Staff members from Creative Consulting & Development Works took part in today’s protest at Parliament, advocating against the passing of the so-called ‘Secrecy Bill.’
Check out some photos from the day’s event:
Mandela Monday Mania!
June 27, 2011
“Take Action. Inspire Change. Make Every Day a Mandela Day,” is the slogan for this year’s Mandela Day.
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Mandela Day, was first introduced on 18 July 2009, the former Nelson Mandela’s birthday, its aim is to persuade people to contribute 67 minutes of their time to make the world a better place.
International Nelson Mandela Day 2011 was launched on 23 May at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg. The ceremony involved tertiary students who marked the occasion by expressing their views on what the celebration means to them. According to mediaclubsouthafrica.com, the launch garnered such widespread media attention due in part to popular South African rapper JR’s new song dedicated to Mandela Day, ‘See you in July’.
It is said that, when Sello Hatang, the Mandela Foundation’s spokesperson, asked students to speak about Mandela.Day and how it should be celebrated,Mandela’s grandson, Luvuyo Mandela, mentioned that as a family they have always celebrated his gradfather’s birthday in their home town of Umtata, Qunu in the Eastern Cape, by making food parcels so they can allocate to them less fortunate. Another youth, Raymond Ntlozi, explained that he honours Mandela Day by volunteering and funraising at children’s home in Zuurbekom, southwest Johannesburg.
Mediaclubsouthafrica.com states that, Breadline Africa, a South African-based NGO, has partnered with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the NYK Helping Hand Scheme to offer a mobile library to a primary school in all nine provinces of South Africa as part of this year’s Mandela Day celebrations.
This year, NYK contributed R500 000 to the project for Mandela Day. Each library container costs nearly R90 000 to convert and renovate.
Tim Smith, director of Breadline Africa is quoted saying, “we buy sturdy, water-tight containers at a low cost and transform them into mobile structures, which we can use to feed, educate or use as a clinic. Our projects try to establish a level of self-sustainability within the community.”
From 6 June, people haven been encouraged to participate every Monday by giving back to the next person, the community or the environment for Mandela Mondays. People can take as little as five minutes out of their lives for this activity!
So how are YOU honouring the spirit of community service this Mandela Monday? Let us know by leaving a comment here or on our Facebook page.
Kader Asmal (8 October 1934 – 22 June 2011)
June 23, 2011
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Creative Consulting and Development Works would like to extend our sympathy to the Asmal family as we join the rest of South Africa in celebrating Kader Asmal and his life as an activist academic and politician. His ANC comrades hail him as a “selfless man of honour” and that “his death must be a reminder for all of us of the non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa we committed to build”. Kader represented the anti-Apartheid movement as a committed ANC member from the United Kingdom during his early professional life after being exiled by the Apartheid government. In exile he was awarded the Prix UNESCO award for his work in human rights, founded the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, and served as Chairperson for the Irish Apartheid movement. When he returned to South Africa he became a professor of human rights at University of the Western Cape before he was tapped by the first democratic government to be the Minister of Water and Forestry and later as Minister of Education (a position for which he was appointed personally by President Nelson Mandela). He was also involved in many other anti-racism and human rights commissions and movements throughout his life.
Professor Asmal’s memoir will be released in August, and the official launch for the book will be in September at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town.
Trevor’s Depressing Manual
June 17, 2011
The Times published an article by Justice Malala on June 13, in which he discusses what he sees as the biggest social problems confronting South Africa in response to the issues outlined in the diagnostic overview of South Africa, a report released by Trevor Manual and the National Planning Commission. Malala’s main argument is that South Africa should not feel content with the progress that has been made in the last two decades, because it still faces big challenges.
One of the biggest challenges is the continued failure to improve the quality of education. Although the government spends about 6% of GDP on education, the public education system is floundering, literacy and numeracy test scores are low by both African and global standards and a wide gap in schooling quality for black and white learners persists. The South African health system is in distress as well; life expectancy is lower than it should be and infant mortality rates are still high. Finally, corruption and irregular over-payment are also massive strains on the system, totaling about R30 billion a year, an amount which could go a long way if it was spent on alleviating poverty.
The document is realistic and convincing. It touches upon many other challenges such as unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, poor public service, class and racial divisions, myopic view of politicians and weakening state and civil institutions. The good news is that these problems don’t fully negate the progress South Africa has already made and they are not insurmountable as long as they are managed. Now, more than ever, it is important that politicians and citizens work together to fix these social problems to ensure a better future for all South Africans.
To read complete document go to: http://www.npconline.co.za/MediaLib/Downloads/Home/Tabs/Diagnostic/Diagnostic%20Overview.pdf
Sign the Petition!
June 9, 2011
Get on board and sign this crucial bill from the Avaaz group, disallowing the government to intervene and limit the right to public information, free speech, and open government.
50,000 votes are needed for this online petition, and we’re only 1/4 of the way there!
Sign the petition HERE.
From Avaaz:
“As citizens across South Africa, we call on you to protect our Constitutional commitments to accountability, freedom of information and the media in the “Protection of Information” Bill. We urge you to ensure that the bill only applies to core state bodies in the security sector, and that intelligence agencies are held to account by public scrutiny. Secrets with a bearing on national security must be determined by an independent panel appointed by Parliament and not the Minister of State Security. Penalties for unauthorised disclosure should apply only to those responsible for keeping secrets, and investigative journalists and legitimate whistleblowers should always be protected to release information in the public interest. Our democracy was hard-won, and we will not give it up lightly.”
