Glenda Daniels
Internal strife and chaos among key civil society players escalated this week and now bedevil the success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development due to take place in Johannesburg in eight months’ time.
This week the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), arguably the largest component of civil society with nearly two million members, said it was forging ahead to set up an alternative structure to the Civil Society Indaba, which is the governing body of the Civil Society Secretariat. The secretariat was set up to prepare civil society input for the summit.
Cosatu officials this week said the federation had successfully consulted with the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), the South African National Youth Council and the South African Council of Churches to set up an alternative structure.
Last month Cosatu walked out of consultative talks at the Indaba, together with Sanco, citing a “lack of proper representation, inefficiency and mismanagement of funds” on the part of the secretariat. On Tuesday a meeting to mend the relationship failed.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Thursday: “We must reiterate that the Civil Society Indaba does not represent civil society for the purposes of the [summit]. Its structures do not ensure adequate representation of the main constituencies of civil society, as defined by the United Nations The Indaba should therefore not raise funds or interact with official agencies as the representative of South African civil society.”
The summit, which will have three components civil society, government and business will be the biggest the country has hosted, with about 60 000 delegates and more than 100 heads of state. It will constitute a major test for South Africa’s ability to host such an event.
The summit will focus on poverty, funding for sustainable development, health, peace and security, waste, preservation of the environment, energy access, water access, land degradation, climate change and pollution. It is expected to create thousands of jobs. Last month the Netherlands Development Cooperation contributed 2,5-million euros (about R25-million) to the summit, but the organisers are still about R130-million short.
If local NGOs and the civil society secretariat do not end their internal strife they are seriously jeopardising the success of the summit, say some international donors and local church bodies.
The Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development (Danced) environmental officer, Peter Jonsson, said: “An alternative structure cannot be set up at this late stage. The local NGOs have to pull together. If NGOs cannot find common ground, they will lose the battle.”
Danced is one of the larger funders of the Civil Society Secretariat.
“Looking at things from the outside it seems that it is much better for the NGOs and labour to sit down and sort out differences than trying to set up alternative structures,” said Jonsson.
Desmond Lesejane, representing the South African Council of Churches at the Indaba, said he had sympathy for Cosatu’s position but “we are now prepared not to push our own needs and interests for the sake of the country and the world. The problem is a lack of communication, the governance structures were weak and there is a lack of proper representation for all major groups. The thing has disintegrated but we have to come together as this is an opportunity for South Africa to develop positions on poverty, development and the environment.”
On Thursday Civil Society Indaba chairperson Luyanda Kamsumza said among the major organised groups currently represented are First People (indigenous peoples), NGOs, the youth, the provinces, the labour movement, rural and urban communities, women’s groups, faith-based groups and others. “A process to ensure that everyone is involved is currently under way.”
Kamsumza said groups like “Sanco and Cosatu publicly raised a dispute with the Civil Society Indaba regarding the inclusion of First People as a major group. They also raised a dispute about voting rights of provincial delegates as well as the composition of the management committee responsible for running the process.
“We believe that the issues raised are not substantive enough to question the legitimacy of the Civil Society Indaba. We believe these issues can be discussed and resolved with the Indaba process. We are awaiting Cosatu, Sanco and the broader labour movement to come and take the seats reserved for them in the structure.”
Cosatu official Neva Makgetla said: “This is outrageous that they say they are representing us when both Cosatu and Fedusa have expressly said they should not do this anymore. They have no right to do this.”