Ashley Green-Thompson runs an organisation that supports social justice action. Ashley Green-Thompson runs an organisation that supports social justice action.
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It is the year of local government elections, and this is important for mere mortals like you and me. You see, until we have a more direct electoral system that might include constituency-based representation, the only place where we vote for people to represent us is at municipal level. This is where we can practice accountability – sometimes your ward councillor lives next door to you, and it’s harder to escape the community’s ire behind a phalanx of blue-lit SUVs.
I spent a day this week with social justice NGO leaders, talking about accountability and what was happening in our country. They shared harrowing stories, and the analysis of our situation revealed a wide range of interpretations about the depth of the problems - and, consequently, what our responses should be. We veered from suggestions that we have to prioritise partnership with business and the private sector who have the financial muscle our government doesn’t have, to conspiratorial commentary that argued the capture of the state by business a long time ago – public policy is already geared to serve those seeking to maximise profit. Others centred the primacy of the Constitution and argued for civil society advocates to contest for state power through elections in order to achieve change.
People shared alarming examples of how the private sector’s forays into social development are never altruistic, and instead are aimed at maximising market share and profits for shareholders and cause massive harm to communities. Social media algorithms that encourage especially young people to consume material that destroys their mental wellbeing create more users, which drives more revenue. More nefariously, they drive a particular ideology – just look at the politics of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and how they enabled the rise of the orange wannabe-dictator. We saw the outrage from even mainstream South African parties last year at the McDonald's-branded portable school desks – every day our kids will write on the double arches branding of the fast-food franchise. I am not sure if this project is still happening. Then there are the games on children’s smart devices that mimic adult gambling games. Hit 18 and you’re already a master of online gambling, one of the scariest industries in our country right now.
We spoke of the "privatisation of NGOs" by industries looking to continue selling their harmful product. There were stories of non-profit organisations set up and funded by the tobacco industry to advocate for policies that ‘reduce harm’ by encouraging the use of vapes as an alternative. Or the gambling houses – again – sponsoring organisations and advocacy to promote "responsible gambling" even as they resist any regulation by the state trying to limit their infiltration of our very consciousness with blanket advertising.
The great thing about democracy is that it is meant to allow for a contestation of ideas. We have a representative parliament (limited, to be fair, by the party-dominated proportional representation system) that listens to various interest groups in the process of drafting policies that govern how we live and do business. Our Constitution and the instruments and institutions designed to protect the interests of ordinary people are creaking under the strain of the influence of money from the private sector, and from criminal networks. Even if it isn’t the blatant corruption being exposed daily in the commissions of enquiry, the disproportionate airtime that monied advocates enjoy with politicians makes policy-influencing work very unbalanced.
It can be a bit deflating, and we may even think we cannot do anything about it. I know that we’d be wrong. The Constitution still exists and functions, and we are not yet in a dictatorship. We can vote, and we can look for associations and organisations that want to keep their locally elected representatives accountable. Let’s find them and join them, and explore how we can amplify our voices and those of others who need to be heard – not the money men bent on endless profit and power.