The week in political activism

Equal Education says: Victory!

Equal Education is declaring victory after the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, published legally binding Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure.

“Up until just over one year ago Minister Motshekga was saying she would never publish binding Norms and Standards. In the space of just one year a great deal has changed,” the organisation stated in its press release.

The Minister agreed to publish after an out-of-court settlement with Equal Education (EE). Later, a draft copy was scrutinised at public hearings organised by EE around the country where hundreds of learners, parents and teachers gave detailed input. After this, EE still had to secure a court order to compel the publication.

“It is worth remembering what it took to get here, and who got us here,” stated EE. “Above all this is a victory for the thousands of school-going members of Equal Education, the Equalisers. It is they who have marched, fasted, held vigils, slept outside Parliament, and marched again, and again, and again. They spoke at rallies, sent letters to countless editors, wrote to the Minister, and made the case on videos, radio and TV. It was their voices – their collective voice – that created the moral consensus to fix our schools.”

“For the first time ever it is now the law that every school must have water, electricity, internet, working toilets, safe classrooms with a maximum of 40 learners, security, and thereafter libraries, laboratories and sports facilities.”

“We are here after three years of sustained activism, and many broken promises, but we’re here. The Minister has done the right thing. She deserves substantial credit for that. Some within government urged her not to.”

The challenge now is to implement these norms and standards.

Call to impeach President Jacob Zuma

Numerous political activists reacted immediately after the Mail & Guardian newspaper published a leaked draft copy of the Public Protector’s report into irregular spending on President Jacob Zuma’s homestead at Nkandla. A committee for the impeachment of the president was formed and a petition launched. At the time of publication, the petition had nearly 17,000 signatories.

In its preamble, the petition says the president lied to parliament and personally benefitted from over R200 million of public money spent without proper tender processes.

“Further, he personally intervened, unlawfully, by appointing his own architect over those already employed by the department of public works.”

The petition calls for President Zuma’s immediate impeachment by Parliament and prosecution.

It ends with a call to action: “Should parliament and the prosecuting authorities fail in their duty, we call for a people’s demonstration outside the opening of parliament, 13 February 2014.”

One of the first to sign the petition and publicly call for the President to be impeached was well-known activist Zackie Achmat.

“I support the creation of a People’s Parliament to impeach President Zuma. I will help organise the demonstration on 13 February 2014. Will you?” wrote Achmat.

TAC refuses to participate in Mpumalanga World AIDS Day event

While the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) participated in World AIDS Day events around the country on 1 December, it refused to participate in the Department of Health’s event in Mpumalanga. Instead about 1,000 TAC activists marched on the stadium in Piet Retief where the Mpumalanga event was taking place. The organisation is particularly concerned about the frequent stockouts of antiretroviral medicines. TAC and SECTION27 stated:

Yesterday, the Treatment Action Campaign took part in official World AIDS Day celebrations all over South Africa. We however refused to enter the venue in Piet Retief unless we were guaranteed a meeting with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe. We needed to meet the Deputy President to call on him to prioritise improving the realities of people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) through addressing the collapsing health system, food shortages and lack of healthcare professionals in the most disadvantaged areas and drugs stock-outs – particularly in Gert Sibande where antenatal HIV prevalence is nearly 50% in some sub districts.

We are happy that at the end of the event Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, the Premier of Mpumalanga, the MEC for Health in the province and the CEO of SANAC met with the provincial and national leadership of TAC. In a brief meeting they acknowledged the issues raised in a letter we submitted to the Deputy President on the 11th of November 2013.

TAC also had strong words for UNAIDS:

The day belongs to activists as much as it does to governments and UNAIDS who have taken over the day and today seem to resent those of us who still ask uncomfortable questions or seek to convey the anger of the poor, the criminalized and the dying.

The protest appeared to achieve its aim:

We are happy that at the end of the event Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, the Premier of Mpumalanga, the MEC for Health in the province and the CEO of SANAC met with the provincial and national leadership of TAC. In a brief meeting they acknowledged the issues raised in a letter we submitted to the Deputy President on the 11th of November 2013.

In particular, TAC and SECTION27 welcomed the outcome of the meeting which was a commitment made by the Premier of Mpumalanga to convene a special AIDS Council meeting on Wednesday 4 December to discuss the challenges faced by PWAs in the Gert Sibande region. We will participate in this meeting and look forward to an outcome that improves the quality of health care services, HIV prevention and treatment across the Province.

Cape Town Informal Settlements Coalition

A march to the offices of the Western Cape Premier, planned by the Cape Town Informal Settlements Coalition (CTISC) for 29 November, was called off at the eleventh hour after it was banned by a court order brought by the City.

Initially, CTISC was undeterred, but after several prominent individuals, including Desmond Tutu spoke out, the organisers called off the march. City residents and informal traders were relieved since it was widely expected the march would turn violent as it had when a few weeks ago, in a march organised by the same grouping, the stands of informal traders were vandalised. Tutu and others feel the activists are not helping their cause, and have encouraged them to further their aims more constructively.

The group, pointing to the squalid living conditions of tens of thousands of Cape Town residents, are understandably angry. They are demanding suitable land for settlement, in particular public land being preserved for wealthy recreational activities, such as golf, for the urban elite.