Butjwana Seokoma's blog

50th Anniversary and Advancing Justice for Grave Crimes

Foreign Ministers

African Union Member States

Re: 50^th Anniversary and Advancing Justice for Grave Crimes

To Foreign Ministers of African Union member states:

We, the undersigned African civil society organisations and international organisations with a presence in Africa, working on human rights and international criminal justice, are pleased to congratulate the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU), on the occasion of its 50^th Anniversary.

The Right to Transport: A Rustenburg Initiative

For many South African’s the Bill of Rights is only vaguely known or understood, but in Rustenburg the team developing the new integrated public transport system – Rustenburg Rapid Transport (RRT) – are intimately aware of how something as basic as good public transport can support the true expression of South Africa’s Bill of Rights.

SANGONeT Development Calendar 2013 - Available for Collection

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) has once again produced an annual Development Calendar in the form of a year planner.

Sponsored by Turning Point Consultants, the 2013 Development Calendar covers a comprehensive list of international, African and South African dates (e.g. World AIDS Day, 1 December) and events of significance to people and organisations involved in development and civil society issues in Southern Africa.

Copies of the calendar are available for collection from the SANGONeT office in Braamfontein, free of charge.

NGOs Comment on 2013/4 National Budget

Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, delivered the 2013/4 National Budget to Parliament on 27 February 2013 in Cape Town. This year’s budget was overshadowed by a number of development challenges including the recent de-registration of an estimated 36 000 NGOs and the closure of many others due to lack of donor funding, the shortage of textbooks in disadvantaged schools, increasing incidents of gender-based violence, and the pending introduction of e-tolls, among others.

Six Steps to Surviving 2013

2012 has been a tough year for civil society. Those funding cuts that we’d been warned of since the crash in 2008, were keenly felt. The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) wrapped up its second five year programme, the Europeans curtailed their investments, the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DIFID) restructured. The retraction in international funding was exacerbated by instability in local funding as the National Lottery in trying to get its house in order, struggled to deliver on its grant mandate.

A Matter of Trust

A case study of the Children’s Hospital Trust’s fundraising success

The Children’s Hospital Trust (the Trust) is widely considered to be one of the most successful fundraising organisations in South Africa, having raised over R420 million for the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Paediatric Healthcare in the Western Cape since its inception in 1994.

Request for Sponsorship: Laptops

Living through Learning is a non-governmental organisation working in the education sector. Living through Learning run a bridging college incorporating practical STEM learning and technology. Our students are bridged into technical tertiary degrees at University.

Living through Learning is in urgent need of 35 laptops for our students for TEACH.

We have a service provider able to offer the following:

Corporate Governance in South Africa: Weak Links that Allow Fraud and Corruption to be Rampant

One has now lost count of the number of fraud and corruption incidents that get reported in the media - almost daily. Most would agree that this indicates our corporate governance is collapsing, has completely collapsed or that it needs some serious re-vamp. The fact that fraud and corruption incidents do get reported, confirms that corporate governance still works – but mainly on the detective side.

Phafogang Piggery Project Restore Dignity for Parents

“When World Vision Kodumela provided us with capital to embark on this pig farm adventure, I never thought pig farming would eventually become my passion”, said France Kgabo, Phafogang Piggery project secretary. Started in 2006, the piggery is becoming a serious profit making and a job creating project in Kodumela. It has employed eight women and three men, representing a tangible positive change in the lives of more than thirty children from the area. These include both World Vision registered and non-registered children.

Report Back on Lotto March

Many thanks to the 450 NGOs who marched to the National Lotteries Board (NLB) offices in Pretoria and the hundreds who signed our petition and supported us. NGOs from throughout South Africa i.e. Eastern, Western and Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Gauteng. People travelled from as far as Secunda, Nelspruit, Vereeniging to voice their outrage – one only has to look at the posters to gage their opinions.