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Former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe has invited every individual on the continent to join Oxfam in reimagining an Africa continent free of corruption, poverty and inequality.

Speaking at the launch of Oxfam South Africa at the Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, Motlanthe berated the slow pace with which transformation is happening on the continent and in South Africa, and called on the youth in particular to lead the campaign to demand a better Africa with principled leadership.

“My focus today will fall on the need to reignite our commitment to this country’s founding democratic values, to share my thoughts on its connection to the African continent, and to primarily consider the principled leadership that this historical epoch calls for, and the collective action required from all of us to restore a vision for an African and global future that is truly inclusive and just in character,” Motlanthe told the crowd gathered at the Women’s Gaol.

“We are required, by our collective conscience and the ethics we purport to subscribe to, to act to address the vast constellation of issues that trouble our maturing democracy and threaten the still tenuous foundations of both the post-colonial and post-apartheid state. In whatever we do, our strategic goal as a nation is the building of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous society and continent”.

The launch of OxfamSA was held under the theme: “Re-imagining Africa”. Oxfam South Africa is in the process of establishing itself as player in the development sector in South Africa. Until October 2015, Oxfam’s presence has been through donor partnerships and solidarity forums with local NGOs, civil society organs, liberation movements, and other role-players to create significant social change.

“For nearly six decades Oxfam has supported initiatives to address the injustice of poverty in South Africa,” OxfamSA Board Chairperson Mazibuko Jara said. “Oxfam, as a humanitarian organisation, during the 70s, 80s and 90s was a key role player in creating political change in the country. The dawn of democracy and the subsequent 23 years of Democratic rule have brought changing, mixed fortunes. The majority are still left outside”.

Mazibuko added: “While the South African context represents opportunities to develop innovative and substantive new models for development, and to fight poverty, it presents a lot of challenges as well, including the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

“We believe that the challenges faced by South Africa, Africa and indeed the rest of the world provide opportunities for greater involvement, participation and success for Oxfam SA to carry out its work across the five pillars of Women’s Rights and Gender Justice; Economic Justice; Democracy and People’s Power; Saving Lives-Building Resilience; and Global Impact (South-to-South Cooperation), he added. Oxfam’s journey in South Africa started some years ago in 1942 when Oxfam was then purely a British organization: the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. Oxfam supported churches to fight poverty faced by children in townships and villages in South Africa, and in solidarity with the people of South Africa during those tough times. Few moments in Oxfam’s history have ushered such a dramatic shift in policy as apartheid. In fact our, active support of sanctions led to our being censored by the UK Charity Commission for being too political.

“Despite the years, what Oxfam stood for has not changed. Oxfam is proud of its role in supporting liberation movements. The depth of our support for South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle is perhaps our great act; most of all in the underground years as Oxfam leaders provided support that had to be kept “off the books”, even carrying funds in their “socks and shoes”,” Mazibuko added.

Today Oxfam continues to respond to a shifting world to ready ourselves to truly challenge systematic causes of poverty. Our world is facing a crisis of economic inequality at a scale we have not seen. Oxfam’s recent research shows just 8 men own as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population – 3.6 billion people. The richest one per cent own more than the rest combined. In South Africa 3 white men own as much wealth as the bottom half of the country’s 56 million population. While it is true that the geography of poverty has long been shifting – such that most people in poverty are now concentrated in middle-income countries such as India and Nigeria, – wealth in the world is growing in the South and East. These are areas most affected by natural and man-made disasters.

Motlanthe acknowledged Oxfam’s history in the development of South Africa and in the liberation movement. “In terms of this exercise of rebuilding our nation and by extension our continent, Oxfam has an illustrious history for which some acknowledgement is in order.

“For over seventy years Oxfam has been engaged in such strategic goals, as an international advocacy group focused on addressing challenges of under-development, through centering the interwoven complexities of poverty and equality. “In this regard, I wish to congratulate Oxfam on the official launch of the South African chapter of this esteemed organisation, and on the work that has already been carried out since its local birth. Considering its global reach, Oxfam has had a measured impact on the lives of millions of people across the international society.

“In joining your vision to create ‘a just world without poverty’ and mission ‘to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice’; it is evident that such founding ideals intersect with the values that every democratic society should seek to bring into fruition, driven by a progressive agenda,” Motlanthe added. “From the viewpoint of the African continent, Oxfam has helped create conditions of possibility for the above social forces to thrive to the extent possible in the enhancement of the quality of democracy on the African continent.

“Locally, the initiatives, campaigns and reports that Oxfam has produced and pursues, from considering the experiences of women within the economy, to climate and economic justice and governance, evidence a will to ensure that our remarkable Constitution is made a living document for all South Africans, and reveal the unequal calibrations of our society. “Such endeavours continue a long line of activism – variegated along the vicissitudes of history – that is committed to the ideals of a free, equal and just society”.

Motlanthe also slammed the worrying spate of violence meted out against children, women, and gender non-conforming individuals.
“Among the unspeakable ills that strangulate society today is the spectre of gendered abuse, where the daily subordination of women culminates in gross acts of physical abuse, including death. We have witnessed many such cases over the last week or so, with the twenty-two year old Karabo Mokoena’s life snuffed out in the most brutal manner imaginable, allegedly at the hands of her partner. The same fate befell Courtney Pieters, Lindokuhle Kota, Sinoxolo Mafevuka, Candice Alberts and many more.

We are required, by such reprehensible acts, to note the systemic, institutionalised injustice that continues to underscore women’s experiences in our country,” Motlanthe added. “Statistics shows that South Africa’s femicide rate is five times higher than the average global figures .  Intimate partner violence permeates our culture and women in our society live in a state of constant fear, a fact that should never be countenanced, ignored nor dismissed. Such a stage of siege detracts from the South African women’s human rights, and makes mockery of our Constitution. 

Consequently, such gender injustice intersects with other inequalities and stratifications in our society that challenge the democratic foundations that we are continuously building”.

OxfamSA Executive Director reminded communities that they are their own liberators, and invited them to own OxfamSA and work with it to change their societies. “Oxfam South Africa is inspired by many strong beliefs. Central among them is that people are their own liberators, have the ability to create their own destinies,” Ms Mthathi said. “Given an enabling social, economic, cultural and political environment, they can transform their lives and societies.  For us, this is the big idea. It is the pillar which holds our strategy together.

The centre from which we derive answers and the one to which we return to when answers to how we contribute in bettering our world fail us. It is the place from which we reimagine the society we’re part of, our continent, our world. We work in SA and elsewhere on big campaigns that challenge power and privilege in our economies, in our industries. We challenge unequal gendered power in our societies which we believe drives poverty,” she added.



Issued by Oxfam South Africa