Category: Press Releases

The Solidarity Movement has launched an international campaign to apply pressure to the South African government to oppose racial discrimination in the allocation of government funds in the fight against the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to overseas governments and international organisations, the Movement calls for a strong stance against the application of any form of racial discrimination when relief measures are allocated to combat the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, an international campaign is necessary because the government does not heed the pleas of several civil organisations and political parties. “Today, we have called on various overseas governments and organisations to not only take a stand against the alarming events of the past weeks, but also to take steps, within their powers, against the South African government. We have already spoken with politicians in various European countries, and we expect pressure to increase on the South African government.”

In its letter, the Movement refers to Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Nguabane’s Tourism Relief Fund for small enterprises in the tourism industry, as well as the decision by Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to apply racial requirements when granting financial aid to small businesses.

In addition, the Solidarity Movement is concerned about what it describes as a police state developing in South Africa. According to Buys, the use of force and intimidation by the South African Police Service and the National Defence Force is worrying, and the Movement will make the outside world aware of this as well.

A third point the Movement refers to in its letter to overseas stakeholders is the restrictions regarding the aid provided by community organisations. “We are currently also making overseas governments and organisations aware of the draconian nature of South Africa’s lockdown measures. Certain measures, which do not contribute to the fight against the virus, are enforced in a draconian way. These measures all indicate a general over-regulation of civil society that encroaches upon people’s dignity and rights.”

The Solidarity Movement asks that other countries, especially the US and European countries, put pressure on the South African government to refrain from implementing unacceptable discriminatory practices and measures. The Movement has written letters to the governments of more than 30 countries, as well as to organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Solidarity Movement today said that it is consulting with senior lawyers in order to head to the Constitutional Court and ask  the court to compel government to devolve the current national lockdown to a regional level.

According to the Movement, there is no reason why in certain regions the persistent, irrational lockdown measures currently in force in South Africa cannot be relaxed to Level 1 as soon as possible. According to the Oxford Government Response Stringency Index, South Africa is currently one of the countries with the harshest lockdown measures.

This comes after it has become increasingly clear that South Africa has already achieved the potential benefit that could be derived from a lockdown and that a further protracted lockdown will not supress the virus’s infection rate but will result in more people being unemployed and finding themselves at the mercy of others. The Movement posited that although the virus has not reached its peak yet, the lockdown in its current format will not prevent it from peaking.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, the ANC is sabotaging people’s jobs with this lockdown. “It appears that government’s proposed fragmentation of the lockdown into different regions and provinces was merely lip service. It is inconceivable that the Limpopo and North West Province, which respectively have 17 and 29 active cases province wide, are still on Level 4 of the lockdown. Furthermore, Mpumalanga has 33 and the Northern Cape 12 active cases, while people across those provinces cannot go to work to provide food for their children,” Buys said.

According to Buys, it made no sense to have the entire country or even entire provinces in such a hard lockdown. Realistically, the lockdown in provinces with a low infection rate can be relaxed to Level 1 and they can merely be monitored. “The idea behind the lockdown was to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. An approach that is more federalist in nature will still achieve this goal as the virus moves through different regions,” Buys said.

Buys emphasised that the time has come to relax the measures urgently so that where the infection rate is lower as many people as possible could be allowed to return to work safely. “People can no longer be prevented from taking care of their families. Returning to work must be done while priority is given to safety and hygiene in the workplace,” Buys concluded.

The Solidarity Movement welcomes the process of phasing out the lockdown but believes the regulations should have been relaxed more so that people who can perform their work in a healthy way could return to work. If this does not happen it would be a case of “too little too late”, and there is the danger that government may let many people die of famine in its attempt to prevent the virus from killing people.

The Movement also welcomes the fact that many of our proposals appear in government’s new regulations as such proposals are in line with best practices that have been successful in other countries. Among others, this includes measures to promote healthy work as well as smart restrictions that will focus on those parts that are worse off during the epidemic.

Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, says the biggest mistake government is making is to think that the state, instead of the private sector can kickstart the economy again. The South African state cannot afford to get the wheels of the country’s economy turning again through large monetary injections as is the case in rich countries.

That is why the only solution is to free the private sector to pump large amounts of money into the economy. Such money should be obtained by dramatically easing taxes for the next year, selling loss-making public enterprises, cutting government spending, and raising the subsistence allowance for the poor for the next year.

