ewni & south africa & swaziland: building capacity to resist corporate exploitation in southern africa
Southern African civil society organisations face many challenges – from corruption to weak democracy – in their quest for corporate accountability. These pitfalls make their societies more vulnerable to exploitation by corporations, many of which are based in the United Kingdom.
To strengthen the FoEI network’s ability to cooperate and carry out joint campaigns and legal work, Sarah-Jayne Clifton of FoE England, Wales and Northern Ireland (EWNI) completed two-month placements with both FoE Swaziland and FoE South Africa, during January to May of 2007.
what happened: While placed with FoE Swaziland, Sarah produced a “toolkit” on the main ideas, methods and strategies for corporates campaigning, to assist with staff training. She helped form a detailed campaign strategy and proposal on USA Distillers, operators of a highly-polluting ethanol plant in the country’s lowveld.
While placed with FoE South Africa, Sarah carried out site visits and research on corporations’ activities, particularly ones with UK ties, such as Anglo Platinum’s operation in Limpopo province. A key focus was the Manganese Company, for which Sarah helped formulate a campaign position and strategy. Sarah also helped FoE South Africa develop demands around proposed new corporates legislation, the South African Companies Bill.
what we learned: A success in terms of knowledge sharing and capacity building, Sarah believes the exchange laid the basis for further cooperation and possible joint campaign and legal work on corporates. This includes UK / Swiss mining company Xstrata (FoE Swaziland), and Anglo Platinum and other UK companies (FoE South Africa). Sarah now understands the groups’ priorities and challenges, while they better understand how FoE EWNI’s corporates work can support them. “This was especially relevant for Yonge Nawe [FoE Swaziland] as a relatively new member of FOEI,” said Sarah.
In FoE Swaziland, Sarah’s most striking observation was the very different campaign environment, citing weak democracy, corruption, and lack of media freedom. “As a result,” said Sarah, “many of the strategies used for corporates campaigning in the UK … would be ineffective and in some cases very unhelpful and potentially dangerous if deployed by Yonge Nawe.” At the office, staff turnover, including the departure of the person leading Xstrata work, made Sarah’s integration more difficult. However, these difficulties were overcome by the efforts of other staff.
At FoE South Africa, Sarah gained insight into the group’s very different ways of working, noting that their “output, media profile and campaigning successes are massive when compared to its size as an organisation.” On the down side, Sarah was mugged in South Africa, and had her passport stolen, and dealing with this detracted from her work time. Also, work demands around creating FoE EWNI’s five year plan have prevented her somewhat from sharing her experience from Southern Africa with UK colleagues.
what next: Sarah plans to share her learnings with FoE EWNI staff. She wants FoE EWNI to take a more active role in FoEI Economic Justice, Resisting Neoliberalism campaigning, and would like to see staff from FoE Swaziland and FoE South Africa visit FoE EWNI under the exchange program. Sarah may also return to visit FoE Swaziland to hold workshops on corporates campaigning, and to assist new campaign staff with using the tools in the kit to develop a campaign on Xstrata.
with thanks to our funders: the dutch ministry of foreign affairs
