by Anthony Stoppard
Inter Press ServiceMarch 18, 2002
Infighting and political divisions among the organisers continue to hamper preparations for the Civil Society Forum of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) scheduled for Johannesburg, South Africa in August. As many as 70,000 delegates from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are expected to attend the forum, which will run alongside the WSSD.
The United Nation's WSSD is an official government event where leaders will try and reach agreement on how to improve the living standards of the world's poor and protect the global environment -- at the same time. About 20,000 delegates and 183 heads of state have been invited to attend the summit.
The Civil Society Forum is intended to give ordinary people, and non-governmental and community-based organisations, a platform from which they can give their suggestions about how sustainable development should work. The aim is to broaden support for the agreements, which may be reached at the WSSD, beyond that of governments.
The Forum is being organised by a Civil Society Secretariat, which is charged with arranging transport and accommodation for delegates, venues for meetings and the registration and accreditation to the gathering by representatives of communities and organisations, among others.
But, preparations for the Civil Society Forum are running very late. In the latest setback, the South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) has suspended the head of the secretariat, Jacqui Brown, from her position.
SANGOCO was originally asked by the United Nations to set-up the secretariat and a management committee that would oversee its work.
''SANGOCO is moving swiftly to clean up the body responsible for the administrative organisation of the civil society section of the upcoming WSSD. The first step toward effecting this clean-up has been the immediate suspension of Brown, in terms of the findings of a forensic audit commissioned by the South African National Development Agency (NDA), a key funder of the secretariat. SANGOCO President Zakes Hlatshwayo will act as interim CEO of the secretariat,'' says SANGOCO in a statement.
Brown has been presented with a list of charges, including several counts of gross misconduct related to her alleged failure to follow accepted policies and procedures in respect of various payments from the WSSD budget, many of which have exposed the secretariat to unnecessary taxation penalties and other serious consequences.
More seriously, her failure to properly manage the donor contract with the NDA has jeopardised future funding of the entire civil society process and resulted in many donors freezing the funds they had allocated to the WSSD civil society process. The secretariat has a budget of R450 million (around 40 million U.S. dollars) for its work.
SANGOCO's action is fully supported by the recently reconstituted WSSD Civil Society Multi-Stakeholder Forum, which includes the 1.8 million strong Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African National Civics Organisations (SANCO), says the statement.
Brown has rejected the charges, and the Rural Development Services Network (RSDN) - a South African NGO, which Brown has drawn on heavily in her work for the secretariat, has accused the South African government of using COSATU and SANCO to engineer her dismissal.
The RSDN is ideologically opposed the South African government's economic and development policies. It has dismissed government's plans to promote the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) - a programme to kick-start economic growth and build political stability in Africa - at the WSSD, saying it is an attempt to export South Africa's relatively conservative economic policies to the rest of the continent.
While COSATU is opposed to the government's economic policies, it has traditionally been a close political ally.
''This is the second suspension of Brown due to allegations made of mismanagement. RDSN had together with SANGOCO in November last year appointed an independent investigator who had cleared the CEO of similar allegations.
''We note that the suspension is based upon a forensic audit undertaken by the National Development Agency. We further understand that the National Development Agency is a government body. The current suspension of the CEO is therefore suspect, noting the direct involvement of government bodies in all levels of civil society affairs,'' says RSDN director, Edward Cottle.
But, while the South African government has indicated that it is worried about slow progress being made in preparations for Civil Society Forum, it has taken great care to stay out of what it considers an NGO fight.
COSATU and SANGOCO have indicated that while they may co-operate with government in an effort to fast-track logistical preparations for the forum, they will make sure that civil society gathering remains independent.
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