Like Atlas, civil rights has held up the constitutional sky
Civil society has played a vital role at every stage of South Africa’s democracy. Through resistance, litigation, research and demonstration, it has led in giving flesh to both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution’s promise of a society based on “democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights”.
Prominent examples of successful advocacy include the response to the HIV/Aids epidemic catalysed by the Treatment Action Campaign; the thwarting of the Secrecy Bill by the Right2Know Campaign; and mobilising against State Capture by a range of organisations.
But it has not only been about advocacy. Civil society has often filled the gaps where the state is failing in service delivery. No organisation better exemplifies this than the humanitarian work of the Gift of the Givers, which has shown that, with will and relatively few resources, delivery is possible.
In a country still full of hate and prejudice, civil society has also refused to surrender the human rights of the most marginalised: shack dwellers, African migrants and refugees, and the LGBTQI+ community.
By these means and through various organisations civil society has kept hope alive. Where other new democracies have failed it is not an exaggeration to say that in SA activism has prevented the dismembering of democracy.
But the heady days of activism in the 1990s and early 2000s, flush with the possibilities of a new Constitution, are gone.
How do you shame a shameless government? How do you litigate for rights to healthcare and basic education against a state that claims to have no money to realise core socioeconomic rights? How do you enforce judgments against government departments that have shown themselves incapable of carrying out court orders?
A power to be reckoned with
The Cyril Ramaphosa government, for all its faults and failures, has largely kept democratic space open. As social and economic problems intensify, a David Mabuza/Zweli Mkhize/Paul Mashatile government, or worse, might adopt an approach to civic space more akin to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India or President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe.
For all these reasons, recently there has been a move by parts of civil society to begin to actively engage in electoral politics in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
This has also been prompted by the amendments to the Electoral Act ordered by the Constitutional Court that aim to make it possible for independent candidates to stand for Parliament.
Is one part of the solution filling our parliaments with independent and accountable activists? What are the other strategies? How does civil society become a political power to be reckoned with that is more than the sum of its multitude of parts?
It’s time for civil society to bring poor people into the conversation. Poor people don’t need endless charity; they need power. Poor people have the ideas and solutions. They need to be seen, heard and enabled to implement the solutions and take them to scale.
With international Human Rights Day being celebrated on 10 December, we suggest that these are the questions and debates that should be front of mind for human rights activists in South Africa and the world over.