Policy Dialogue & Popular Participation

Harold Wolpe Seminar Series

As a way of extending the organisations partnerships with research and academic institutions in the Eastern Cape and nationally, ECESCC in 2005 entered into a partnership with University of Fort Hare, Rhodes University and the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust. The aim of the partnership is to create space for public discourse and dialogue and promote public awareness in the Eastern Cape, through the Harold Wolpe lecture series. The overall focus of the lecture series for the 2006 calendar year is ‘citizenship, society and development in the Eastern Cape’.

The lecture series is held in the name of Harold Wolpe. The late Wolpe was a long standing member of the liberation movement in South Africa and in exile, active in both the SACP and the ANC. Harold Wolpe is perhaps best known for his contribution to our understanding of Apartheid capitalism through his articulation of modes of production. However Wolpe was also concerned with the relationship between liberation and education, and made a significant contribution to education policy post 1994.

Launched in February 2006, at University of Fort Hare in Alice, the first lecture was delivered by Dr. Lungisile Ntesebeza, on the land and agrarian question in South Africa. Other lectures in 2006 were delivered by Prof. Neville Alexander, Roger Ronnie, Dr. Blade Nzimande and Prof. Neo Simuanye.

Trade Unions in Policy Making

In 2005, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) staged two general strikes, in June and October, to highlight the union’s jobs and poverty campaign. The march to Office of the Premier in Bhisho during the June 26 strike saw 3000 people marching. In addition to calls for an end to retrenchment, casualisation, flexible labour markets and protection of industries, the resounding demand to government during the march was a provincial job summit.

COSATU considered the Summit instrumental in bringing together government, business and labour and to develop concrete measures that protect and create jobs in the public and private sectors in the province. The October march directed the same demand to organised business in the major economic centres of the province. This led directly to the Job Summit which was held in February 2006. For COSATU, it was important that the Summit di not become ‘a Jamboree’ and that concrete programmes and interventions emerged from the Summit.

The key issues and demands that Cosatu took into the Job Summit were investment in the public sector, moratorium on retrenchments, a programme for filling of all vacant posts, and a stop to privatisation and outsourcing of public services. Other demands included improved public transport, accelerated response to the HIV and AIDS crisis and accelerated land and agrarian transformation.

Pertaining to the private sector the demands were local procurement, rescue packages for declining industries and improved small business finance. COSATU’s positions and strong voice in the Summit Agreement negotiations left a solid imprint on the final agreement.

Knowledge & Progress

Responding to a lack of debate on appropriate programs for political and government leadership, ECSECC in 2003 and 2004 developed the Knowledge and Progress program (K&P) which is accredited with the University of Fort Hare through the School of Public Management and Development. K&P is an experience and reflection based program, focusing on analysing and understanding participant’s experience and its context, rather than teaching technical or narrow responses to complex social problems.

The program was piloted for organised labour, and in the course of 2005 and 2006, ECSECC has worked on adapting the program to the local sphere of the state. In this process, ECSECC has worked together with SALGA, district and local municipalities, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Traditional Affairs, the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition, South African Municipal Workers Union, Cosatu, tertiary institutions and other resource people in the field. The K&P process in the local sphere of the state aims to pose a series of questions about the possibilities for developmental local government in the South African and specific Eastern Cape context.

The programme is developed particularly to strengthen the capacity to develop and implement IDPs through:
The understanding and appreciation of the evolution of local government policy and legislative framework post 1994 in South Africa;
An appreciation of the specifics of the socio economic context of the particular municipality and the province in general; and
The mobilisation and utilisation of a range of analytical and other theoretical tools and approaches; and
Promotion of a deeper understanding of what economic and social forces the IDP process has the possibility of mobilising.

ECSECC hopes that the lessons drawn from developing and implementing the course will have an impact on how capacity development is approached in the local sphere of the state. It is expected that the approach can be taken to other areas as the course and methodology develops and special communities of interest emerge around it, in education and training circles, tertiary institutions, government and other social forces.