Investor confidence

At the same time, government must urgently restore investor confidence to attract capital to the country by doing away with harmful policies and by prosecuting state capturers who, so far, have gone scot-free. Policies that need to be abandoned in the national interest are expropriation without compensation, the planned nationalisation of health care and talk of using pension money to subsidise loss-making enterprises. The racial and transformation prerequisites for state assistance are also divisive and discriminatory and should be relaxed as a matter of urgency. It is a pity that AfriForum and Solidarity had to bring court cases against these practices instead of government itself realising that a state of disaster is not a time to discriminate on the grounds of race.

The first three weeks of lockdown were necessary to halt the spread of the virus and to prepare the country’s health system for a large increase in sick people, but many of the lockdown regulations were unnecessary and aggravated the pandemic crisis by plunging the country into a bigger economic crisis.

By all indications, the Covid-19 epidemic will be with us for quite some time to come and thousands will get sick because of it. The fight against it is a marathon rather than a sprint and the country will need economic resources to finance this protracted battle. That is why it is so vitally important that Solidarity’s proposals on how all people, and not just essential workers, can return to work in a healthy way be implemented nationwide. Buys also emphasised that neighbourhood watch organisations should be allowed to help protect their local communities in partnership with the police.

The epidemic remains a serious threat and the phasing out of the lockdown does not mean that people can carry on with their lives as before but that there will be a new “normal” whereby everyone will have to look after each other’s well-being by maintaining social distancing and certain health protocols. It remains important to still protect people with underlying conditions, while the state must enhance its ability to test for the virus, to detect it and to treat sick people in collaboration with the private sector.

Finally, the Movement emphasises that decentralisation in dealing with the virus is essential for success in the battle against it. “The fragmented approach according to which different provinces can phase lockdown out at different levels is a welcome first step,” Buys said.

The Solidarity Movement today called on public universities to proceed without delay with their planned online programme and not to let obstacles that can be overcome derail the academic programme.

This call comes amid universities such as the NWU, UP and other training institutions that have yet again postponed the start of online classes out of concern that not all students will have equal access to technology.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, it is not a solution to hold back all students because university administrations are concerned that some students will fall behind.

The solution is rather to start online classes as a matter of urgency and to then implement special measures to help those students who do not have access to the right technology. It does not help to prejudice the vast majority of students for fear that the minority will not have access to the classes. Although administrations argue that online classes will be exclusionary, the vast majority of students who do have access are now being excluded by the postponement of classes.

Thousands of lecturers and support staff have worked tirelessly over the past month to get the classes online while students have prepared themselves for classes that were supposed to start this week. Those people now had to find out that university administrations have decided unilaterally to postpone classes until May.

The prolonged lockdown has already resulted in enormous disruptions of university activities, and now university administrations are extending it even further. It is already much more difficult to study online instead of attending regular classes, and the postponement will inevitably lead to even greater challenges for students and lecturers.

Therefore, the solution is that classes should resume as soon as possible, and then extra classes and programmes could be set up after hours to assist students when the lockdown period is over.

“However, it is gratifying to see that some universities are already making plans to accommodate students by making certain websites available for free, setting up refund initiatives on data, and approaching the community for donations of computers and other devices,” Buys said.

Meanwhile, at the private higher education institution Akademia classes are continuing as usual, and students who experience problems with access to technology and data receive assistance.

Today, 7 April 2020, the Solidarity Movement will host an online helpmekaar day. The purpose of the day is to launch a huge helpmekaar (to help each other) effort by harnessing the power of the community to help people in social distress, to support businesses, and to help children so they can continue with school during these uncertain times. This day will be to the benefit of the Solidarity Movement’s emergency fund.

According to Flip Buys, Head of the Solidarity Movement, the Movement is founded on being a helpmekaar movement and communities must now stand together amidst the corona crisis. “This is the beginning of a helpmekaar (help each other) attempt. In the times ahead, we will need to help one another, and the Movement will harness all its institutions to achieve this,” said Buys.

