NGOs want to reassert their roles in shaping public policy and becoming a delivery partner in the alleviation of poverty, health issues, joblessness and homelessness. Jubie Matlou spoke to Zakes Hlatswayo, newly elected president of the South African National NGO Coalition, following the NGO Week held in Rustenberg
The NGO Week has been observed in the past five years to recognise and review the role of NGOs and the state of the country’s civil society.
Jubie Matlou: What do you think is the greatest challenge facing civil society formations in South Africa?
Zakes Hlatswayo: The challenge is to create a political space for NGOs.
For some time they [NGOs] have been denied the space to interact and interface with other forces in the government and civil society organisations. We need to find space to assert ourselves as NGOs … [that can come from] the cohesion that we can attain in the non-governmental sector and with the grassroots support from communities. To me there’s a challenge to find relevance for the non-governmental sector, that it is indeed a very important component of our society.
What is happening is that we have seen an over-concentration of power within the president’s office. It has grown over time, and we’ve also seen that there’s a non-participatory way in policy formulation where policy emanates from the presidency, so to speak, with little interaction with NGOs, let alone the beneficiaries, the grassroots people, who’ve been impacted upon by those pieces of legislation.
We see this as an unacceptable situation. We all engaged and played a role in the development of the RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme], but who knows where the Gear [growth employment and redistribution policy] idea comes from [as an economic policy in the past few years]. Those kinds of things are unacceptable in any democracy. We believe the canvassing of public opinion, particularly grassroots opinion, is important … it emphasises the reason why NGOs question not only the outcome decisions, but the way in which those decisions are made.
So, in short, we have seen a shrinking space of interaction between the government and civil society.
JM: Despite shortcomings in civil society-government relations, NGOs are increasingly becoming delivery partners of health, welfare and job-creation services. How would you describe this relationship?
ZH: Like any relationship, you would find ups and downs … there are times when we agree and have common views on what needs to be delivered, and to this extent we foster relationships with government. We are not a neutral implementer of the government’s policy. The idea is that we want to see what experiences and lessons can be gained in that kind of partnership … we see it as an interactive process.
We envisage a very critical partnership with the government, but we are very conscious that we should not be seen to be an appendage of the government. We are independent of the government, and we think we’ve got a responsibility in terms of the old watchdog role of ensuring that the government lives up to its promises.
Unless one sees reorganisation of civil society to assert itself we are unlikely to see transformation in our society. But having seen that, I’m saying we should not make the mistake of regarding the state as being homogeneous I would like to believe that there are conservative elements and pro-reformist forces who see things differently.
[Civil society formations] need to interact with the pro-reform elements within the government or state … we need to identify each other.
There is an acknowledgement that NGOs are very innovative, we want to be respected for that. It would be regrettable to deny space for NGOs for they play an important role in raising consciousness within communities an important link between the government and ordinary people.
As for the relationship with the private sector, it’s unfortunate that we have not, both sides, invested a lot in exploring the strength of that relationship. We need to put energies into that. We also want to urge the private sector to move away from only funding projects but also to funding activities that lobby in advocacy. This is a very critical area that NGOs are active in.
JM: What about Sangoco’s relationship with other NGOs outside its fold?
ZH: This is one of my priority areas … if we can’t get any other form of relationship with organisations outside our fold it’s important that we, at least, have a professional relationship. There could be misunderstanding and disagreements in terms of ideological orientation.
I think it’s in the nature of things that there should be that kind of diversity in terms of opinion and thinking. That kind of difference is expected and I think it’s very healthy. Managing such relations poses a challenge to Sangoco as to how we retain cohesion between the two structures?
JM: What’s the significance of the NGO Week, and what was resolved?
ZH: The NGO Week is an opportunity to foster solidarity and partnerships with our affiliates, and all other NGOs whereby we reflect on our achievements and challenges over the last 12 months or so. The NGO Week brings together a range of organisations in one week, where experiences are shared and we try to find ways and commonalities between ourselves as the NGO sector. We look at possible strategies of engagement with other stakeholders, be they government or donors.
There is also the exhibition aspect, whereby groups come to display [by setting up stalls] their type of activity.
The theme of NGO Week 2001 was Grassroots Action for Poverty Eradication. We believe that for any democracy to be stable and strong, it should be grounded within communities and among ordinary people themselves.
As the NGO sector we want to sow democratic principles within the local communities so that people can actually begin to stand up and advocate for their own rights.
So grassroots mobilisation is very important for social transformation in the country. Without the involvement of the grassroots people, it’s unlikely that we would have a good transition. The distance between government and the broader society needs to be narrowed.
Secondly, grassroots mobilisation is very critical for poverty eradication and elimination of hunger. It’s only when the grassroots people stand up and articulate their demands … and begin to engage with government, that you can find transformation happening. So, democracy should not be an event happening every five years through elections.
NGOs played a historical role against apartheid and I think we have a very critical role to play in rebuilding and transforming our society and strengthening democracy. One of the resolutions of the conference is to strengthen alliances with the South African Council of Churches and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
The HIV/Aids scourge is another pressing issue that needs to be dealt with immediately, and the urgency for the government to go beyond denial mode and begin to support those who are affected by the pandemic, their children and so on.
HIV/Aids is really more than a health issue, it has become a developmental issue.
We also resolved around the question of gender transformation in the country. There are still huge inequalities between our women and men and these need to be dealt with swiftly, particularly when one looks at the questions of access to resources, be they land or development resources.
We think women are still being discriminated against. It’s a very important issue that we want to take up as well.