Economic Justice & Civic Freedoms

Heritage Month comes and goes each year, always with much fanfare around celebrating our country’s diverse cultures and history. Yet, many of the government’s proposed energy solutions pose significant risks to human life and the environment, while ignoring customary rights and risking several heritage sites. If not challenged, they will most likely leave communities across the country at a huge disadvantage.

For centuries, resources have been extracted from the African continent without adequate payment or compensation. With colonialism, Khoikhoi and San, the first inhabitants of Southern Africa, lost their land and many lost their lives. During decades of Apartheid they were racially discriminated and still have to fight for political and economic inclusion in the post-Apartheid era. We spoke to the Khoikhoi lawyer Lesle Jansen about her fight for the community and for the legal acknowledgement of the cultural heritage of Indigenous people.

Our partner NSM has recently penned an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for an intervention to urgently address the murderous funding issues with women's shelters.

Another year, another budget speech, bail-outs left right and center causing spending cuts in government programmes and services, proposals to slash the public wage bill and minimal increases in social grants.  Yet, again, the budget leaves us with more questions than answers. Who stands to lose the most, asks the Womxn's Budget Collective.