According to Hannes Noëth, Managing Director of Solidarity Helping Hand, the social distress caused by the coronavirus is already and communities must now stand together to cope and deal with this crisis. The organisation is inundated with requests and is already helping thousands of pre-schoolers, families and elderly to receive food and other help daily. According to Noëth the organisation already spent R753 739 on emergency funding in March, which is why strengthening of the emergency fund is essential.

According to Dirk Hermann, Chief Executive Officer of Solidarity, the crisis has not reached its peak yet. Meanwhile, 53 000 learners have already registered on the School Support Centre’s Wolkskool, to continue with their education online. “Government will not carry us through this crisis, we are going to have to carry each other. Although we are all uncertain, we must help each other. It is time for us to work together and to carry each other because we cannot allow vulnerable people and children to be left behind in this time,” said Hermann.

On the helpmekaar day, the community will also be called upon to help small and medium enterprises. According to Kallie Kriel, Chief Executive Officer of AfriForum, the best help for businesses lies in the purchasing power of consumers. Thousands of enterprises has already registered with AfriForum’s network at www.afriforumnetwerk.co.za. Enterprises are encouraged to register here so that people can be encouraged to buy from them.

Supporters can contribute to the emergency fund, here.

Enterprises can register here on the AfriForum network.

 

 

 

The Virseker Trust announced that it will donate R1 million to the Solidarity Movement’s emergency fund. The fund’s goal is primarily to help children and the elderly with emergency feeding projects and to see to it that learners continue their education during the Covid-19 crisis thanks to the Schools Support Centre’s e-learning platform, Wolkskool.

Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, welcomed the donation. “We are very concerned about the social crisis that will develop as a result of the corona crisis. Children and the elderly are often hit hardest. The income of so many people has been reduced overnight. We are calling on larger and smaller businesses to help, and to those who are already helping, such as the Virseker Trust, we want to say a big thank you,” Buys said..

According to Hannes Noëth, Solidarity Helping Hand’s executive director, a social crisis follows in the wake of an economic crisis. Before the Covid-19 crisis Helping Hand was already supporting 8 000 preschoolers thanks to its Lunchbox Project, an emergency nutrition project. This number is now increasing daily and Helping Hand is inundated with requests for help to vulnerable groups. In March alone, we spent R753 739 on emergency projects, which is why it is essential to boost the emergency fund.

Solidarity Helping Hand has established donation points for non-perishable food nationwide. These points are called Joseph’s Silos. Thousands of people and specifically children who have previously received help from Solidarity Helping Hand’s nutrition project will benefit from this initiative. Such help will be provided by Helping Hand’s countrywide network of offices and branches.

Half of the Virseker Trust’s donation will be allocated to social assistance, and specifically the Joseph’s Silos. The other half will be allocated to the further development of the e-learning platform, Wolkskool, to ensure that children do not fall behind with their schoolwork. A total of 53 000 learners have already registered for Wolkskool during the Covid-19 crisis time.

On 7 April the Solidarity Movement will organise a huge Helpmekaar Day in the spirit of helping each other in aid of the Solidarity Movement’s emergency fund.

Dirk Hermann, Solidarity’s chief executive, challenged the community to donate at least a rand for each rand Virseker has donated. “We dare not allow our vulnerable groups and children to suffer during the crisis. We must still the hunger for food and help as well as the hunger for knowledge,” Hermann said.

On the Helpmekaar Day an appeal will also be made to the community to assist small and medium businesses. According to AfriForum Chief Executive Kallie Kriel, the best help for businesses lies in the buying power of consumers. Thousands of businesses have already registered with AfriForum’s business network at afriforumnetwerk.co.za. Businesses are encouraged to register with the network so that people can be encouraged to buy from them.

Donations can be made at www.helpendehand.co.za, www.afriforum.co.za, or at www.krisisfonds.co.za

 

The Solidarity Movement’s emergency fund is audited by Solidarity Helping Hand’s auditors and a special oversight committee will ensure that the money is used in the appropriate way.

 

The Solidarity Movement today announced comprehensive plans to fight Covid-19. The Movement also made an offer to government to work together to stop the spread of the virus and to mitigate the impact of the drastic measures that have been announced.

Included in the Movement’s plans are, among other things, a Corona Crisis Centre, collaboration with government’s disaster management centre, safety strategy, social support to communities, help with detection, support offered to schools, parents and learners, support and access to information given to people in workplaces, and giving support to artists.

