What’s happening in South Africa? - November 2005
 
First, the ‘bad’ news.  2005 has been a year of major change in the South African Alliance.  After several years of hesitation, the SA Homeless Peoples’ Federation finally decided to throw off the constraints imposed by an entitlement-based culture, inappropriate governance arrangements, and a weak support NGO.  The NGO lay at the heart of the problem.  The Board of People’s Dialogue insisted that it was obligated  to support everyone who proclaimed themselves Federation members, regardless of their adherence to SDI principles., This meant that a minority of Federation ‘leaders’ could continue to paralyse the Alliance, in coalition with unscrupulous NGO staff. The majority of the SAHPF therefore decided to disassociate itself from People’s Dialogue and from those ‘Federation leaders’ who did not practise SDI principles.  In response, the Board of People’s Dialogue – people who sadly proved to have little understanding of or faith in the SDI model – decided to close the NGO.
 
This ‘bad’ news, of course, is the good news.  The entitlement culture, conflicts between leaders over resources, and lack of development progress that had characterised the last few years can now be set aside.  Immediately, the Federation in KZN (the largest in South Africa) forged ahead with a relationship with South Africa’s new housing Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, who inaugurated the Federation’s National Forum in July.  There is an incipient revival of savings, informed by the problems of the past and a proper understanding of the role of outside supporter in helping to maintain transparency and accountability.  Utshani Fund, the finance company set up by the Alliance in the 1990s, came under new leadership, and has moved rapidly to develop new practises informed by a careful analysis of the experiences of the past.  Utshani and the Federation have negotiated direct support from the national Department of Housing to recover loans disbursed in the 1990s that had never been retired by housing subsidies, and money is starting to flow back in.  Relations with SDI affiliates have been renewed and exchanges are happening again.  Most importantly, hundreds of houses have been built in the last six months, a dramatic increase over the previous five years.
 
Much remains to be done.  The Federation needs to decide how it will deal with the closure of People’s Dialogue, and how it will source and manage resources to support its mobilising work.  Utshani Fund has been stripped of capital by the Alliance’s failure to pursue positive links with government to obtain housing subsidies during its years of paralysis. Many developments initiated over the last decade remain stalled, and the Alliance needs to make hard choices about what kind of development activity to support: it cannot do everything.  The SA Alliance’s relations with its funders have taken a hard knock as a result of the problems of recent years. Finally, the question of a sustainable Federation/leadership model for South African conditions remains to be addressed.
 
Nevertheless, the situation in South Africa is more promising than it has been for some time, and extremely important lessons have been learnt that should be of benefit to the entire SDI network. We have learnt painful but critical things about the potentialities and limits of the Federation model in South Africa’s developmental state, the role of leadership, and the role of support NGOs.  We are confident that we are on the right track, and with the support of the SDI network we are confident that we will soon return to our previous ‘glory days’.
 
Ted Baumann
Utshani Fund