Welfare and Economic Development in South Africa

July-August 1997

CAPE TOWN—Early in May, leaders from a wide range of South African churches, social service ministries, universities, and government departments gathered here to discuss poverty, economic development, and welfare policy. This was the fifth in a series of conferences on the church and development, organized by Renier Koegelenberg, director of the Ecumenical Foundation of Southern Africa (EFSA).

The central question of this conference was how partnerships can best be built between the state and civil society, particularly churches and religious social service organizations. Approximately half of South Africa's population lives in very poor rural areas. Many urban blacks live in substandard housing with minimal health care, education, and job opportunities. The task of developing the country's economy and basic social services for the majority of citizens is huge and will take decades. The government cannot possibly do everything by itself.

Russell Botman, a professor at the University of the Western Cape and chairman of EFSA, opened the conference by saying that the time has come for religious organizations to come together to take the lead in designing and building the right kind of partnerships with one another and with the state. A coalition of some kind needs to speak directly to government about the needs of the poor and how they should be served. Churches and religious organizations represent the most significant organizational network among South Africans of all ethnic groups.

The U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, James Joseph, addressed the conference, urging the more than 75 participants to take civil society very seriously. Government alone cannot build or sustain a just society, he said. Government, markets, and civil society (often called the social and moral sector) must all function and cooperate to address poverty. The time may have come, he said, for the United States and South Africa to create a hi-national commission on civil society to help balance the business-to-business and government-to-government ties that already exist.

It was because of this heavy emphasis on the non-government sector, and particularly on the role of churches and religious organizations, that the conference organizers invited Stanley Carlson-Thies and James Skillen from the Center for Public Justice to participate. Koegelenberg and others had become acquainted with the Center's work on welfare and had already circulated copies of Welfare in America: Christian Perspectives on a Policy in Crisis (Eerdmans, 1996, edited by Carlson-Thies and Skillen) to some of the conferees, including the U.S. Ambassador. Carlson-Thies made one presentation on the shifting ground of welfare policy in the U.S. and another on the Center's most recent work on the Charitable Choice provision of last year's welfare reform law.

Koegelenberg was pleased that this conference drew together people from a wider circle of churches and organizations than had any previous conference. The conference also attracted the national government's Minister of Welfare and Population Development, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who said that the government has set as a high priority the reduction of poverty in rural areas and the improvement of delivery of social services to the poor. She indicated that the government is aware it needs to cooperate with non-government organizations (NGOs) and wants to make sure that the partnerships are not too restrictive. She invited leaders of the conference to bring specific recommendations for future policy to her. The conference was held at the Breakwater Lodge, an academic conference center and hotel that was until recently a prison.

The conference concluded by approving "The Breakwater Declaration of Intent," committing the participants to a process of forming a structure for cooperation.