According to Flip Buys, the Solidarity Movement’s chairperson, Covid-19 can usher in a new world. This virus can become a new point of reference in world history. It could have incredible economic and political consequences. The Solidarity Movement will go into crisis management gear,” Buys said.

The Solidarity Movement also announced that a crisis committee will sit on a daily basis to implement action plans according to the latest information.

According to Dirk Hermann, Solidarity Chief Executive, civil society will play a pivotal role in combatting the virus. Solidarity also established a Corona Crisis Centre to support people in the workplace in particular.

AfriForum CEO, Kallie Kriel, emphasised the importance of cooperation. “Political and ideological differences must be put behind us for now. South Africa now has one common enemy and that is Covid-19,” he said. According to Kriel government’s disaster management centre has already been contacted with an offer to help and to cooperate.

AfriForum’s community safety division also launched a special control room that will, among other things, coordinate safety-related challenges and will help with detection efforts.

Solidarity Helping Hand’s Executive Director, Hannes Noëth, expressed his concern over the social consequences the drastic steps will have. For example, the 8 000 pre-schoolers who get daily meals from Solidarity Helping Hand at their nursery schools will now suddenly not have access to meals. He called on the community to help address the impending social crisis.

The Solidarity Schools Support Centre also announced that Wolkskool, its Cloud school, will make thousands of videos, exam papers and work sheets available free of charge until the end of June to support learners doing their schooling from home.

It was also announced that special steps are being planned to support artists.

Akademia announced that its classes continue on its online platform.

In a nutshell, the Solidarity Movement’s Covid-19 crisis plan is as follows:

1. Collaboration with government
   We have already reached out to government’s National Joint Disaster Management Centre. It is planned to collaborate at provincial and local level.
2. Solidarity’s Corona Crisis Centre to support employees
   Here employees can find all job-related questions and answers, information on the virus and general information. A special crisis line will be established.
3. AfriForum’s central community safety control centre
   Safety issues will be coordinated. Possible unrest will be dealt with. General strategic information will be received and processed.
4. Assistance with detection
   AfriForum Safety has already offered to assist the National Disaster Management Centre with detection efforts.
5. Economic activity
   Comprehensive plans to keep the economy functioning will be presented to the government. Solidarity will have talks with employers about the balance to be maintained between business and security.
6. Social support
   Solidarity Helping Hand will deploy 15 social workers countrywide to enable communities to overcome social challenges resulting from interventions to stop the virus, and to overcome illness due to the virus.
7. Support for learners and parents
   The Support Centre for Schools will make thousands of videos, work sheets, test papers and other assistance available on its Cloud School, free of charge, until 30 June to enable learners to continue their studies from home.
8. Information on the virus through e-learning and webinars
   Through its S-leer platform, Solidarity will present a series of e-learning courses to inform children and adults about Covid-19. Webinars will also be presented weekly.
9. Support for the Arts:                                           FAK (Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations), Maroela Media, the Solidarity Occupational Guild for the Arts and Dapper Media will roll out plans to protect artists. In the short term, efforts will be made to help alleviate immediate financial need, but in the medium and long term, we will look at electronic platforms and alternative forms of concerts.
10. National crisis committee and internal action
    The Solidarity Movement has established a national crisis committee that meets daily to adapt action plans in accordance with the latest information. The Movement also cancelled all international travels, and domestic travel is kept to a minimum. Drastic measures are in place to prevent staff members from contracting the virus.

In response to Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, the Solidarity Movement today confirmed that, despite certain dubious intentions and promises made, it would continue to build community institutions and projects to ensure a free, safe and prosperous future for its members in South Africa.

The Movement, which consists of around 18 institutions, stated that while Pres. Ramaphosa has given the assurance that obstacles would be removed so that the private sector could thrive, and that state spending would be curtailed, government is still committed to implement policies that will cause irreversible damage to the economy such as expropriation without compensation and the implementation of national health insurance.

The Movement also believes that the ANC’s ideological rationale to give effect to the National Democratic Revolution by giving the state more power and by centralising more clashes directly with certain intentions revealed in the speech.

According to Francois Redelinghuys, communications manager of the Movement, the Movement is committed to make South Africa successful as a whole, and that the future cannot be left only to the government. “The government’s failures are clear for all to see. The decline in education, economic growth, safety, power supply and unemployment are merely a few examples of this since the previous State of the Nation Address,” Redelinghuys said.

