyer was central to the negotiations that ended apartheid and ushered in South Africa’s first democratic government.
He launched the United Democratic Movement with populist leader Bantu Holomisa following majority rule in 1994, but left party politics recently to pursue his interest in civil society.
Meyer said: “The conference next week is intended as a dialogue to debate the role of civil society … it was not intended to represent specific interests.”
Former South African President Nelson Mandela will open the conference, former US president Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker and several cabinet ministers will speak at the event.
The European Union is the main sponsor of the initiative, which aims to raise awareness among South Africans that they have “a responsibility towards developing disadvantaged communities”.
But Sangoco, following a meeting with Meyer, contended that it was not clear what the initiative wanted to achieve.
Cosatu said it had not been consulted on the conference, criticising it as an attempt to revive Meyer’s political career.