9 December, 2009

David Barnard reflects on the past year and writes that the global financial crisis impacted directly and indirectly on SANGONeT and other NGOs’ work. During this period, funders reduced or revised their financial commitments and priorities, NGOs were confronted with the challenges of reviewing their sustainability, diversifying their funding base and assessing the overall relevance of their work

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The cultural landscape of South Africa tells a story of underdevelopment, disregard of certain cultures and also a story of preferential treatment of particular cultural communities and cultural practices. Many cultural communities in the country do not have the vision, confidence, self belief, persistence and expertise to establish cultural agencies which are capable of preserving, promoting and developing their indigenous cultures and position it as a central pillar of sustainable development. Cultural commissions or other state agencies have not done enough to empower communities to tap into the cultural industries sector and to create wealth for themselves.

Commemorated every year on 1 December, many will be wearing red ribbons and all kinds of AIDS awareness and campaign will be taking place – many will also be showing what their organisations are doing in the fight against HIV. The theme for international World AIDS Day 2009 is 'Human Rights and Access to Treatment’. In this article, Nomsa Mabaso asks, while we have access to treatment as a basic right, are we being responsible by actually making use of it? She believes that this theme challenges every person living in South Africa to take up the fight against HIV and AIDS as their own

The global economic crisis is a reality NGOs face today. The crisis has dire consequences for HIV and AIDS funding. These effects are felt particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest levels of HIV and AIDS infection in the world, with approximately 25 million (more than 60 percent of global infections). It has forced international donors to direct more funds to lower income countries to help them strengthen their health system programmes and to extend their focus to include other health issues. In South Africa, companies are likely to cut their HIV/AIDS prevention programmes and this has already left many NGOs with no choice but to suspend some of their projects

While one understands the frustrations and responsibilities of government to protect law abiding citizens, emotional and populist utterings may put the lives of the law abiding police and the public at greater risk. Instead of promoting shoot to kill approach towards crime in the country, government must work in partnership with some not so formal crime busting civil society structures, who may prove more experienced in detecting and spotting crimes. Involving such structures will not be a sign of weakness, but a move that will go a long way in making everyone feel relevant and part of the bigger picture

Speaking out against gender-based violence can help to set survivors free. Prior to the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign, Gender Links, in partnership with other organisations, puts out a call to men and women affected by gender-based violence to share stories of how they suffered from this form of violence. “Gathering together in a workshop setting, survivors first tell each other their stories. They write their stories with the support of a team of editors, before the stories are finally sent to the mainstream media.

The recent Constitutional Court ruling involving Ermerlo High School raises critical questions about the roles and functions of the Department of Education and school governing bodies in determining language policy. The court found that the school governing body refused to adhere to an instruction by the Head of Department of the Mpumalanga Education Department to alter its language policy to provide instruction in Afrikaans as well as English. “Schools cannot randomly decide what the language of instruction should be without duly considering how it will affect the interests of the learners.”

Getting into informal trading is one of the ways in which poor people can overcome socio-economic hardships associated with unemployment and hunger. To grow the informal trading sector, local governments should improve the conditions under which informal traders do business. SANGONeT intern, Isaac Mnguni, investigates the problems that informal traders face in the City of Johannesburg. His investigation also highlight the need for Johannesburg-based informal traders to enjoy their constitutional right to practice trade of their choice and heed government’s call to do it for themselves in the spirit of vukuzenzele.

The HIV Prevention Gauge of 2009 shows that progress has been made in combating HIV, but that we still do not invest enough in a fully-fledged national portfolio of programmes to prevent it. Given the limitations of current knowledge about what really works, we will not be able to stop all new infections. But we can probably stop half of them.

The Batswana went to the polls for the 10th time since independence from Britain in 1966. The African Union urged Botswana to provide state funding to political parties to enable them to strengthen its democracy and level the playing field.

There is simply not enough money and resources available to quickly provide everyone who needs a house with a full RDP house. In the absence of any alternative, households have not much choice but to occupy illegal informal settlements. There is an urgent need for the South African government to expand the number of alternative ways for the poor to access tenure security and basic services

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