“The SONA merely confirmed to the Movement once again that a future must be secured through community institutions rather than state dependence,” Redelinghuys concluded.

 

 

The Solidarity Movement today welcomed the Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok’s request directed to the South African government to provide more information on the proposed expropriation of land without compensation.

Blok’s request for more clarity on the proposed amendment to the South African Constitution as well as the concerns associated with it was addressed to the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor. This comes after the Dutch parliament last year passed a motion in which that parliament expressed its concern over the proposed land expropriation without compensation in South Africa. The motion also instructed the Dutch government to convey its displeasure about the matter to the South African government.

According to Jaco Kleynhans, the Solidarity Movement’s head of international liaison, the Movement held talks with six political parties in the Dutch parliament last year. The outcome of the liaison was that the motion was proposed by two parties and accepted by a majority of members of parliament. “Since then, we have been engaging with Dutch politicians on an ongoing basis to ensure their government would pressure the South African government as far as this matter is concerned.”

According to Kleynhans, the South African government is conducting a campaign abroad to pacify and deceive so as to reassure its trade partners about the proposed constitutional amendments. “We also visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg in November last year and had discussions with 14 political parties in seven countries in Europe. It was clear that the South African government was trying to placate European governments and politicians about the proposed amendments to the Constitution.

The Solidarity Movement is also approaching the parliaments of other European countries as well to initiate similar motions against the proposed constitutional amendment. AfriForum, which is part of the Solidarity Movement, will visit the USA later this month to raise awareness for, among other things, the planned amendments to the constitution. “Our goal is to convince as many foreign countries as possible to pressure the South African government not to proceed with the constitutional amendments. Land expropriation without compensation and a further erosion of property rights in South Africa will lead to more severe economic problems for our country. Foreign investment will be further prejudiced,” Kleynhans concluded.

The Solidarity Movement today strongly criticised statements by the ANC, namely that the executive must decide when expropriation without compensation (EWC) is permissible, as this confirms that this process is not about land but about power.

This came after the chairperson of the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee tasked with amending section 25 of the Constitution, Mathole Motshekga, said in a recent interview on eNCA that the ANC disagreed with the current bill, which they themselves had tabled, and which gives the courts the authority to decide when zero compensation may be permitted. The ANC believes that the executive authority should rather have this power, as court processes take time and South Africans cannot wait another 25 years to tackle the issue of land.

“It is a major cause for concern that the ANC is continuing to hijack EWC by placing this process in the hands of the president and his cabinet. These statements once again prove that the ANC’s only priority is the acquisition of absolute power. Therefore, expropriation without compensation should be opposed unconditionally, irrespective of whether this power is vested in the courts or the executive. The illusion that an ideological separation of powers exists between the three legs of government is just that – an illusion,” said Francois Redelinghuys, Communications Manager of the Solidarity Movement.

“However, Motshekga hereby creates the illusion that land ownership is a crucial issue for South Africans and that the process must be accelerated, which is contrary to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s own findings that 94,7% of people in the land reform process prefer monetary compensation over land ownership.  The Institute of Race Relations also found in 2019 that only 6% of people believe land reforms should be one of the government’s top priorities. This confirms that EWC is not all that important to citizens, but rather a way for the ANC to award itself the power to legally steal from all of us,” Redelinghuys explained.
Motshekga further explained how this change will be made through legitimate procedures, such as public hearings and the input of other political parties – as this is not just an ANC process.

“The ANC’s assurance that procedures will be followed is not really reassuring. In 2019, in the midst of the public hearing process, President Ramaphosa actually announced that the ANC will continue with EWC – despite the fact that written public input overwhelmingly opposed EWC. This example serves as proof that the ANC will not hesitate to steamroll fair procedures and opposition in pursuit its own interests,” Redelinghuys explained.

“Expropriation without compensation will give the government the power to deprive us of one of the pillars of freedom. This gross violation of property rights must be opposed in principle, regardless of how it is administered,” Redelinghuys argued.

Redelinghuys confirmed that institutions of the Movement, including AfriForum and Solidarity, will submit written comments in opposition to the proposal.