ADVOCACY

Many South Africans live without access to quality education, healthcare, basic services and adequate housing, and the global pandemic has exacerbated the national faultlines of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Activists at Equal Education and C-19 People’s Coalition, share what their organisations are doing to help achieve social justice in South Africa.

EQUAL EDUCATION SOCIAL JUSTICE

INITIATIVES MAKING WAVES

In an unequal world, fi ghting for social justice is the only way to balance the scale. TIISETSO TLELIMA speaks to activists working towards achieving a more just society

What it does: Established in 2008, Equal Education is a member-based mass movement of learners, post-school youth, parents and community members working towards equality and quality education. The organisation has members in fi ve provinces across the country and works tirelessly to put education on the national agenda. “We work with learners, in particular, empowering them to organise themselves and fi ght for their rights,” explains Equal Education’s head of organising in the Eastern Cape, Itumeleng Mothlabane.

Equal Education works on various campaigns including fi ghting for textbooks for learners, better school infrastructure, safe sanitation, access to scholar transport in KwaZulu-Natal, and the reduction of overcrowding in schools. However, despite having succeeded in getting the education department to adopt norms and standards of infrastructure in public schools, Mothlabane says lack of political will means their campaigns often take long before they are realised. “The norms and standards of public school infrastructure was signed into law in 2013, but today we still have about 1 500 schools with pit toilets,” she says. Platforms it uses for social change: Equal Education holds in-school meetings and youth group and mass meetings where learners come up with campaigns and also build the movement. They then advocate in the streets and the media. However, the organisation has had to rely heavily on media advocacy as a result of recent lockdown rules. How to get involved: The organisation strongly believes in the power of active citizenship to effect social change. “People must always look at the structures around them, for example, school governing boards and ward committees, and make sure that they are working effectively,” says Motlhabane.

C-19 PEOPLE’S COALITION

What it does: Established in March 2020, the C-19 People’s Coalition comprises 350 civil society organisations. It was formed to ensure that South Africa’s COVID-19 response is rooted in social justice and democratic principles, and to protect and monitor issues around human rights. The coalition established working groups to focus on issues such as basic services, illegal evictions, gender-based violence, state repression, vaccine access, and more. Tauriq Jenkins, a convener of the antirepression group within the coalition, monitors issues dealing with military oversight, police, law enforcement and private security companies. The antirepression group Itumeleng Mothlabane worked together with the Human Rights Commission to fi ght against state repression during the pandemic. “An example of how we mobilised effective action was when the City of Cape Town’s response to the lockdown was ostensibly to create camps in Strandfontein for [homeless people],” explains Jenkins. Thousands of homeless people were forcibly removed from the streets and placed in camps to try contain the spread of the virus. “We realised very quickly that these camps were more like securitised gulags where they where completely stripped of their rights. We produced a report together with Doctors Without Borders and managed to get the site shut down.”

Platforms it uses for social change:

The entity started a hotline website called EQUAL EDUCATION www.report.org.za for people to report issues of repression. This information then goes to CAMPAIGNS an analysis group where an archive is being created. “We monitor and respond to things coming through and have submitted reports

Tauriq Jenkins

to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the AU,” says Jenkins. The antirepression group has also engaged in several online events to look at the demilitarisation of law enforcement and the police. The coalition mobilised against vaccine apartheid, which saw the US and Canada hoarding vaccines and ordering more than they needed while African countries were struggling to get stock. It also ran various online campaigns educating people about the vaccine and fi ghting disinformation and anti-vaxx sentiments. How to get involved: Go to the C-19 website and social media platforms to get in touch. “We’re open to anyone who wants to make a difference,” says Jenkins. “It’s very important to have coalitions like this in existence and well supported because without them we render our constitutional rights only to the authorities.”

C-19’S PEOPLE’S COALITION RESOURCES 4 ACTION

DID YOU KNOW?

The term “social justice” was coined in the 19th century during the industrial revolution. During this time there was a big gap between the rich and poor, and human rights were mostly not legally established.

Source: Investopedia

“We work with learners, in particular, empowering them to organise themselves and fight for their rights.” – Itumeleng Mothlabane

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