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The Civil Society Conference held on 27-28 October 2010 was a historic
turning point in the history of South Africa. Over 300 delegates from
56 mass-based civil society organisations, with a combined membership
of millions of South Africans, came together to rebuild a strong, mass
democratic movement which will work with the people and the government
to tackle the massive social problems with which we are confronted.

South African citizens have a constitution and laws which give better
guarantees of social justice, human rights and equality than almost
anywhere else in the world. Yet in practice millions are denied these
rights, especially socio-economic rights, in what has become the most
unequal nation in the world.

The apartheid fault lines remain in place in employment, healthcare,
education, housing, transport, and across the spectrum. A rich, mainly
white, minority gets the lion's share of wealth and economic power,
access to world class services in the private sector and a lifestyle
amongst the most luxurious in the world.

The rich elite earn millions by exploiting the labour of the working
class. A minority, including some of our own former comrades in public
office, make their millions by corruptly manipulating opportunities to
win tenders, bribing officials or using political connections

Meanwhile the mainly black poor majority suffer from deep and
widespread poverty, huge levels of unemployment, pathetic levels of
service delivery in healthcare and education, housing and transport,
and little hope of escaping from a life of struggling to survive from
day to day.

We are one of the most unequal countries in the world, and unless we
mobilise for change, the levels of inequality will become entrenched.

The conference agreed that corruption goes to the heart of social
justice and that as well as backing the government's efforts to
investigate corruption allegations, we need a civil society
anti-corruption mechanism should be a civil society owned initiative.

The conference debated three main areas:

1 Social justice

The conference agreed to the concept of a Social Justice Charter,
which can be used as a campaigning tool to mobilise society,
particularly workers and communities, around issues of social justice.

We have many good laws and policies, but implementation is lacking.
We must carry forward implementing real justice rather than stopping
at passing laws and adopting policies on paper. Laws are often too
complex in design and content and not accessible to ordinary people
whom the law is supposed to protect.

Access to justice is unaffordable, so that those who can't afford to
access the institutions of justice are excluded from exercising their
rights and achieving social justice. The current system favours those
who can afford to access judicial institutions and therefore creates
barrier to access justice rather than promoting access.

The Charter can also help to mobilise and empower people on ethical
issues, especially the fight against corruption in health care, local
government, the education system and other key areas.

The Charter must trigger the implementation of existing policies and
laws and assist poor communities to be aware of them. Any new Charter
must speak to strategy and reflect civil society values. It can't
simply repeat principles already in the Constitution but must expand
on principles such as public participation to enforce social justice

It must reflect the duty of civil society to hold government
accountable - to achieve social justice delivery, and acknowledge the
fragmentation and weakness of our organisations, which has led to
deepening of poverty in South Africa, while expressing the need for
solidarity and unity of civil society.

The conference agreed that the Charter must be used to get
municipalities to truly engage communities in public participation,
ensuring that public broadcasting reflects the voice of the people and
addressing related issues of economic and gender justice.

Delegates also agreed on the need to develop a communication strategy
to build a coalition amongst social justice organisation working in
different areas across the country to support each other's work and
have a greater voice. There will be annual meetings of labour and
civil society to take forward the social justice movement.

Refugees and immigrants must receive exactly the same standards of
justice, not the appalling service many receive today.
Civil society must engage in public education on the Constitution to
empower poor communities to fight for their rights and change the
current balance of power.

2 Economic Growth

The delegates endorsed the COSATU Growth path for Full Employment
document but agreed that it must be simplified and articulated in the
vernacular so it serves as a weapon of empowerment for labour and the
unemployed and a popular tool for the people.

Conference called for a broad political programme which will focus on
the concrete, tilt the balance of forces and become a catalyst to
drive change.

Conference urged COSATU to advance a social solidarity economy,
particularly in regard to workers in the informal economy. Decent
work programmes should be formalised, with workers dictating the
agenda.

There is a need to strengthen the regulatory framework to regulate and
improve working conditions, particularly in areas the retail,
agricultural and hospitality sectors. Self-regulation by business is
dangerous, particularly if we depend on external investment because of
the revolving door between regulators and capital.

We support the creation of co-ops, but have to guard against fake
co-ops, which are sometimes created to by-pass labour legislation, and
to guard against disguised forms of exploitation.

Conference expressed concerns about the idea of a social pact. Workers
should not be coerced into pacts with government or employers that
will lead to lower wages or worse working conditions. It was also
noted, however, that some pacts can be positive and that it is not the
pacts in themselves that are problematic, but the potentially harmful
content. We should be cautious about an across-the-board dismissal of
social pacts as they are a reality in trade union work.

