social movements

Over the past two months, the African Monitor, working with Black Sash, CIVICUS, Hope Africa, South African Human Rights Commission, COSATU, Southern African Trust, South African Council of Churches, SANGOCO, Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute and IDASA,  has held Poverty Hearings in across South Africa. These gatherings have provided people from all walks of life the opportunity to talk about their experiences of poverty.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has announced the closure of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) as of 31 December 2008.

According to CCS Director, Prof Patrick Bond, he and his staff were summoned to a meeting on 30 July 2008 and advised the centre was being permanently closed at the end of the year. All CCS staff contracts, besides Bond's, would be terminated, with CCS’s "good" projects moved to the School for Development Studies at UKZN.

More than 5 000 residents from Khutsong Township in the Merafong Municipality marched to the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters, Luthuli House, on 6 June 2008, to protest against government’s plan to incorporate them into the North West province.

Marching under the umbrella of the Merafong Demarcation Forum (MDF), the protesters asked the new ANC leadership to intervene in their fight against being incorporated into the North West.

The Papillon Foundation is a public benefit NGO working towards the economic and social development of previously disadvantaged communities in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg. Registered in January 2002, the Foundation has initiated various successful social outreach projects to empower communities to meet their own needs.

The 8th CIVICUS World Assembly will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 18th to 21st June 2008. The theme for the World Assembly is ‘Acting Together for a Just World: People, Participation and Power’.