Glenda Daniels
New hope for the success of South African civil society’s participation in the world summit on sustainable development emerged this week when the two warring factions left the country for a preparatory committee meeting in New York at the United Nations headquarters.
Representatives of civil society from around the world are meeting in New York over the next two weeks to discuss the agenda and proposals for the Earth summit which will take place in Johannesburg at the end of August. The summit is expected to host about 65 000 delegates and more than 100 heads of state.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said this week that dialogue in New York will take place among all of the major groups the scientific and technological community, business and industry, indigenous peoples, trade unions, local authorities, women, farmers and youth.
In the past two months South African civil society infighting has threatened the success of the summit. The fracas between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African NGO Coalition, some church, women and youth group representatives on the one hand and the civil society Indaba on the other hand has not yet blown over.
Cosatu is up in arms over what it says is inadequate representation of labour and over-representation of NGOs, as well as the “high salary” of the civil society secretariat CEO, Jacqui Brown, who earns more than R37 000 a month. Cosatu walked out of the Indaba structures and has over the past two weeks tried to set up an alternative structure.
“With just six months to go before the summit, hopefully this meeting in New York will help everyone come together and resolve differences. The team leaders for the New York delegation were chosen jointly by both sides. Cosatu has more than one representative. I hope this gets results. I’m confident that the South African civil society process will resolve issues,” said Brown
She added that the South African Council of Churches is mediating the dispute between labour and the Indaba. But Cosatu’s senior official Neva Makgetla said that an alternative structure is already being set up. A meeting took place at the National Economic and Development Labour Council last week but director Philip Dexter said that it was merely the council’s venue that was used.