On labour market flexibility, it was noted that the government blames
labour broking for unemployment, but continues to propose to regulate
labour brokers. We need to run serious campaigns for banning of
labour broking in order to facilitate job security.

The blacklisting of people by the credit bureaus needs to be addressed
urgently because it is affecting unemployed people's ability to
penetrate the job market.

The tax-GDP ratio in South Africa is far lower than other comparable
countries. There is space to increase tax which could furnish the
government with billions of rands more to implement important
programmes, such as NHI, and help to eliminate inequality.

The document needs to be clearer on the idea of the "green economy"
and sustainable development. We need to move towards sustainable
energy, to migrate the economy from one based on a coal to a low
carbon or possibly carbon-free economy. The renewable energy sector
will grow, needing different skills and different locations. We have
to make sure that we are in charge of this process and do not become
the objects of it. We need to reduce carbon in the economy and
increase zero-waste jobs.

We need an integrated, unified strategy if this notion is going to be
made a reality, including lobbying and engaging with the private
sector. We must build industrial townships linked to eco-agriculture
and green buildings. Land development and housing programmes are of
little use if they come without access to sustainable energy and
water. Nuclear power must be explicitly rejected.

Water and electricity are the first conditions of growing the economy,
therefore we must mandate to audit what is actually happening. Green
jobs need to be expanded beyond households. It is very important for
energy to be absorbed into the national grid.

There is a need to drive innovations that appeal to consumers so that
they buy local goods.

The issue of gender needs to be stronger in the document. South
Africa should take the lead in making policies and institutionalising
gender equality and empowerment in the economy.

We shall oppose infrastructure development that only serves the rich,
for example the high-speed train from Durban to Johannesburg.

We need increased transparency around the treasury and the use of
public money. In this light we reject the Protection of Information
Bill as it is incompatible with the right of access to information.

The document is quite strong on skills development but the new SETA
landscape lacks detail. Employers must be forced to meet skills
targets. There should be more specific skills training within
employment, so that there can be greater mobility between work areas.

We must ensure that these inputs from labour and civil society
gatherings are formally integrated into the COSATU document. There is
a need for further joint COSATU-Civil Society meetings and
institutions to fight corruption. The institutions must be fully
resourced so that they are not just platforms of discussion, but
bodies that have teeth.

Conference affirmed its support for a basic income grant to cater for
those millions of the poor who do not qualify for the existing grants.
It was agreed that policies must acknowledge the role of traditional
leaders and the place of tradition culture in South Africa.

It was agreed that 2011 should be declared a year of mass mobilisation
on economic policy and against unemployment, poverty and inequality.

3 Advancing Rights to Health and Education

Conference supported the National Health Insurance in principle, but
expressed concerns regarding the model to be used, the implementation
strategy and the many unknowns around the content of the NHI
envisaged. We caution against an NHI bureaucracy that will become
another feeding trough for the predatory elite. We call for government
to publicly release an NHI policy to be discussed in an open and
transparent manner.

While the NHI policy is developed, the Department of Health must
continue to move forward on the Minister's 10 point plan in order to
strengthen the public health care system in the interim and for when
NHI begins to be rolled out.

Implementation of NHI must start in under-served areas where it is
most needed and rolled out from there.

Community Health Workers are a critical component of public health
care, but are exploited by the failure to respect their rights as
workers. Community Health Workers must be formally brought into the
health care system as employees of the Department of Health and
unionised.

The Department of Health must fill all vacancies and stop the practice
of freezing posts across the country as a cost curtailment measure.

Self-regulated, industrial- and sector-based healthcare facilities
should be supported and strengthened by the NHI, not undermined.

While National Health Insurance is a necessary intervention, we must
also combat the social determinants of health, including unemployment,
poor housing, stress, alcohol abuse and poor education.

A campaigns committee should be formed that will co-ordinate the
campaigns of labour and civil society around many of the questions
that cannot be answered in the absence of a specific government plan
on NHI.

Education is a cornerstone of any country, but the system in South
Africa has been in crisis now for more than 10 years, with little
improvement and insufficient attention from both government and civil
society. Civil society has not sufficiently mobilised around education
and too often even parents are uninvolved in the education of their
children.

The conference agreed to a national campaign on education, to ensure
the proper functioning and resourcing of schools, a National Fund for
Education, funded by business, to improve the training of teachers and
the curriculum. We are calling for all public representatives to enrol
their children in public schools and to use public health institutions

The models for how we move the education system forward must be
debated, for instance whether the Model C and private schools should
be brought into a unitary public school system or allowed to co-exist.

There is no and there will not be a magic bullet that can resolve the
problems in the education system as they are complex but the poor
quality of the system and of teaching trap learners in a cycle of
poverty and drag down the whole country by poorly preparing students
for the working world.

