Glenda Daniels
Jacqui Brown, CEO of the Civil Society Secretariat of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, has been reinstated.
She was controversially suspended by the Rural Services Development Network three weeks ago for poor management. However, an internal inquiry uncovered no wrongdoing.
Brown’s suspension had been puzzling to many within the NGO sector but the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) had pushed for it. Brown had been accused of weak management and exceeding her mandate by hiring staff, fundraising for the summit and liaising with the media.
Her supporters said these tasks were indeed part of her mandate and that “jealousy” and “sexism” were behind the suspension. “The all-male clique from Sangoco’s leadership wanted to clip her wings,” according to one World Summit organiser.
The suspension had threatened the civil society process of the World Summit, which will now go ahead as planned. The summit, in Johannesburg in September next year, will be the largest event South Africa has hosted and is expected to attract more than 100 heads of state and between 50 000 and 60 000 delegates.
The controversy surrounding Brown appears to be over, but one senior Congress of South African Trade Unions official told the Mail & Guardian: “We do have problems with how Brown operates. She seems to involve herself with NGOs that she is close to. She has to be more inclusive and she must learn to consult more broadly.”