movement building

1. The Political Environment

1.1. Grace before the meal
The very essence of “politics” is the human intercourse about how we are governed, where we are going, what our context is, where we find ourselves among broader humanity, and the essential and ever-changing debate about how best to divvy up limited resources.

Well known philanthropist and supporter of the Red Cross Children’s hospital in Cape Town, Amanda Bloch, has criticised the tunnel vision of government departments and called for the South African Revenue Services to develop policies that support philanthropy.

Speaking this afternoon at the Inyathelo conference on Our World: Our Responsibility in Cape Town, Bloch said the biggest challenge in her work had been navigating the apparent “insurmountable bureaucracy and lack of collaboration on the part of government”.

Amanda Bloch, a philanthropist and supporter of the Red Cross Children's hospital in Cape Town, has criticised the tunnel vision of government departments and called on the South African Revenue Services to develop policies that support philanthropy.

Bloch, who was awarded the 2007 Inyathelo Award for Philanthropy in Health, says the biggest challenge in her work had been navigating the apparent ‘insurmountable bureaucracy and lack of collaboration on the part of government’.

Inyathelo – The South African Institute for Advancement’s philanthropy programme manager, Gillian Mitchell, says that the Inyathelo Philanthropy Awards give South Africans the chance to thank those people who have and are making a difference.

Mitchell was speaking at the occasion of the 2009 awards in Cape Town. Since its inception three years ago, the Inyathelo Awards have recognised those whose personal contributions have made a sustainable contribution to the communities in which they are active.

We would be appalled if someone waved a magic wand and took away our literacy. We cannot understand how others may not recognise the value of literacy.

But not everyone wants to be literate – or not enough to take time away from the daily earn-your-living challenge. When one literacy promoter invited poor rural women walking along an Ndwedwe road to join adult literacy classes, she was amazed to be told, “Yes, we will come to your school. How much will you pay us?”

South Africa faces an enormous unemployment challenge. The problem is particularly concentrated among the country’s youth, for whom lack of experience is all too often compounded by lack of skills. The result is a growing cohort of young people with severely limited access to formal sector employment, and limited means to do anything about it.

Anti-Corruption Plain Language Guide provides standardised, easy-to-understand definitions for 45 key terms commonly used by the anti-corruption movement – from ‘access to information’ to ‘whistle blowing’. Each term includes a practical example of how TI approaches these issues and helpful links for further research. Developed by the Transparency International, the guide also provides clarity on the terms that the anti-corruption movement uses most in its daily work as well as those associated with new and emerging issues.

Development and Dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 Football World Cup considers the effects of South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is held that the greatest potential benefit of the 2010 World Cup is a repudiation of Afropessimism and an assertion of a contemporary African identity both at home and on a global stage.

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