To begin addressing the crisis in education, labour and civil society
must rally together to build campaigns around:
• The urgency of infrastructure in schools - particularly at schools
that are in crisis.
• The curriculum that will be taught to ensure that it produces
adequate students with the learning they will need in the working
world.
• Budget monitoring of the education department and the fair
distribution of resources to urban and rural areas.
• Post-provision that is proper and re-distributive between areas that
are relatively well resourced and those that are not.
• Better co-ordinated teacher development and training and ensuring
that teachers, and other public-sector workers, are paid the salaries
that they deserve.
• Civil society, trade unions, parents and learners must all be
responsible for education. There must be an active campaign to
attract parents into the school system and make sure that parents are
taking an active role in the education of their children and the
education system.
• Building a culture of learning and reading in South Africa.
• Improving the governance of the school system.

It was agreed that Civil Society Conferences like this should be held
annually and replicated in all provinces and regions within three
months, and that a consolidated directory of civil society
organisations be drawn up, with the first edito to be published in
2011, and that we help each other to access funding.

Conference agreed to support and campaign for the post-World Cup
Declaration, launched by COSATU after the successful hosting of the
2010 World Cup, which will commit us all to:

1. Remain united behind Bafana Bafana other national teams and do
everything possible to promote soccer, which remains the biggest and
most popular sport, yet is seriously under-developed. We need to
develop academies to hone the skills of unknown South African Peles,
Drogbas and Ronaldos, who have no opportunity for their skills to be
recognised.

2. Bring down the astronomical levels of unemployment, poverty and
inequality, which blight our land. Even as we prepare to host the
World Cup, jobs continued to disappear, inequalities continued to grow
and poverty remain widespread after the World Cup. We need a new
economic growth path that will help address these challenges with
necessary urgency and speed.

3. Address the challenges of our education system. The 1-Goal Campaign
and the Nelson Mandela Day celebrations offer an opportunity to take
our international icon's dream to new heights. We call on government
to prioritise building and refurbishing schools and to ensure that all
schools receive adequate support from the education departments at all
levels. We must move beyond the call for all to donate books and build
school libraries on Nelson Mandela Day and run for 12 months until
every school functions and is a centre of empowerment to build a new
generation that can take our dreams to a new height.

4. Unite behind a goal of transforming our health system and
implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme. We have to fix our
public hospitals and defeat the scourge of HIV/AIDS to build a healthy
nation and improve our country's life expectancy.

5. Address underdevelopment and poverty in rural areas. This campaign
should address food insecurity and empower our people to use land that
currently is misused, so that people can produce the food they need
and escape from their deep levels of unemployment and poverty.

6. Lead a campaign against crime and corruption. We can build on the
successes of the World Cup by sending out an unequivocal message that
crime does not pay. Corruption is stealing from the poor to feed into
narrow elites' selfish accumulation interests. Corruption kills the
spirits of the majority, black and white, who want to work hard to
build their country.

7. Mobilise to fix the energy challenge the country is facing. We need
more action and not empty words to ensure that South Africa moves out
of the current crisis. Imagine a day when thousands of activists move
door-to-door handing over pamphlets to our people educating them about
the benefits of saving electricity.

8. Mobilise to address the looming water shortage crises so that we do
not wait for 2025 when the problem will be much more intense. Let us
through our people hold the mine bosses who have been allowed after
making billions to abandon their now empty mines and pollute our
water. Let us defend our environment and keep our country beautiful
and natural whilst also developing.

9. Mobilise the working class and educate them to appreciate that no
matter how bad living conditions are, there can be no excuse for
blaming fellow-Africans and other foreign nationals for the country's
and continent's economic failures. Let us do everything possible to
prevent a new outbreak of xenophobic attacks in some of our poorest
communities. They are not the cause but the fellow victims of our
unjust and unequal economic system. Workers and the poor must stand
united against the common enemies of capitalist greed and corruption.

10. Lastly and most importantly, address the massive challenges of
underdevelopment in the continent. Africa cannot succeed in developing
its economies and transforming the lives of our people while it is
still ravaged by poverty. Let us defeat the tyrants in Swaziland,
Zimbabwe, Sudan and elsewhere whose refusal to vacate their positions
and allow democracy means that can be no hope of Africa ever rising to
ensure a coordinated effort to defeat under development. Let us
mobilise to free our people in Western Sahara from their colonial
masters!

The conference agreed that a timetable for action be drawn up for the
implementation of all these campaigns.

Finally the Conference agreed to back the call by Archbishop Emeritus
Desmond Tutu on the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra to cancel their
planned trip to apartheid Israel