Black Sash

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Skip to content

You are here: > Advocacy Actions

Advocacy Actions

Sash joins 'Right2Know' campaign against Info Bill

The Black Sash has joined the 'Right to Know' campaign, endorsing a statement against the proposed Protection of Information Bill currently before Parliament. Over 190 civil society organisations and 400 prominent individuals have joined the campaign, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; writer and painter Breyten Breytenbach; Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer; writer Andre Brink and our own Black Sash Trustee Mary Burton.

Speaking at the launch of the Right2Know campaign on Tuesday, 31 August 2010, Black Sash National Director Marcella Naidoo confirmed that civil society organisations were willing to take the fight over the proposed Bill all the way to the Constitutional Court should it be passed in its current form.

Sash Chair contributes to roundtable on xenophobia

Black Sash Chairperson Sibongile Mkhabela took part in a roundtable discussion on xenophobia on 18 August 2010. The event - entitled 'Of Strangers and Outsiders: Overcoming Xenophobia' - was organised by the Helen Suzman Foundation, in association with The Open Society Foundation for South Africa.

Researchers and experts on xenophobia grappled with this issue as they tried to explain some of the factors which triggered violent attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa in May 2008.

Other panellists included David Holdcroft (Country Director, Jesuit Refugee Service South Africa), Aubrey Matshiqi (Senior Research Associate, Centre for Policy Studies), Michael Neocosmos (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape) and Tara Polzer (Senior Researcher, Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits)

Read more ..

Black Sash National Director addresses Stellenbosch University on Women's Day

Developing your own voice is a critical step in becoming an agent of social change. This was the message delivered by Marcella Naidoo, National Director of the Black Sash, who was the main speaker at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Women’s Day celebration on Tuesday, 10th August 2010. The event was presented by the Office of Employment Equity and the Promotion of Diversity – as well as the Unit for Multiculturalism and Diversity (Division for Student Affairs) and the Gender Live and Learn House – which is part of the ‘live and learn houses’ initiative on campus to ensure greater cohesion among students.

Read more ..

Black Sash supports #AfricanAgenda2010

This is a critical year for Africa as we head towards the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be held from 20-22 September 2010 in New York.

With only 5 years before the MDGs are to be achieved, it is important that all African stakeholders, including citizens, review the progress made in recent years and develop a set of priorities for engagement and advocacy in Africa, and towards building a redefined relationship between Africa and the international community.

Against this background, African Monitor (supported by the Black Sash) is facilitating face-to-face consultations around the continent to develop a citizen-driven agenda for Africa in the second decade of the 21st century.

Black Sash takes government to court over grant appeal delays!

Along with 24 people from the Eastern Cape, the Black Sash has launched a court application in an effort to help tens of thousands of people waiting to have their social grant appeals heard. According to the Department of Social Development’s own figures from 2009, 47 701 people across the country are trapped in a systemic appeals backlog in the office of its Minister, Edna Molewa, and at the tribunal she appointed to hear the appeals of those who have had their grant applications rejected.

Find out more by reading our media statement