Shared Interest News

South Africa Revisited: Hope Springs Eternal
By Jennifer Davis

After three weeks visiting back home during April and May 2004, I came away, feeling revitalized, recommitted to finding ways of supporting the new society that is, far too slowly and painfully, with horrible contradictions and many failures, nevertheless still being fought for, in the interests of the many rather than the few. I was challenged by the enthusiasm with which people, rural and urban, were inventing ways to build from the ground up, still believing that their government should be helping them, but rarely waiting for that help to come.
South African Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Rejoice Thizwilondi Mabudafhasi, and Bee Foundation (BF) trainer and administrator Tina Naidoo visit BF honey processing plant with the Shared Interest delegation.

This April, collecting data in Washington while preparing for Shared Interest’s 10th anniversary delegation, the news from South Africa seemed fundamentally grim — massive (over 40 percent) rising unemployment and the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS made it hard for me to focus on the “good news.” During the first decade of a democratic government nearly two million low cost houses built for poor people, 8 million men, women and children provided access to clean, safe water, health care for all children under the age of six.

Yet, after three weeks visiting back home during April and May, I came away, feeling revitalized, recommitted to finding ways of supporting the new society that is, far too slowly and painfully, with horrible contradictions and many failures, nevertheless still being fought for, in the interests of the many rather than the few. I was challenged by the enthusiasm with which people, rural and urban, were inventing ways to build from the ground up, still believing that their government should be helping them, but rarely waiting for that help to come.

Activist South African friends of mine have long pointed to the ways in which South Africa’s first democratic government seemed so over-concerned about its standing in the eyes of the West’s big investors, that it failed to adopt the energetic economic and social policies that could begin to challenge apartheid’s terrible legacy of poverty. This year, during the election which led to his inauguration on April 27th for a second term, South African President Thabo Mbeki for the first time seemed to acknowledge the connection between state economic policies and widespread endemic poverty. He admitted that there was a widening gap between what he described as the “two economies”: a very large sector of poor, mostly unemployed or underemployed black men and women — the “have nots” — and a much smaller class of “haves”, no longer all white, but increasingly including a growing black middle class. Our discussions with members of his government seemed to promise better for the immediate future, but some critics have already labeled this “Talk Left, Walk Right.”

Yet what buoyed me each morning, as we visited a series of projects facilitated by Shared Interest guarantees was the confidence, hope and pride of people we met working on the ground — some as project organizers, some recipients of the micro-credit, like the women we sat with through one of their meetings, who had been enabled to buy one pig and breed it, or one donkey and hire it out to neighbors, while also breeding it. Deep in the countryside we met with such women, young and old, educated and illiterate, working in closely self-organized groups, under the umbrella of the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF), providing credit for self-employment, combined with savings mobilization.

These are not vast transformations. No Mercedes will be bought, no swimming pool built. One woman had transformed her home-made “for the family” beer brewing operation into a tiny grocery store — the only one for several miles. Another was making school uniforms. But the women’s faces lit up as they described their changed lives; their empowerment was almost palpable, the meticulous care with which they conducted their meetings a testament to their sense of the seriousness for them of what they were doing.

Although brief observers need to be careful, I was also struck by the respect people showed each other as we moved from project to project. This goes beyond black and white, touching also on young to old, project administrators to first time participants, educated to illiterate, Shared Interest and Thembani staff with each other and toward the many people with whom they interact.

I saw this sense of pride and shared achievement often — when we visited low cost houses being built and at the Bee Foundation operation which will enable women to keep bees individually but produce and market honey in small co-operatives.

I saw it in the way several middle aged African male builders talked about the young woman Administrator who supervised their purchase accounting and building operations. Proudly they showed us the houses they had built and she had overseen which had withstood the ravages of a tornado, while many around had collapsed or lost roofs. “That Rainy, she is tough,” they told me, laughing a little. They had, themselves, moved rapidly in the last few years from building one low cost house at a time to contracting for scores — maybe soon hundreds. They saw this not just as individual wealth achieved — but as communtiy growth.

South Africa will continue to face massive economic and political challenges. Already groups of poor people, disillusioned by the government’s economic policies, are organizing around grassroots issues such as land, health care, water and electricity (now often turned off for non-payment in the townships). There will be huge problems at the municipal level, where so many services must be delivered, and where massive unemployment makes payment unlikely or impossible, leading to conflict or a failure to provide maintenance.

This is a complex environment in which to operate with integrity. Everything I saw indicated that Shared Interest and Thembani are facing this challenge, eyes wide open. I hope to find ways to be ever more present as the work develops.

Jennifer Davis formerly served as Executive Director of the American Committee on Africa and the Africa Fund. She is a member of the Boards of Directors of Shared Interest and the Thembani International Guarantee Fund.